# Think of what to talk about to people.



## Jamipat (Dec 2, 2011)

My goal is to improve my conversation skills by thinking of different stuff to talk about to the people at work. I work every Saturday. 
I'm going to use this thread to post different stuff I can talk about for the upcoming Saturdays.

Here's a list of what I've come up with for tomorrow.

*. I'll tell them about how I left my payslip at work twice in a role. I brought it to resolve some payment issue, left it for the supervisor to take it tomorrow and have a look at. He leaves it for me on the following Saturday and for some reason, I forgot it, and I don't even know where it is.

. Tell them that I'm going to watch the movie Chronicle on Tuesday (Briefly explain what the film is about). Could have watched it this week but the Empire cinema in Festival Leisure Park sells tickets at half price every tuesdays.* *

. Talk to them about how it snowed on Tuesday. It wasn't that heavy.* *

. Tell them I had no lectures on tuesday which means I only had to travel to London once for the whole week.* *

. Tell them I have to spend around £70 on train to go to uni every month which is a big chunk of how much I earn every month.* *

. Ask them if it's true that they get payed weekly. and if it's better to be payed weekly or monthly.* *

. Talk to them about how it's been extremely cold this week. Talk to them about the cold snap across Europe?* *

. Ask them if they've heard about this guy who traveled to America, but got sent home because of what he wrote on his Twitter page?* *

. Tell them I've applied to a Science Technician job 2-weeks ago and that I didn't get any reply back which means I'm going to start perfecting my CV and cover letter before I start apply for jobs.* *

. Ask them if it's been busy for them so far/today?* *

. Ask them how their week was?* *

. Ask them how many hours they work every week?*


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## Jamipat (Dec 2, 2011)

*Stuff I can talk about*

*Tell them how it used to be heavily busy for me last year when I started work in November through to December, but since January I've gotten less tasks.*


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## Daft (Jan 5, 2012)

If there are any interesting events or happenings around town, or current events that aren't political or religious in nature, those are good too! I hope it goes well tomorrow.


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## Jamipat (Dec 2, 2011)

At work today. I won 2-0. This means that I saw two people that were available for conversation and I conversed with them by using most of the list of topics for conversation.

To elaborate on how the score works, just say that 4 people were available for conversation, and I converse with only 1 of them and not the other 3 because I was scared to converse with them, then I will lose 3-1. If I converse with 2, then it will draw 2-2. If I didn't converse with any of them, I will lose 4-0.

So the aim is to win every Saturday. I don't even want to draw.


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## Jamipat (Dec 2, 2011)

*More topics to talk about*

*Ask them if they live locally?*


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## Jamipat (Dec 2, 2011)

*More topics to talk about*

*Talk to them about how it snowed heavily on Sunday. Ask them if they were able to go to work on that day?*


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## Jamipat (Dec 2, 2011)

http://news.uk.msn.com/odd-news/eating-champ-devours-337-wings

Talk to them about this link and how he's able to be slim and not overweight.


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## Jamipat (Dec 2, 2011)

*Tell them I watched Chronicle today.

Tell them how I thought I would only pay £3.95 due to the SuperSaver discount the cinema in my area is doing every tuesdays, but ended up paying a whooping £8.95 because of the pointless luxury seats.

Tell them I went to the wrong room at first. That room was small, the people in there were staring at the screen lifelessly which was a bit suspicious. The screen was black and white and it showed a woman crying. At first, I thought it was an advert, but whatever they were showing went on and on for like 10 minutes*, *and when I look around at the others*, *they were still staring at the screen lifelessly. Then I realised that what they were showing is a film (in black and white :?). So I embarrisingly left the room.
*


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## Jamipat (Dec 2, 2011)

*Tell them I was sent an offer from Blockbuster which allows me 2 weeks of movie rents for free. I can borrow only one movie per day. So for 2 weeks, it's 14 movies. I have the ticket offer, so all I need to do is go to the Blockbuster store, get it activated, and it begins.*


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## Banks (Jan 12, 2012)

Hey Jamipat,

Here's some advice - hope it helps. Basically when talking to someone, take interest in what they have to say. You can start off with an opener like, "how was your week?", and then transition from that with a story of your own that relates to anything interesting that they said. Really listening to what other people say and showing that you're interested, (keeping eye contact and showing interest through your voice/laughter). Having hobbies helps because you can relate with other people. Really all you're doing is relating to other people. You don't even have to be that similar to them as long as you hold interest in what they're saying. Bring up funny stories about your life, movies, tv shows, anything. once they can laugh around you they will feel more comfortable being around you / starting conversations with you.


