Making friends is really the same everywhere, with very small variations. It all comes down to understanding what it means to connect with another human being. That’s about mutual appreciation, and it’s particularly about a kind of precise appreciation, in which the things you appreciate about the other represent an accurate and detailed recognition of their finer qualities. So a false friendship is one that is based on something junkier than that… i.e. “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine”, or “we flatter each other so we won’t be lonely”, or “we have illusions about who the other is”, etc.
A true friendship finds its entrance when you recognize something unique and worthy about another person, and express that in some way. When people feel known, a particular lamp goes off on their dashboard—they think “wow, somebody understood me!”, and they start to listen to you differently. That’s just the beginning, but it’s often enough to where the rest becomes obvious.