when I was growing up as a childhood immigrant, my grandparents often gave me shit about my rather cavalier usage of the word; I found this tedious and would respond by doubling down. eventually, upon thinking hard about why they might be doing this, I realized they were right.
---
RT @mechanical_monk
americans throw the word "friend" around like a bean bag
they'll spend one evening at some meetup and be like "i made 3 new friends"
https://twitter.com/mechanical_monk/status/1429906072286998530
w/o that assurance of being able to rely on someone, what kind of friendship can you really have? a shallow one composed of only positives, contingent on never being too tedious? not much of a friendship, is it? it's a tough lesson, forcing us to reckon w/ how alone we really are
I used to chalk this difference up to one of language, but thats not the case, as English has parallels to each of the Russian words for types of companions; дгуг (droog) being a real friend, товарищ (tovarish) being comrade or colleague, знакомый (znakomiy) being an acquaintance