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Foreign students abroad often complain about a lack of friendships with host nationals. Since little research is available on the subject of intercultural friendship, this qualitative study was conducted to explore the friendship experiences of German students on a US campus. In-depth interviews revealed that all informants struggled with cultural differences concerning friendship formation. Most prominently, the different category width of the word 'friend' and the extent of public and private personality layers in the two cultures caused confusion and misunderstandings. In addition, some students employed different standards in describing Americans in general and their friends in particular. Overall, students were content with their friendship experiences in the USA, contradicting the common portrayal of intercultural friendship in the USA.
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Elisabeth Gareis (2000) studied this question.
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