25+ Ways to Make Friends in English

Hi. I'm Ronnie. A lot of people ask me, "Hey,

Ronnie. How can I make new friends? I've come

to a new country. English is not my first language." It's really hard to make friends

in new countries, and I agree. When I move

to a new city, it's even hard for me to make

friends. I think kind of during the pandemic,

our society changed a lot, and maybe people

became more social or not. It could go both ways. So, one really, really great resource

to help you are the people around you, your neighbours. The people in... These are the

people in your neighbourhood. So, look around

you. Everywhere you look, there's other humans,

especially if you're living in a big city, in

a huge condo. There are literally thousands

of people within a 3-minute walk that probably

would like to be your friend. Yay. Well, not

everyone, and some people you don't want to be friends with, but that's your choice. So

these people are your neighbours. Now, if you're looking at the board and go, "Huh?

Ronnie, you've spelt this word very weirdly.

There's no 'u'?" Well, guess what? There is

a "u" in "neighbours", because I'm Canadian,

we spell it n-e-i-g-h-b-o-u-r-s. In America,

they don't have the "u". There's no "u" in

"neighbours". So, what's the problem with this?

It can be awkward. What do you do? You just rock up to someone's apartment, like, knock

on the door, like, "Hi, I'm your neighbour. Want to hang out and be friends?" So, the

way to win people's hearts is through "you

got it" food. So, you make something, or just

go to the store and buy something, doesn't matter. Tell them you made it, and knock on

the door and say, "Hi. I've made you a pie. Will

you be my friend?" Yeah? Okay. It's awkward,

but at least if you have a pie, the person's

like, "Oh, I love pie. Yeah, yeah, friend,

pie, pie, pie, pie, pie, friend. Okay, good."

So, you've broken the ice, or you've given

them something, maybe a bottle of wine, get

them drunk. That always works. And guess what?

They can be your friend. Make it simple. Don't

make anything crazy, and like, "Hey, you want

to hang out with me?" It's like, "No, I don't

know you. I do not want to hang out with you."

So plan something to do with the person. Why?

Just build the community. Why do you want

a strong community? It helps, and I'm sure that whatever country you were originally

from, you had a really good community of people.

If you needed something, you could go to your

neighbour and say, "Hey, can I borrow some

sugar? I've got a cup of sugar." Or it's just

good to have people around you. Maybe you need someone to check if you've turned off

your oven, or someone to look on your pets

where you've gone away. Neighbours are great,

and they're close. Okay? They're not your friends, but they can be. Your friends can

be your neighbours, and your neighbours can

be your friends. That's cool. You don't have

far to stumble home. You can exchange recipes.

Right? It's great. And you can eat their food.

Yes.

The good thing about neighbours, hopefully, is they help each other. And this is what

building a community is about. If you have a strong community, it's really beneficial

to all of us. So, like I said, it can be awkward.

A really, really good way to avoid the awkwardness

of it is, oh yeah, social media. I know you're

on it. I see you there. You can connect, you

can start, or you can join, like a Facebook group. I know there's one in my area, and

people post things like, "Oh, we're looking for this person. I lost my dog. We're going

to have a fun yard sale", which I will explain

later. It encourages people to know information

about where they live. Maybe there's been a lot of break-ins or robberies in the area.

I know there's a lot of car theft, people stealing cars in my neighbourhood. So it's

just a good warning. It's always a really good safety measure, too, for people. You

can share information, you can give people ideas. People are like, "I don't know what

to make for dinner." And friends are like, "Oh, hey, I'm making a pumpkin casserole."

Like, "Whoa, great idea." So I made pictures,

give me the recipe. Problem solved. You can

get suggestions. Maybe you're looking for a new hairdresser or makeup artist. You can

also give advice. Do you like to give people

advice? Like, I know the best person... I

know the best donuts in the city. So this can really help you. Use what you already

like to do and help people. Offer services.

Maybe your husband or your wife is a plumber

and you need... You need work. You can find jobs. Like, "Hey, I'm just new to Canada or

America or England", wherever you're living,

and I'm looking for a job as a bricklayer.

So these social media groups are really good

to help you get money, make friends, you know,

all the fun stuff. But that's just social media, right? You might actually want to,

like, see the people face-to-face and, like,

you know, lick... Touch them, lick them, go,

"Hey", give them a smell. So I've come up

with some fun, fun, fun, fun things that you

can do. Organize or get involved in, in your

neighbourhood or your community, in your condo

building, in your apartment building, in your

cell block if you're in jail. You can organize

a food or clothing drive. "Ronnie, why are we

driving with food?" It's... You're not driving

with food. Okay? If you... A food or clothing

drive means you collect food and clothes and

you give it to the less fortunate people. It can

be in your neighbourhood or it can be a charity

or an organization in your city or town. And

also, I mentioned before, a yard sale. So you

probably have a lot of junk or stuff, maybe,

lying around your house that you're just like,

"I don't use this", but you don't want to throw

it out. So a yard sale is people bring all of

their crap from their house and they put it

on tables, and people come and buy it. Yeah,

you can make some good coins, some good money

from this. So you take your stuff out of your

house that you don't want, put a price tag on

it, and people come and buy it. It's a whole

culture here. On a Saturday, you can drive around

and you'll see signs, "Garage sale" or "Yard sale".

