International Tutors' Magazine June 2019 | Page 12

INTERNATIONAL TUTORS’ MAGAZINE
INTERCULTURAL
FRIENDSHIP
BY FAN QINXIN
Before entering university, I had never been learning Japanese and she had been
thought about having close friends learning Chinese. Becoming friends with
who were foreigners. For most of my her, I learned a lot about how to manage
life, people around me shared the same a cross-cultural relationship, and I grew to
language, same culture and similar
be a more open-minded person,
lifestyles. I always heard
willing
to
understand
I wasn't
about the struggles of
cultural
diversity
and
sure
I
could
have
cultural differences and
respect cultural differences.
conflicts, which made me
international
feel unsure if I could have
There were certainly some
friends.
truly close international
difficulties at first. Although I
friends. Many people still
was aware that Japanese people
believe that genuine connections in any do not like others to ask about personal
relationship can only be maintained things (unless they voluntarily mention it to
when people involved are from the same you), sometimes I still could not help asking
culture. I soon learned something else. her, due to my habit in interacting with
my Chinese friends. She was also surprised
Last year, I joined a buddy program to see how my Chinese friends and I got
on campus to help incoming exchange along. She told me that Japanese people do
students adapt to their new life in Hong not ask each other about what they did in
Kong. One of my buddies was from a day, even though they are friends. Some
Japan, and coincidentally, she was taking awkward moments occurred, like when I
the same course as me. We became would ask her about what she did during
friends after we discovered that I had the weekend, immediately feeling worried
12