5 Tips how to improve
your small talk skills
Hello my name is Shabir. Well, have you ever wondered how
some people can just walk into a room full of strangers and strike up a
conversation with practically anyone?
The Reason is because they are really great with small
talks.
Now small talk is this casual conversion that avoids
sensitive subjects or any kind of arguments.
And if you are one of those shy people, who think that small
talk is such a waste of time.
Honestly small talk helps you to build a friendly
atmosphere.
It helps you to gain self confidence and also is helps you
get to know people much better, so in this session today we are gonna look at
some tips that would help you to mastering small talk.
Prepare & warm up yourself
The first tip that I have for you to master small talk is,
Prepare yourself. Now can you imagine a football player not warming up before a
big match or a lawyer not jotting down the key points, just before an important
case?
Well, it’s important to prepare yourself.
Well, especially for shy people. If you’re shy this is the
most critical step. You need to prepare yourself, now probably you can think or
jot down the hot topics. And also your experience related to it, so if you go
ahead and start a conversation with someone about something, you also have some
stuff to talk about it. So for example, you can think of a new movie that you
just recently watched. You can talk about that or probably a vacation that you
are planning with your family or even current affairs. Something that’s just
going on in the world and people are very keen to know about it or to talk
about it. So make sure you jot down some points, prepare yourself and then just
go ahead, pump up your conversation.
Be the first one
The second step that
I have for you is, Be the first one. When I say be the first one. It means that
you are supposed to go ahead and start a conversation. Are you one of those
people, who just hang back and get really nervous, when you have to start up a
conversation with someone?
Well, you need to quit doing that, you need to be confident
enough to just go up and start a conversation with someone. To begin with,
probably you can just smile and just look at the person, give those receptive
signals that would create a positive energy and then just go ahead and start
talking.
Now probably if you are in a party, then you can say, hey
how do you know the host? First the very first thing that you need to do is
introduce yourself. Say that, Hi I’m Shabir so tell me how do you know the host
of the party? So this is the way, you would start making a conversation with
someone. So the most important thing that you need to keep in mind is that you
should be the first one. Don’t just wait and feel nervous that okay someone
else will come up to you and start talking to you. Stop doing that and you be
the first one.
Listen actively
The third tip that I have for you is, Listen carefully. Now
it’s an extremely important thing to do, Active listening. When you are having
a conversation with someone, it’s important to pick up the facts, key words and
the phrases that would help you to build a mental picture and continue the
conversation gracefully. For example, someone says, Oh you know Chicago is like
my dream vacation. So now you understood, what he or she is talking about, so
to continue you conversation. Probably you can start talking about the city.
Probably if you are grown up in that city, then you would say, Oh that city
where I grew up. So you know this would help you to carry on the conversation
carefully. So please make sure that you listen to the other person, when you
are having a small talk.
Avoid unpleasant topics
The fourth point that I have for you is to avoid unpleasant
topic. Now its very important as I said in the beginning that small talk are
casual conversation. It’s very important for you to avoid these unpleasant
topics or obscure subjects, Like a divorce or probably someone being raped or even
layoffs. These are very sensitive matters and at time these topics, you know
create an argument or a misunderstanding. So that definitely doesn’t create a
positive image about you, so make sure you avoid such sensitive or obscure
subjects and stick to very light topics. Like movies, vacations, books or
current affairs or just shopping. So that would help you to have light casual
conversations with people.
End the conversation gracefully
The last tip that I have for you is, To end the conversation
gracefully. Now many people think that to begin conversation you have to be the
best. But many people fail to understand that it is very important to even end
the conversation gracefully, so please do that, probably what you can do is,
you can highlight the mutual interest. So you have spoken to the person and you
realized that there are many points of interest that many really match. Even
you like to do something that the other person likes to do. So go ahead and highlight
these interests and make sure, you end the conversation gracefully. It should
not be an abrupt end, by just saying, Okay bye. That’s incorrect. You would say
that its very nice meeting you or we’ll definitely keep in touch. This is the
way you are creating a very positive impression about you. You know it looks as
if you value the person that you just met. So make sure that you end your
conversations gracefully.
This brings me to the end of this end of this session. Hope
these tips are really helpful to you and make sure, you note these tips and go
ahead use them to pump up your conversation. I’ll be back with a new lesson
soon.
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