Making Friends “Across The Pond”
The Goal: make friends overseas, specifically close to the areas where I will be traveling for work next year.
How To Do It: That is a great question!
The Answer: I have no clue!
Well, that would not be completely untrue – I do believe that I am finding better ways to go about locating/procuring relationships, it’s just that it’s not as quick as I would like, or hope for it to be. This is not really a “problem,” to be honest, because I won’t be traveling overseas for about 9 months or so, so there’s no rush.
However, since this site “Connects Asian American Women to the World,” I want to do what I can in order to make as many of my posts applicable somehow to Asian American women, otherwise, why am I posting articles on this site? While I find it “interesting” that there seems to be no lack of people putting posts here about white men dating Asian women, I would like to see a bit more variety than that (Asian women deserve that from the content here), and additionally, I believe that there are many topics/discussions that can yield more positive, useful and pertinent info for the audience that this site appears to have been created for.
So, with that in mind, how does the topic that is on MY mind pertain or relate to Asian American women “connecting to the world?”
Well, that’s actually not as hard as I originally thought it would be to think about.
There are many American-born, Asian women who have been raised here, some multi-lingual, some not, and are now considering going overseas to teach/work and/or live, just as I am. Therefore, this article is just as applicable to them, I believe.
So, what is my best answer so far? I believe that networking is the best thing that I have come up with so far (not that it was MY idea, anyway, but rather just an adoption of a real-world practice). For those of you who don’t understand what I mean by “networking,” I’ll elaborate just a bit.
It takes a bit of checking around, but there are many sites out there that are good for “meeting and greeting” people without being a “dating site.” It’s especially helpful if there is something that you can offer on that/those site(s) which will give you the opportunity to meet more people and make new acquaintances. For example, if you can write at all, I would recommend sitting down with a pen and paper, and cup of Starbucks (or whatever you prefer, but it has to be hot! These are my rules!), and then writing out the things that you like to do most. After that, put a check beside the things that you also believe you are good at. From there, just find a place to start a discussion group of sorts, and write about it frequently. If you prefer, and have the talent, you can even start doing your own short videos on these things. If you notice, many successful people on YouTube do not put out long videos – most are from 1.5 minutes to 3 minutes, from what I’ve noticed. For those of you who like to talk, I KNOW this is possible for you!
For me, I think this is a great place to start, if you want to network and make new acquaintances online, in mutual areas of interest and in the country/region to where you will be traveling.
I’ll post again on this topic soon, but until then, I hope that this is a good starting point for those of you who are desirous of creating a circle of acquaintances, and even better, long-term friends in a new area, whether it be overseas or down the street.
-Brandon