| This is such a wonderful template for people who struggle with interacting with strangers. A combination of growing up in a very isolated place, and being introverted resulted in me struggling to talk to strangers for my whole life. I think the real takeaway here, for socially anxious folks, is that like every other skill, it sucks to start but if you do the reps you get better! In the last few years IVE gotten miles better at talking to strangers, mostly thanks to travelling and just forcing myslef to practice. The thing I try to remember is: "Almost everyone is actually just like me. If a nice stranger asked me some genuine questions I'd love to chat". The challenge for me was just not knowing what to ask. Some of my favorite questions: During transit/hostels: "Where were you going?", and then "why did you go there?", "what are your plans while you're here", "what was your favourite thing you did?", "Where is your home?", ask for recommendations of things to do in their town, country, the place they just visited. These have let me meet locals, be given tours of the city, have great restaurant recommendations and heaps of great conversations. At bars/ in line for the toilet etc:
I basically always just default to "Do you live here, or are you travelling?" You can then use the questions above. People love if they've been to your country or a place you've been and you can ask them specific stuff about their trip. Good chance nobody they know ever asked any decent questions because they hadn't also been to that place. Once you get someone talking it's a whole other skill to deepen the relationship, but I'm still working on that one |