Let us become friends Good interpersonal relationships bring us joy, comfort and hope, while friendlessness makes us lonely, depressed and bored. To develop good interpersonal relationships, you need the appropriate social skills to help you get along with people harmoniously and to gain friendship. Therefore, you need to achieve the following: (1) Understand yourself It is widely believed that if you have a good knowledge of your situation and your enemy's situation, you can win every battle. The first step in gaining friendship is to have a good understanding of yourself. You can then make good use of your strengths and improve your weaknesses. The simplest way to have a better understanding of yourself is to listen to the sincere comments made by people you trust. You may also read more, think more and participate more in social activities, so as to cultivate your interest and potential. (2) Accept yourself Not accepting yourself means that you are over-critical of yourself; you hate people who do better than you; and compare yourself with others too often. Accepting yourself means accepting your uniqueness and trying hard to overcome your weaknesses. The methods include: do not over-estimate your ability, set realistic and achievable goals avoid unnecessary comparison with others record your good deeds, give yourself a hearty cheer and build up a positive self-image (3) Accept other people "My friend is not perfect nor am I, so we suit each other admirably." (Alexander Pope) To increase the capacity to bear with other people's shortcomings, you can try the following : get along with people sincerely and learn to respect others pay concern to others actively and offer help readily learn to appreciate people's good points, never only focus on their faults try to understand and sympathize with people because they may have reasons behind their behaviour do not expect too much from others because no one is perfect pay more attention to and praise people's good deeds avoid making judgements about others too early so as not to hinder yourself from having a real understanding of them (4) Be sensitive in social situations This is the ability to recognize your own and others' emotions. To practise, you have to listen to what people say try to empathize with them acknowledge their feelings actively invite them to make suggestions (5) Social expression This is the ability to express your opinion, standpoint or feeling verbally. To practise this: you have to maintain appropriate tone and eye contact. Use body language whenever applicable speak honestly, do not disguise, do not be shy remain rational and calm when you express emotions such as anger, discomfort or fear Conclusion: Human interaction and friendship building is a knowledge as well as an art. There is no simple formula nor end point to making friends. Through personal development and continuous learning, interpersonal relationships become our precious assets. What people bring us will then be happiness and pleasure. Otherwise, interpersonal relationships can become a burden and bring us trouble and conflicts.