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## Jamipat (Dec 2, 2011)

*I didn't go to work today because I had to attend a wedding.

So next week Saturday, I'll tell them that I took today off to go to a wedding in Dagenham, London which started at 12:00pm till around 7:00pm. I'll also talk to them about how I ate so much, that I had to take off my belt to spread out my stomach.

*


Banks said:


> Hey Jamipat,
> 
> Here's some advice - hope it helps. Basically when talking to someone, take interest in what they have to say. You can start off with an opener like, "how was your week?", and then transition from that with a story of your own that relates to anything interesting that they said. Really listening to what other people say and showing that you're interested, (keeping eye contact and showing interest through your voice/laughter). Having hobbies helps because you can relate with other people. Really all you're doing is relating to other people. You don't even have to be that similar to them as long as you hold interest in what they're saying. Bring up funny stories about your life, movies, tv shows, anything. once they can laugh around you they will feel more comfortable being around you / starting conversations with you.


I usually ask them "how was your week". What I notice, is that the ones you don't know well will just say, "Yeah, it was alright", and then proceed to asking me how my week was. As you get to know each other more and more, then they gradually start telling bits of what happened in their week. So that part depends on how close you are to the person.

You're right about relating to other people, but what about if all your co-workers have nothing in common with you? Just in case that happens, it's still good to think about what you're going to say to them. It's better than not talking to anyone. For me, it's all about improving my conversation skills.


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## Jamipat (Dec 2, 2011)

*Talk to them about the video of a dad shooting her daughter's laptop. The daughter wrote a letter on her facebook wall about how pissed off she was about getting lots of chores to do in the house. Then her dad created a video on youtube of himself reading the letter out loud to the viewers, and then shooting her laptop around 7 times. 
*


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## Jamipat (Dec 2, 2011)

Today at work. Same score. 2-0. That was pretty mediocre in my opinion. I spoke to the same person last week and a different person. I would have liked it if I spoke to one more different person. Even if I only spoke to two different people today, that would have been good.






*Talk to them about this video*


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## Citrine (Oct 19, 2010)

^that was pretty amazing


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## immortal80 (Feb 25, 2009)

Jamipat said:


> Today at work. Same score. 2-0.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


i wish i had them swinging-attack skills!!!


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## Jamipat (Dec 2, 2011)

*Tell them I left my Dairy Milk chocolate in my locker last week. Only ate 3 blocks, so it was left opened in the locker for a week.*


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## Jamipat (Dec 2, 2011)

http://http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2104256/Jobseeker-facing-repossession-home-offers-sale-eBay-bid-bailiffs-bay.html

*Whem I check out her ebay ad, they've removed it.*


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## ohgodits2014 (Mar 18, 2011)

Wow, really specific. Sometimes I also think I should come up with specific things to say to people, but then I get lazy and think I should just wing it. Nothing good ever comes out of that.

Anyway, keep up the good work.


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## Jamipat (Dec 2, 2011)

Yesterday at work, I got the chance to only speak to one person, so 1-0. For the people I don't talk to, I'm going to start small-talking them due to the fact that there are times where we get into situations where I can easily do small talk (e.g. when we're in the elevator), but i don't because I generally don't talk to them. I've been conversing with only the people I'm comfortable with or I generally talk to. 
So in terms of my score rules, small-talking is included. 

Examples of small talk is

Ask them

. if it's been busy for them so far/today? 
. how many hours they work every week?
. what time they started/finish?

Once I say those three examples, then I can get the **** away from the person. 

Starting from next week Saturday, when me and a person I don't talk to, gets into a situation where I can small-talk their ***, and I successfully ask them those three things, 1 point gets added. If I don't out of fear, 1 point gets taken away.

Any tips/hints on small talk would be greatly appreciated.


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## Elona (Feb 24, 2012)

Jamipat said:


> *Tell them I watched Chronicle today.
> 
> Tell them how I thought I would only pay £3.95 due to the SuperSaver discount the cinema in my area is doing every tuesdays, but ended up paying a whooping £8.95 because of the pointless luxury seats.
> 
> ...


That is a classic story to tell. It made me laugh.


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## shy88 (Feb 25, 2012)

that is an amazing list!! well done.. i wish i could think of that many things to talk about


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## Jamipat (Dec 2, 2011)

http://offthebench.nbcsports.com/20...basketball-player-shot-hoops-while-in-a-coma/

http://www.postchronicle.com/news/strange/article_212401242.shtml

http://edition.cnn.com/video/?/video/us/2012/02/24/dnt-basketball-girl-coma.kmbc

http://www.postchronicle.com/news/business/article_212401138.shtml



shy88 said:


> that is an amazing list!! well done.. i wish i could think of that many things to talk about


You just need to talk about any interesting things that has happened recently. Watch the news regurlarly. At times they'll come up with an interesting topic you can share with people.

