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Small Talk

Martin said:
Plus, 7000+ posts in 2 1/2 years isn't all that much, is it?
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Have to agree there. On another forum I use I've accumulated 13,624 posts (at the time of writing) since Dec 2002; the same time Martin joined here.
 
I've noticed I can do the small talk thing with most people. Sometimes it's hardest to do it with those I'm closest to, like my dh. It all depends on what's going on at the time I guess. We've been married over 24 years, and sometimes we just don't need or want small talk. Companionable silence is nice too.
 
Motokid said:
ahh, but does any TBF member have more posts than Martin, in TBF?
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If you go to the Memberlist and view the members by post count, Martin is at the top, followed by Wabbit.
 
I can do small talk. I had to learn how to do it tho. As Irene said, the trick is to keep asking questions, nod your head, and smile a lot :D

Although I do hate small talk and will avoid small talk with every trick in the book. It's hard for me to small talk anyway. Normal small talk topics of conversation are things I know nothing about. I don't own a TV so can't talk about that. I don't know what's going on with celebs and don't care, so I can't talk about that. I have no interest in sports, and so I can't talk about that either. I guess that leaves the weather :rolleyes:

Bottom line: I can do it if I have to, but I will avoid it like the plague :D
 
AH, I am too! Horrible at small talk, that is. I hate hate hate small talk, especially early in the morning, and I used to get on the rail with this man every morning who loved to chit chat. It was awful having to force myself to sound interested and to follow the conversation. It got to the point where I'd avoid him, I'd take a different route to the office or walk slowly so he wouldn't see me!

And sometimes I just have nothing to say. My mind is on one thing and I can't be bothered to focus my train of thought on something else to entertain whoever is around me.
 
I can't make small talk either. I've read all the advice about listening and letting the other person talk, but the problem arises when the other person is also doing that! Then both of you end up sitting there in silence. :D
 
txgirl said:
It got to the point where I'd avoid him, I'd take a different route to the office or walk slowly so he wouldn't see me!
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I've done that too!! My two worst small-talk requirements are:

1. When I run into people I was aquainted with in high school or university and there is no way to avoid having a conversation or just doing the smle and nod thing. Obviously many of these people I still count as my friends, but it's the people that I never really knew past that in the first place, but we lived in the same residence or took the same class. Some of them were right pieces of crap at the time, and while they may have changed I still don't understand why they suddenly want to talk to me. The small talk is usually about what you're doing now and what friends are doing now and once that topic is exhausted... that's really about it. I have faked a train stop one time just to get away from an awkward silence with this person who came and sat next to me. On a one hour train ride there's really only so much you can say.

I prefer to go with the "Hi, how are you?" thing, have a quick chat while standing and then sit somewhere else. I don't think this is rude at all and it prevents painful strained conversation.

2. Passengers sitting next to me on a plane. I sat next to this one woman from Sydney all the way to Vancouver... and do you think I could get her to STOP talking?! It was taking small talk WAY too far. I tried doing the 'book reading thing' the 'earphones thing' and the 'writing in my journal thing' (she just tried surreptitiously to read it!). Nothing would shut her up!

I must just look like the kind of person who likes to talk or something because this happens almost every time, no matter whether they're men, women, old, young...! The only time I ever actually told someone to be quiet was the last time I left Oz, and I was really upset to be going. I just said to the fellow next to me, "I'm sorry. I'm just not in the mood to have a chat right now" - I think the choked up look on my face was enough to shut him right up.
 
I really hate small talk ... well any sort of talk at all really - I am much better as a loner when I dont have to talk to anyone. I have a small tendency to mumble and look at the floor when I talk, so I constantly get people asking me to repeat myself ... so in the end I just give up and dont talk at all, it saves a lot of time :D

Phil
 
I'm not much of a big talker either. I've noticed that there are certain types of people that can make me open up more easily and that I can talk to more. When I'm with these people, I just don't shut up.
 
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