Check out the post by my friend Adam over at Adam's World. I call him friend because, while we've never met in person, anyone who believes in the power of talking to strangers is a friend of mine. Many people in this area think TTS is a sign of naivete. I think those people are afraid. "I'm from the New York metro area, I don't talk to strangers," they scoff. In truth, their blustering hides the fact that they don't know how to do it.
TTS is not for the unaggressive; it requires mental agility and fast reflexes. It is a skill set supplemented by a healthy dose of confidence. Use discretion and choose your strangers with a hint of common sense.
Last night I said to a friend's boyfriend, "Where I'm from, talking to strangers is-- it's like a sport." Who looks worth talking to? What’s your opening line? Can you take rejection? How much can you get out of the person? Are they going to be fun? I feel lucky to be skilled in this sport. Like Adam says, it gets you things. It got me pretty fluent in French.
"Yeah, but the person I talk to always turns out to be crazy!" Well, so what. Now you know you don't have to talk to them again, you big New York crybabies. One essential skill of stranger-talking is being able to say, “OK, bye!” and walk off if the person is crazy. Trust me, that works. Even in New York- especially in New York- that works.
Monday, October 8, 2007
Endorsement of Talking to Strangers
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2 comments:
According to that, I make you my friend on Flickr :o)
LOVE IT!. I indeed use to talk to strangers a lot. Not that I'm looking for strangers just to talk. It is just that I'm a chatty person and I had always think every one has something to teach me and I can learn from everyone, and how would I do that If I do not talk with "everyone" so I tend to start conversations with who ever sits at my side in a flight or other people around.
I had had the most interesting conversations with people I never knew their names. One of them I will always remember was a Lady flying back to US. She was going to say good bye to her daughter as she had just a few months to live, she had cancer, she was telling me she used to have a famous pie place. And told me a lot about her life. A really strong Lady. She gave me a pecan pie recipe I love!. and I never knew anything else about her. She is probably dead by now as that ocassion happened 6 years ago.
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