As far as self introductions go which I have been doing quite alot lately trying to break out of an old mold, meeting new people is more like an opportunity that I allow myself.
Speaking of which, just yesterday, in jest, I was poking fun of my colleague,
LS: Actually I'm very shy one.
Me: *sniggering* LS, there is a difference between shy and anti-social.
To which our E, a fellow resident of our cubi-hood (cubicle neighbourhood) known as the vortex of the insanity burst out laughing and slapped me a nice high five.
So back to this issue of making friends, between shy and anti-social, I wouldn't be surprised if i gravitated to the latter. While it may be easy for me to go up to introduce myself, it's another thing altogether that one sees me at ease. One of the motivating factors could be dependent on the company I host or hosting me.
I draw an example from personal experience, the secondary school that I went to was one of those mandarin speaking ones. Since my preferred and almost (only) language I can effectively converse in is English, I found it hard to build friendships but those that stick though, were well worth it, as I would discover as long as 12 years later. (ZOMFG, it's been 12 years since I first knew my secondary school friends lah -.- )
*ditsy moment* But I digress ...
When I had moved on to poly I realised it was easier to communicate with my peers, there were other people who were crap at their second languages, perhaps not so coincidental that they usually come from the MGSs, IJs and the St. somethings and I didn't feel so alone or intellectually challenged anymore.
Then came Uni where in a communications course the inability to articulate would cause much embarrassment. It gets easier for me to let my guard down to exchange initial pleasantaries but again out of so many superficial relationships built, some through the capacity of work or social activities I guess what matters more is the act of building and sustaining long term relationships.
Just for fun I did a short search on the web and I found some interesting articles, one of interest being, What's the ideal number of friends? that builds upon Dunbar's number that most people have 5 very close friends, 10 in the second tier of closer friends some of which might be made up of family, 35 in the next tier and about 100 in the last category where one would consider to be less than acquaintance.
Makes me kinda ponder about where I stand in my friends' lives. :)
Speaking of which, just yesterday, in jest, I was poking fun of my colleague,
LS: Actually I'm very shy one.
Me: *sniggering* LS, there is a difference between shy and anti-social.
To which our E, a fellow resident of our cubi-hood (cubicle neighbourhood) known as the vortex of the insanity burst out laughing and slapped me a nice high five.
So back to this issue of making friends, between shy and anti-social, I wouldn't be surprised if i gravitated to the latter. While it may be easy for me to go up to introduce myself, it's another thing altogether that one sees me at ease. One of the motivating factors could be dependent on the company I host or hosting me.
I draw an example from personal experience, the secondary school that I went to was one of those mandarin speaking ones. Since my preferred and almost (only) language I can effectively converse in is English, I found it hard to build friendships but those that stick though, were well worth it, as I would discover as long as 12 years later. (ZOMFG, it's been 12 years since I first knew my secondary school friends lah -.- )
*ditsy moment* But I digress ...
When I had moved on to poly I realised it was easier to communicate with my peers, there were other people who were crap at their second languages, perhaps not so coincidental that they usually come from the MGSs, IJs and the St. somethings and I didn't feel so alone or intellectually challenged anymore.
Then came Uni where in a communications course the inability to articulate would cause much embarrassment. It gets easier for me to let my guard down to exchange initial pleasantaries but again out of so many superficial relationships built, some through the capacity of work or social activities I guess what matters more is the act of building and sustaining long term relationships.
Just for fun I did a short search on the web and I found some interesting articles, one of interest being, What's the ideal number of friends? that builds upon Dunbar's number that most people have 5 very close friends, 10 in the second tier of closer friends some of which might be made up of family, 35 in the next tier and about 100 in the last category where one would consider to be less than acquaintance.
Makes me kinda ponder about where I stand in my friends' lives. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment