Personal Experiences,Study, Learning Blog of Abu Rashid aka Harun

When you meet in person, you could have definitely known about his gender and get an idea of age.

Then you should not ask any biographical question or personal information like education, job or profession,country,nationality,marital status,staying location,parents name and profession,siblings name and profession,purpose of visitng here etc. Again, you should not ask his/her name as name could provide some information like religion, nationality etc.

Just talk about things around both of you like weather, natural scenery, buidlings, interior decoration. If you are in a office, comment on the location,interior decoration. If you are in a restaurnat, comment on the food on that restaurant, locatin, interior decoration, service etc. If you are in a shop, comment on locatin, interior decoration, service etc

Then talk what you like to do or your passion or hobby. Remember do, not what you like to see,watch,listen. Do includes doing sports,helping people, writing, activism for people.

Ask for help and or advice. People like to help and give advice. It makes them feel important and good feeling of charity.

Take things with you that may be used as an anchor for small talk. For example, you may keep showpieces of differenct coutnries landmarks that you have visited. You may take with you a book, sample booklet of your passion, special watch etc.

Use a Surrounding Object as an Anchor

http://personalexcellence.co/blog/small-talk/

    (At a talk) “The speaker is doing a great job. I like the section where he talked about the role of innovation in startups. What do you think about that?”

    (At a social event) “I had such a hard time finding the location! It took me about 20 minutes to find the place. What time did you get here?”

    (At your workplace) “Regis totally lost his temper at the morning meeting. Did you hear about it?”

    (At a cafe, while queuing up to get your drinks) “I love the dark chocolate mocha here. Have you tried it before?”

    (At the supermarket, at the ramen aisle) “I’m thinking between the Mushroom-Flavored Ramen and Hot & Spicy Ramen and I’m not sure which one to pick. Which do you think I should go for?” (This is related to Method #4: Ask for Help / Advice.)

Be open to using different surrounding objects as your conversation starter. It can include the person’s possessions:

    (Referring to the tie the person is wearing) “I saw a similar tie at Macy’s last week and wanted to get that. Did you get this at Macy’s?”

Or even someone else:

    (Referring to another participant at an event) “I’ve seen that person at similar events before. I heard he/she is the director at Firm Y. Have you talked to him/her yet?

sample ideas/questions

>>.

How is your day going today?

http://www.fastcompany.com/1843752/hate-small-talk-these-5-questions-will-help-you-work-any-room

"What’s your connection to the event?" This question can uncover mutual contacts and usually leads to a more robust answer than if you asked the typical "Have you been to this event before?"

"What’s keeping you busy when you’re not at events like this or at work?" This question gives the encouragement necessary for the person to share his/her passions and outside interests. It is an excellent way to add some enthusiasm into a conversation that has hit a lull, especially if he/she would prefer to be doing that activity at that moment.

"Are you getting away this summer?" This question can lead to conversations about family, reveal special interests and, if you like talking about travel, it’s a sure-fire way to keep a conversation interesting.

"Are you working on any charity initiatives?" This question makes it easy to launch into a deeper connection. If they’re not involved with any projects, they often share reasons which is usually revealing, and if they are doing something of value they will be more than happy to share.

"How did you come to be in your line of work?"

Some more sample qustions from http://personalexcellence.co/blog/small-talk/

What brings you here today?”

“What did you do today?” , “What have you been up to?“, or “What have you been busy with?”

How did XX go?” —xx=say your visit to your village, another country

“What are you up this week?”

website links

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good info on how to start small talk, especially answer with little bit details:

http://lifehacker.com/5913355/how-can-i-turn-small-talk-into-a-conversation

Detailed questions open ended and suggestions:

http://www.ou.edu/class/bc2813/ConversationTips/MasteringSmallTalk.htm

The best suggestion is to talk about what you are passionate about. As the website http://puttylike.com/small-talk/

says =Talk About Things that are Meaningful to You

This is the key. Talk about meaningful topics. It could be work, relationships or experiences. It doesn’t matter, as long as it’s something that you care about and can speak about with emotion. Don’t bring up the weather (I cringe every time the weather comes up in conversation), unless it’s a relevant detail in the story of the amazing hike you just took.

If you talk about meaningful topics first and allow yourself to express the feelings associated with those topics, the other person will feel something too. They will then be more likely to open up themselves.