They're not really selling their garages. I used

to think that when I was a kid, and they're not

selling their yards, I'm like, "Mom, why are

people selling their garages all the time?"

Oh, it's not, Ronnie, it's... Oh, they're selling their stuff in the garage. So,

"garage sale" or "yard sale" is the same. So,

another really fun thing to do is make clubs

based on your interest. Okay? Example, if you

like reading, start or join a book club. If you

don't like reading, I don't like reading, don't

make or join a book club. Do something that you

actually enjoy. Organize a movie night. Everyone

comes to your backyard, and you get a projector,

and watch Turner and Hooch, and have popcorn.

It's great. Sports teams. Hey, maybe you used

to play, like, football in your city, in your

town, and you're like, "I would really love to

play." You can ask people in your... In your

neighborhood, in your community, and start a

little team. Any sport. Basketball, football,

doesn't matter. Knitting, crafting nights. I

love crafting. I like making things. I'm not a

knitter, because I'm like, oh, I get a count,

and I'm like... But I know during the pandemic,

a lot of people picked up knitting. If you pick

up knitting, it means you... You do something as

a hobby. My mom belongs to a group. Get the name

of this? It's called "Stitch and Bitch", or it's

called "Bitch and Stitch", I'm not too sure. But

it's an embroidery club, which I love. So, these

people get together, and they bitch, which means

they talk about things they don't like, and they

embroider. I'm sure it's a lot more bitching going

on than stitching, because when I go to my mom's,

I'm like, "Mom, you haven't even finished the first

thistle. It's been five months. Oh." So, whether

you're bitching or stitching, doesn't matter. You

can have board game nights. Do you like Monopoly?

Play Monopoly. Dinner clubs, oh yeah, food. So,

you can organize one Saturday night, a bunch of

you go to different neighbours' houses and eat

their food. Yes, that sounds great. Sounds like

a lot of stress, but if you're good at cooking,

or you enjoy it... Hey, if you don't like cooking

for people, do not join this club, or just go to

the other people's houses and be sick every time

it's your turn. Really popular hikes and walks.

Maybe you like walking or hiking, but you just

don't know where to go. A lot of people in your

neighbourhood know, "Oh, here's a cool spot. Yeah,

go here, it's great. There's waterfalls. Wow,

no way." Okay, so anything that you like, make

a club about it. Get other people to join it.

Give them money. I'll give you a dollar if you

join my book club. Encourage neighbours to decorate

their houses for different holidays. I don't

know why, people love to do this. Halloween,

Thanksgiving, people don't really put turkeys

outside. Oh, they do. No, they do. It's like a

scarecrow, and, like, bales of hay because we

live in the city, and they just decorate their

house. Christmas, they get all sorts of Christmas

lights, I'm sure you've seen that. In Hollywood

movies, Halloween, my favourite. Make your house

all spooky and scare people. Get those big,

stupid inflatables, put them in your yard. I'm

a ghost. Okay. It doesn't matter. You can be

creative, you don't have to spend a lot of money

on it. Okay? Whatever you want to do. But the

purpose of this is you make a date, set a time

for everyone to walk around, make a little parade,

and you can have a party after and be like, "Oh, this

house number 42 was... Had the best decorations."

Or, "Well, this house sucks because they have no

decorations." The person's like... So make it a

party, make it fun. Make it a contest. People are

very competitive, they like to win things. You

could have a block party or even a barbecue.

Yeah. A block party is basically you just get

everyone together outside and hang out. Cool. And

a barbecue, you know, you eat food. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

There's kind of specific, you know, phrasal verbs

connected with barbecuing. I made a lesson on it,

check it out. Barbecuing phrasal verbs, fun with

Ronnie. Other things, as I mentioned before,

you can help each other. Things are expensive.

Right? Maybe you have older people in your

neighbourhood that they need help with gardening

or snow removal, got to shovel the snow.

Mm, clean up a park. That's fun. Go to the park

and pick up all the trash, all the garbage. Yeah.

Tools. Yeah, maybe your neighbour's got some nice

power tools you'd like to... Mm-hmm, like... Like

to borrow. So anything that you can exchange

to help keep costs down. Maybe you'd like a

stand mixer because you're making a cake and your

neighbour has one, be like, "Hey, can I borrow

your stand mixer, Glenda?" So anything that you

can agree on to have a club. It doesn't have to

be tools. And this is really fun, too. Celebrate

life events together. Obviously choices are

birthdays. Right? "Oh, it's Teddy's 50th birthday.

Yeah." But, like, things like welcoming a new baby

into the neighbourhood, or someone got a new dog,

a new pet turtle, you can have a pet turtle party.

That's always a hit with the kids. Things like

celebrating people's anniversaries, when they

got married. Even bad things, like if somebody

dies in the neighbourhood, people need support.

So building your strong community, it gives

you happiness, you can practice your English,

you can make friends. You can eat other people's

foods. Yes. And you can read books, too. So,

if you've got ideas or you've done any of these,

let me know in the comments, and let's build strong

communities and try and help people instead of

being nasty towards them and ignoring them in

the elevator. I'm Ronnie, and I hope that you and

your neighbours have a wonderful day. Or night.