Friends Will Be Friends

So you have no friends or acquaintances in the UK. No worries. I know, I know, humans are social beings meaning we just need peers to share our experiences with. But the good news is: making friends in the UK is just the same as making friends in your home town. All you have to do is start socializing offline and online.

Image from the Guardian

Offline

Let me start with the most obvious: invite your colleagues to a cup of tea (I'd prefer beer but you get my drift ;) ). Working at the same place means that you will have at least one common topic. Who knows? It might turn out that your colleagues are quite cool and fun people.

Find like-minded people. Sit down and think through what your hobbies are, then ask around where can you find people like you. If you are a keen cyclist go to a bike shop and start chatting with the sales persons. If you like dancing, consider joining a dance school. If there is anything that you've always wanted to do (skydiving for instance) but you just didn't, why not give it a go. ;)

Religious support. It is somewhat similar to the previous advice. If you are a religious person, I'm sure you can find a community who shares your belief. So start searching.

Learn – If you aren't a native English speaker you might need to improve your speaking and listening skills. If you can afford it, I'd suggest to go to language courses. This way you can learn and socialize at the same time. I don't know why, but somehow the best/wildest parties are connected to extracurricular activities. Well, at least this is my experience. (Though most of the language courses aren't free there are some exceptions as well. For details check out my previous blogpost about mastering the English language.)

Oh, and one more thing: get acquainted with your neighbours. Sometimes – especially in larger cities – we don't even know our neighbours' name. But, regardless of their age, they could actually be quite nice people AND ... you know, they won't complain about the noise if you invite them to your housewarming party. :)

Online

I'm sure most of you have read hundreds of forum posts. So why not try being active and reply to some of them? It doesn't mean you have to be some kind of expert in a topic. Not at all. Most of the forums are about sharing your opinion and experience. So go find topics that interest you and you'll find several like-minded people within a couple of minutes. Then again you can use Facebook and Twitter to build new relationships … I'm sure here I don't have to go into details. … My point is, finding friends in the UK is not different from finding friends at home. Just be open minded and make the first step. The rest will take care of itself.

P.S.: Why not start socializing by leaving a comment? (I know a person who would like it very much ;) )