Also, talk about any crazy thing that happened to you and any activities you do/did.


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## Jamipat (Dec 2, 2011)

*Woman 'eats 4,000 sponges, 100 bars of soap'*

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/odd/news/a368449/woman-eats-4000-sponges-100-bars-of-soap.html

A 21-year-old woman has admitted to having a major craving for washing-up sponges.

Kerry Trebilcock, 21, claims that she has consumed around 4,000 sponges in total as well as 100 bars of soap.

The dental nurse from Mylor, Cornwall has also said she likes to eat them with condiments - often hot relish, mustard, barbecue sauce, jam, honey or tomato ketchup - or dip them in tea or hot chocolate.

Trebilcock's cravings are down to an eating disorder - she has been diagnosed by her doctor with pica, which causes abnormal appetite for non-nutritive items.

She told _The Sun_: "One day, I will beat this and be able to have a shower or do the washing-up without feeling hungry."

Recalling the first time she ate a sponge, she continued: "After one dinner where I ate a double helping of lasagne and a tub of ice cream, I still felt hungry. To distract myself, I decided to wash the dishes.

"I took out a new sponge from a packet and had an overwhelming desire to eat it. I sat down with a glass of water and chewed the sponge until it was gone. It tasted of nothing but I found eating it enjoyable."

Despite her condition, Trebilcock weighs 8 stone. She prefers fruit-flavoured sponges, particularly lemon and lime.

She has been working to fight the disorder by seeking counselling, eating vitamins and chewing on sweets.

"I still have a one-inch square of sponge and three teaspoons of organic soap with each meal," Trebilcock added. "But I am making progress and speak to other sufferers of pica on internet forums."


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## Jamipat (Dec 2, 2011)

*'Dead' Chinese grandmother climbs out of coffin after six days*

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/odd/new...ther-climbs-out-of-coffin-after-six-days.html

A 95-year-old Chinese woman, who was thought to have died, has shocked residents by climbing out of her own coffin.

Li Xiufeng was discovered motionless by a neighbour on February 17, a fortnight after suffering a head injury from a fall at her home in Guangxi Province, reports _The Mirror_.

Chen Qingwang assumed she had passed away in her sleep, saying: "She didn't get up, so I came up to wake her up.

"No matter how hard I pushed her and called her name, she had no reactions. I felt something was wrong, so I tried her breath, and she has gone, but her body is still not cold."

Xiufeng's son then made arrangements for her funeral, which included a coffin being placed in the home for friends and family to pay their respects.

The grandmother was placed inside the coffin on February 19, but it was not nailed down ahead of the funeral to be held on February 24.

However, the day before the funeral, Qingwang was shocked to discover the coffin was empty with no corpse inside.

"We were so terrified, and immediately asked the neighbours to come for help," he said.

Villagers in the town of Liulou later found her in her kitchen cooking herself a meal.

She reportedly explained: "I slept for a long time. After waking up, I felt so hungry, and wanted to cook something to eat.

"I pushed the lid for a long time to climb out."

A local hospital explained that Xiufeng had an artificial death, where a person has no breath but the body remains warm.

"Thanks to the local tradition of parking the coffin in the house for several days, she could be saved," a doctor said.

However, due to the local tradition, all of Xiufeng's belongings had been burnt, leaving with the 95-year-old with nothing at her home.


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## Jamipat (Dec 2, 2011)

*Ryan Kitching told to clean room by mom discovers winning lottery ticket*

Ryan Kitching told to clean room by mom discovers winning lottery ticket. Ryan Kitching, 19, finally gave in to his mother's nagging to clean his bedroom - and discovered a Lottery ticket underneath the piles of debris.
In fact, he nearly threw it out, but thankfully decided to check the number while he did some shopping for him mom.

Ryan took his tickets to his local Tesco - where he and his mom both work - and would go on to discover that one of the slips, for the February 8 draw, contained five numbers and the bonus ball worth £53,000.


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## Jamipat (Dec 2, 2011)

On Saturday. Score was 3-0. Thanks to making small talk to my workers at the right times. They were 3 completely different people, so I just said those three examples of small talk on post 19, and then I went away.


