Posts: 44026
Threads: 529
Joined: July 24, 2013
Reputation:
109
RE: The "What do you want to talk about?" question.
September 2, 2016 at 5:57 pm
I try at all costs to avoid the question, 'What do you want to talk about' since people invariably want to talk about something painfully dull (themselves) rather than conversing about something fiendishly interesting (me). Another good question to avoid is 'How are you', unless you're prepared to listen to a litany of woe that would make a granite statue try to slit its wrists.
Boru
‘But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’ - Thomas Jefferson
Posts: 18510
Threads: 129
Joined: January 19, 2014
Reputation:
91
RE: The "What do you want to talk about?" question.
September 14, 2016 at 3:53 pm
When I came to the US for the first time, when people asked me "how was your day" I would actually start going into details, which always led to awkwardness. It's comical in hindsight.
The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Psalm 14, KJV revised edition
Posts: 5983
Threads: 249
Joined: January 2, 2013
Reputation:
30
RE: The "What do you want to talk about?" question.
September 14, 2016 at 8:03 pm
(September 14, 2016 at 3:53 pm)Alex K Wrote: When I came to the US for the first time, when people asked me "how was your day" I would actually start going into details, which always led to awkwardness. It's comical in hindsight.
Yeh, in northern England where I live it's a tradition to say "alright?" or "How do lad?" but you never ever EVER reply by actually saying to what degree you are ok or alright or anything like that. You always have to say something along the lines of "Not bad John what about you?" Then John has to reply back with something like "Aye not bad, not bad."
It's just bad manners to actually want people to stop and talk about how you actually are.
Are you ready for the fire? We are firemen. WE ARE FIREMEN! The heat doesn’t bother us. We live in the heat. We train in the heat. It tells us that we’re ready, we’re at home, we’re where we’re supposed to be. Flames don’t intimidate us. What do we do? We control the flame. We control them. We move the flames where we want to. And then we extinguish them.
Impersonation is treason.
Posts: 10470
Threads: 165
Joined: May 29, 2013
Reputation:
53
RE: The "What do you want to talk about?" question.
September 14, 2016 at 8:16 pm
I want to talk about SKOR bars, and how awesome dawesome they are.
"For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring." - Carl Sagan
Posts: 5983
Threads: 249
Joined: January 2, 2013
Reputation:
30
RE: The "What do you want to talk about?" question.
September 14, 2016 at 8:24 pm
And as for the question "What do you want to talk about?" I love it because I always think I have very interesting topics to talk about. I think after around 7 years of dating a lot I have it to the point where it's very difficult for me to be put into an awkward silence.
The very VERY worst thing people say that creates an awkard silence and is a self fulfilling prophesy and I seem to notice women doing it more than men is something along the lines of "Wow this is awkward." Or just mentioning the fact there's been a bit of silence.
I was sat with a girl I was seeing and her friend watching TV once and her friend said "Wow this is an awkward." Personally I was thinking it wasn't awkward until you just said that and made it awkward.
Maybe I'm looking too deeply into it but when a girl says something like that "Wow this is awkard." It's kind of like saying I'm here to entertain her and come up with the conversation, she isn't going to lower herself to putting effort into the conversation she's just going to state the observation that the conversation has stopped and there's silence that she finds awkward.
I understand that kind of is generally the situation, it is traditionally the man that has to impress the girl and chat up the girl but I think it's a pretty good personality trait in general for men and women to have to be able to think up a random conversation to some degree and not to always rely on the other person.
Anyway the bottom line is, in an awkaward silence it's way WAYYY better to be asked what I want to talk about than just to be told that there has been an awkward silence in my opinion.
Are you ready for the fire? We are firemen. WE ARE FIREMEN! The heat doesn’t bother us. We live in the heat. We train in the heat. It tells us that we’re ready, we’re at home, we’re where we’re supposed to be. Flames don’t intimidate us. What do we do? We control the flame. We control them. We move the flames where we want to. And then we extinguish them.
Impersonation is treason.
