6 Minute English / Making male friends

Note: This is not a word-for-word transcript.

Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I m Neil.

And I m Beth. There s a famous English saying, a friend in need is a friend indeed , and it s true - everyone needs friends to share life s ups and downs. Do you have many friends, Neil?

Yes, I have some close friends, but maybe not as many as I d like.

That s interesting because often it s women who have many friends while men find it harder to maintain strong friendships, especially as they get older. In fact, according to one recent survey, only 27% of British men say they have a least six close friends.

So, is it true that men find it difficult to make friends? We ll be hearing from, Max Dickins, author of a new book on male friendships called, Billy No-Mates , and, as usual, we ll be learning some useful new vocabulary as well.

But first I have a question for you. We know that close friends are important, not just for having fun but for good mental health as well. So according to research by Oxford University s Institute of Cognitive Anthropology, how many close friends to we need for our mental wellbeing? Is it:

a) five?

b) ten? or,

c) twenty?