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## Jamipat (Dec 2, 2011)

*A woman falls in love with the statue of liberty*










*A WOMAN with a strange attraction for inanimate objects has found true love - with the Statue of Liberty.*

Smitten shop assistant Amanda Whittaker, 27, says she has fallen head over heels for the iconic New York monument. 
Amanda, who had a passionate love affair with a drum kit while still at school, said: "She is my long-distance lover and I am blown away by how stunning she is." 
The 27-year-old, from Leeds, has a condition called objectum sexuality, in which people fall in love with things rather than humans. 
_She first fell for "Libby", as she calls the statue, when a pal in New York posted her a picture online._ 
Since then she has visited the 151ft statue in person four times, caressing it and leaning out of a window to kiss its hair. She has even thought about marrying it - but decided against it "because so many others love her too". 
_Instead she has settled for a shrine to Libby in her home featuring a 6ft replica, hundreds of smaller models and ornaments and huge US flags._ 
She said: "Other people might be shocked to think I can have romantic feelings for an object, but I am not the same as them."


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## Jamipat (Dec 2, 2011)

It's my mum's birthday on Monday. Thinking of getting her a watch. I'll go watch-hunting on Sunday after church.


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## Jamipat (Dec 2, 2011)

Last Saturday. 5-0.

*As I was walking in the shopping centre on Sunday, I see this young girl (looks around 12 years old) deliberately hanging on the railings of an escalator. The escalator was going up to the next floor, which meant that the railings were pulling her up. Once she reached the next floor, she dropped roughly 6 metres to the ground floor. She was crying on the floor, badly hurt. Who does she think she is, Catwoman?*


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## Jamipat (Dec 2, 2011)

*Tesco sells iPads for £50*










Tesco has confirmed that it will NOT honour its £50 iPad offer after a glitch saw the gadgets sold online at more than 90 per cent discount.
Shoppers crashed the Tesco Direct website on Tuesday after the latest iPad 3 4G 64GB model was advertised at just £49.99.
But in an email to disappointed shoppers yesterday, the supermarket giant refused to honour the deal.
Critics immediately branded the incident a PR stunt and claimed it was simply a cynical move to get customer's contact details.
Tesco's snub set Twitter users into a frenzy, with one user commenting: "Have a feeling the £50 Tesco iPad 3 'glitch' was in fact a rather genius PR stunt to massively plump their pre-orders."
Another customer joked: "Tesco have cancelled the order for my £49.99 iPad. In return I'll fill a trolley with food, take it to the checkout and leave it there."
As tens of thousands of shoppers raced to get their hands on the bargain Apple tablet earlier this week, Tesco blamed the mispricing on an "IT error".
In an email to customers yesterday, Tesco said: "Thank you for your recent Tesco Direct order for an IPAD WI-FI 4G 64GB.
"Unfortunately, there was an error in the price at the time that you placed your order, and as a result we have had to cancel your order.
"No payment has been taken for this order.
"Please refer to our Tesco Direct Terms and Conditions for further details of our order acceptance policy.
"If you would like to re-order the IPAD, on the official launch date on Friday 16th March it will be available on our website at the correct price £659."
A spokesperson also said: "We always look to offer our customers unbeatable value but unfortunately this is an IT error which is being corrected."
But hundreds of furious customers have already signed an online petition demanding that the retailer honours the deal.


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## Jamipat (Dec 2, 2011)

Yesterday at work, guess what, 9-0. 9, ****ing 0. Out of the 9 people that I spoke to, I talked about Tesco selling iPads for £50 (previous post) to only 2 people because I knew them, and we've conversed before. For the rest, it was a small talk conversation as I didn't know them. So in that case, I applied the 3 small talk examples on post 19. You guys may think small talk is nothing, but it's essential for getting to know people. I'm not just going to walk up to a person I don't know, and start talking about the iPads right away. No. I have to get to know them first, and then talk about what I wrote on the previous post.

*Got my mum a vase and some flowers from Tesco for mother's day. Quite funnily, she was in Tesco too at that time. I got the vase, and I when reached the tills, I saw my mum walking across, she looked at me, then looked at the vase. So I spent about 40 minutes searching for a different gift until I finally gave up and decided to go with the vase. I also took some flowers too.*


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## cerulean (Dec 8, 2008)

Jamipat said:


> My goal is to improve my conversation skills by thinking of different stuff to talk about to the people at work. I work every Saturday.
> I'm going to use this thread to post different stuff I can talk about for the upcoming Saturdays.
> 
> Here's a list of what I've come up with for tomorrow.
> ...


