Friendship and relationships with friends

1. Let’s talk about friendship. What role do friends play in your life? As we live in society, we meet a lot of people during our lives. We communicate with all these people, but our attitudes towards each of these people are different. Usually I classify people I know as acquaintances, friends and close friends. I'm going to tell you about the best friends of mine. They are Victor Danilov and Dmitri Petrov.

Victor is a good-natured guy of medium height, strong in body, light-haired with light blue eyes. Usually he is the life and soul of the party. Victor is fond of foreign languages. Not so long ago he decided to study English. He worked on it persistently, and now he speaks English well. Victor also likes music. He is a good singer; he plays mouth organ and dances better than Michael Jackson.

Dmitri is rather slim, not very tall, his hair is brown, and his eyes are grey. Usually he wears T-shirts with emblems of football clubs. He is an enthusiastic football fan. Dmitri is an extremely sociable person. By means of e-mail he corresponds with many people from different countries. They discuss political and economic issues. Dmitri is also interested in philosophy. He often cites Confucius's utterances.

My friends are very interesting to talk to. Both of them possess great charm, they are both very clever and educated guys, they are open-hearted and social, well-mannered and tactful. I respect them for their fairness, strong will, intellect, and modesty. People usually like them. I'm happy to have such friends as Victor and Dmitri.

2. Can you rely on your best friends? Everyone knows the proverb “A friend in need is a friend indeed” – according to the old saying a good friend should always help us in difficulties, cheer us up and raise our spirits when we are down, troubled or when nothing is going right. Trust is the most important aspect of any relationship. I believe I can trust my best friend and rely on him.

3. What questions do you usually ask when you want to get acquainted with someone? Have we seen each other before? Where are you from? How do you usually spend your holidays?

4. What can you advise a teenager who has no friends? Frankly speaking it’s not a usual case. Probably, a person with such problems needs advice on behalf of a psychologist. But if someone asks me to help, I will recommend her or him to join some kind of a club or a society to meet people with the same interests.

5. They say: “A person has just one true friend”. What do you think about this? In the reality there are very few true friends. A real friend, on the other hand, is usually one person who shares your life. You can rely on your friend to tell you the truth, even if it’s not always fully pleasant. True friends are hard to find, and are worth holding on to. They are worth more than gold.

FAMILY

1. Let’s talk about family. What role does it play in your life? The family is very important as a unit in our society. Nothing else but family can be an emotional center of people's life. Every mother feels great affection for her children and tries to bring them up in a proper way. Understanding between the members of the family and consideration for others are very important in family relationship. Tenderness, warm-heartedness and respect must always be present in the family to make it friendly. A lot of activities help members of the family to be on friendly terms: discussing all the family plans together, going on trips hikes together, visiting museums, theaters, exhibitions and exchanging opinions about them, sharing the same joys and sorrows.

Now I’d like to tell you about my family. Our family is not large. We are a family of four: my father, my mother, my younger brother and I.

My name is Olga. I am seventeen. I am a school leaver. My younger brother is ten. He is a pupil of the fifth form. He looks like our father. As for me everybody says I look like my mother. I am an ordinary girl of 17.

Our family lives in Vitebsk. We have a nice three-roomed flat on the fourth floor of a multistoried building. My mother is about 40. She looks pretty well. We all love dearly our Mum, and are always ready to help her about the house. We try to share our duties. My mother is an economist. The firm she works in deals with trading.

My father is an engineer in computers. He is considered to be an experienced engineer. We are very proud of him.

My younger brother also has his duties about the house. He helps mother to set the table and wash the dishes. On Saturdays Dad joins us in our work about the house. He likes to make or repair something. We don't have such problems as misunderstanding between the members of the family. I think that it is due to the age of my parents and their character.

2. Are you on good terms with your parents and grandparents? Frankly speaking I’m on good terms with my parents and grandparents. We don't have such problems as misunderstanding between the members of the family. I think that it is due to the age of my parents and their character.

3. What will you ask a British teenager about his/her family? Have you got a big family? Have you got any family traditions? Do you like to spend your free time with your family?

4. What can you advise people who want to get on well with their parents? I can advise for anyone to try to understand the feelings of your parents and show respect to them. Even if you don’t agree with their thinking, try to make them understand politely, don’t use harsh words with them which may hurt.

5. They say that parents and children have difficulties understanding each other because of the generation gap. What do you think about this problem? It’s sad that families are getting smaller these days. To my mind there should be two or three children in a family. You will never feel lonely in a big family.