Friends and friendships

[Maarit]

Hi,
I think a good friend is a person that I can have a nice time with and someone that I can trust to take care of me in good times and also in bad times. A good friend is supportive and she/he wants to understand me. A good friend makes me feel better when I am feeling bad or I am sick…

I have about 3 or 4 good friends and I meet them or I write them regularly. In addition I have got about 150 FB friends and I think it is a quite suitable number of FB friends to me. I have time to read their updates and so I know what is happening in their lives. If I had too many friends it would be difficult to maintain contact with them. Then they could feel like I am not making enough time for them and this makes them but also me angry or sad.

Actually I think that men and women have quite similar kinds of friendships. Of course it is so that women are more talkative and they express their feelings more. On contrast men seem to be a lot more interested in the here and now. Basically the needs of people are the same: everyone needs support, love and understanding.

Kind regards, Maarit

[Anna]

To me, you only can have a very few friends in life, I mean, real friends, those who you know you’re going to find them if you need them, those who know that you’re going to be there, by their side, when they need you. As we say: real friends can be counted with one hand fingers. True friends accept you as you are and they don’t try to change your way of being. One need time to spend with friends, friendship is a question of caring. So, you're not going to have many friends at the same time, let’s be honest. I firmly believe that what a man or a woman understands by true friendship is exactly the same, although the level of exigency may be different. Women are more reluctant to forgiveness and men tend to be not so passionate, so sensible.

[Admin]

Interesting Anna. I think that you are right about the number of really good friends you can have. You need time to dedicate to maintaining the friendship, and time is limited. But I do know both men and women who are totally unforgiving, and will cut off a friend in a second and never speak to them again!
You write very well in English, just a couple off comments:
although the level of exigency may be different.= Exigency exists in English but it is very rarely used. Here you can say: but women are more demanding.
Women are more reluctant to forgiveness= They are more reluctant to forgive. Reluctant + to + infinitive
sensible= Sensible or sensitive? Sensible means reasonable, acting with good judgement. Sensitive is easily hurt emotionally, aware of the attitudes and feelings of others.
See you,
Pieter