Nice work on this thread. I've been thinking about doing this, but I keep putting it off. I've been so emotionally closed off from people for so long that I think I need to prepare like this just to be able to talk to people. Most of my interactions with people are robotic, and I give very simple answers.


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## Piscesfish202 (Feb 12, 2012)

*On public transportation...*

Yeah this is wonderful stuff. I've uh, tried to speak to people in public but I always feel nervous. But like, I was on the train recently and I offered the girl across from me some thin mints because I had a whole box and I like... she only took one. And then a guy sat next to her and I offered him like the whole sleeve of cookies and he just like told me how hungover he was haha. And he was drinking red bull and gatorade lol. Anyways, that was like a 6 hour amtrack ride and I wished I had talked more and not felt like creepy and weird. I told the hungover dude how i applied to rutgers and he gave me his number and said he could "show me a good time" ... which I assumed meant some crazy frat parties.... I thought about talking too on my megabus ride from Amherst, Mass back to NY like 5 days later but I didn't talk to anyone there.... I think talking to strangers is a great skill and should be encouraged in society. It would promote peace and understanding really.

"Small talk", I guess is what I mean to say here... more specifically, but, sometimes those conversations can turn into like, life stories lol. u never kno.


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## Jamipat (Dec 2, 2011)

*Indonesian 8-year-old smokes 25 cigarettes a day!*


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## Jamipat (Dec 2, 2011)

*Last Sunday, I didn't know the clocks went forward, so I went to church an hour late. There was no point in going to the auditorium, because it was only 24 minutes till the service finishes.

I went to Blockbuster today. I had this 2 weeks free movie rent offer from them, where I can borrow one movie per day for 2 weeks. So I went to their store to get it activated. I really don't want to be renting movies at this period as I need to go through all my lecture notes before my exams in May, but the expiry date for the offer to be activated is the end of this month. The first film I borrowed was Inception.*


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## Jamipat (Dec 2, 2011)

*Watched Inception this afternoon. Very good film. I'll give it 8-9/10. The film's pretty complex though. Only understood about 60% of the story. Some people claimed that they had to watch it 3 times to understand the concept. *


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## Jamipat (Dec 2, 2011)

*PlayStation 4 to be called Orbis, launching winter 2013?*

Just in case you haven't seen it, the PlayStation 4 rumours have begun in earnest. US news site Kotaku has posted claims from a 'trusted source' that the next machine will be called Orbis and is set for release next winter.

The console is reported to be built around an AMD x64 CPU and an AMD Southern Islands GPU. The latter is a high-end graphics processor set to appear in the Radeon HD 7900 range of cards - the tech is capable of displaying graphics up to resoutions of 4096×2160, as well as true 1080p stereoscopic 3D. The British edition of the Official PlayStation Magazine has also picked up on the story, sugesting there's more going on here then scurrilous tittle-tattle.


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## tiredgal (Mar 30, 2012)

*oh maybe wrong forum...*

I was looking for a goal-setting forum and I just now realized this is a SAS forum! Oops. Anyway, I've had times in my life when I was socially awkward (I know it isn't the same thing). Also, I've worked quite a bit with teenagers who have trouble fitting in. Based on that, let me give you one real quick piece of advice.

Most people who have trouble with successful conversations and new social encounters usually overcompensate by talking more about themselves. Because social interaction does not come natural to them, they think about it more and are more observant which is ironic because then they make more mistakes! Nonetheless, they are usually smart, interesting and thoughtful people so they assume that if they can just show these positive qualities in conversation, then it will be easier to talk to people and make friends. But actually, the truth is that the easiest way to talk to people and make friends is to not talk about yourself very much. The best thing to do is ask other people to talk about themselves. Ask people about their families, their jobs, their hobbies, their backgrounds, their interests, etc. and be a good listener instead of trying to immediately respond with things about yourself. People like to talk about themselves, and if you give them the opportunity to do so, they will like to talk to you. Usually they will reciprocate eventually and ask you questions about yourself. Until then, just let them talk about themselves. Then, as you get to know them better, you can start to talk about common interests and common topics- and this is when true conversation happens.

So instead of a list of things you can tell people or talk about, make a bigger list of questions you can ask people, then be a good listener. That's the best advice I can give.

Now I wish I could find a forum that is just about setting goals. lol


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## Martinzky (Apr 10, 2012)

First of all, a lot of the stuff you list here are really interesting! And if I met you, I would probably have a really cool conversation with you. But, what I'm wondering, is how natural all of this comes across. At least when I think of stuff to say beforehand, or think too much about what to say, it ends up being awkward and unnatural. Do you find it the same way, or is this list-thing working for you?


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