Do you think it is good to have friends in other countries?

Question

Do you think that it helps culture you better in life if you experience the life of other countries and make friends there that last a life time?

Has any one else had this fortune of making friends in another country you see often enough and stay in contact with?

For me Germany is a Second home, does any one else have a country they consider a second home as well?

Answer 1

We ham radio operators have friends all over the world.  It is fun to visit them while in their country.  I've done so with hams in Estonia, Latvia, Russia, Holland, Canada, Hawaii, Argentina, Mexico and Chile among others.

One well known ham from England visited our area.  The word got out to the hams around town.  We quickly arranged a dinner at a local restaurant for he and his wife.  Over 40 local guys came to the dinner to say hello to him and his wife.  

You should have seen the big eyes of a well known ham from Lithuania when a ham picked him up in his Lear Jet to go to the next city on his itinerary.  

The hams in Latvia threw a nice Sauna party for me when I visited them in '91 and we had a great party with my ham friends in Moscow when my wife and I were there in 2005.

Great fun.  Great hobby and yes it is wonderful to have friends in other countries. Some day I should tell you some of the stories I've heard about guys who visited King Hussein who was also a ham.  By the way, so is the King of Spain.

Answer 2

I think it's great to have friends in different places around the world.

Learning about different cultures, languages, traditions, and overall their lifestyles is quite fascinating! You're just exposed to so much more!

Personally, I haven't met anyone in particular that I can call close friend from a different country but whenever I have the chance, I talk to my friend from Indonesia that I met online a while back. There's just always something to talk about, whether it be from politics to cuisine.

I haven't really been in a country for long to call it my second home...

I'd love to visit Germany one day!

Answer 3

of course! it is so important to meet peope from different countries. that is what will some day unify us all, the learning and understanding of other cultures.  the more we know about each other, the more we will care about what effects we have on others and the less that we will label someone who is not like us a "them" or a "stranger".

in highschool we had an international friendship program that the teachers got us all into. we would pay a nominal fee and have our application given to an agency. the agency would set us up with kids/young adults in other countries to write to (this was pre-email days). i was set up with 3 friends, but unfortunately, did not end up keeping all those relationships--for various reasons: youth, lack of interests, etc.

but luckily from signing up with that international friendship program, i was assigned a friend from germany. we have been writing to each other since 1990. through the years, we have gone periods where we didn't write for a while, but we'd always remember to send birthday or christmas cards.

about three years ago, i met my friend for the first time at my wedding in hawaii. it was so great to finally meet this friend who i had never seen or heard before! we had only written. we hadn't even called each! we had only sent letters, cards and pictures before that.

since then, we still talk of our meeting in hawaii. and we are still yet to go visit each other in our homes. but we know that we will. then we will both get to see the places that we told each other about in our letters.

Answer 4

I've got friends in Australia and I live in Canada. It's a hard situation. I've got family there and i felt so comfortable the times i went that i have considered moving there, so I guess i consider it a second home. I also have friends who live on the west coast and i live in the east. I've got cousins in the middle east who i have developed a friendship with. It's always sad to part but I definitely think that it is something worth having. Unfortunately, I do not have the luck of seeing any of them regularly because of the expensive cost of travel but i do communicate with them and it is refreshing to hear about a life so far from my own.

Answer 5

Its a good idea for your general humanity to be connected to people in other countries.

Further, for when the sh*t hits the fan, keep your contacts alive and your passport under your mattress.