{"id":66810,"date":"2022-05-19T09:39:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-19T13:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=66810"},"modified":"2022-05-25T13:20:36","modified_gmt":"2022-05-25T17:20:36","slug":"how-to-strike-up-a-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-strike-up-a-conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Strike Up a Conversation &#038; Keep It Going"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Do you find it difficult to talk to strangers? How do you move the conversation beyond superficial details and get more personal?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When people first meet each other, the conversation typically revolves around their background and what they do for a living. After that, the conversation often stalls or dies out. To keep the conversation going, prepare stimulating responses to common questions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s how to strike up a conversation with a stranger, according to communications expert Leil Lowndes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-how-to-talk-to-strangers\">How to Talk to Strangers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>When people first meet each other, they usually ask two questions: \u201cWhere are you from?\u201d and \u201cWhat do you do?\u201d Normally, they each respond with fact-based answers\u2014for example, \u201cI\u2019m from New York and I\u2019m an engineer.\u201d But this sort of answer shuts down a conversation\u2014if your conversation partner\u2019s never been to New York or knows nothing about engineering, they won\u2019t know how to continue the conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In her book <em>How to Talk to Anyone<\/em>, Leil Lowndes explains how to strike up a conversation with a stranger and keep it going. To that end, Lowndes suggests extending your responses to these two questions in a way that stimulates a response\u2014by using interesting facts, jokes, or general observations. This requires coming up with different variations depending on who you\u2019re talking to and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/social-context\/\">social context<\/a> you\u2019re in. If you\u2019re seeking to make friends, keep your responses fun and general. For example, \u201cI\u2019m from X\u2014where they make the best goat\u2019s cheese in the world.\u201d If you\u2019re talking to them for networking purposes, consider what interest this person could have in you or your work and include that in your response. For example, \u201cI\u2019m an engineer and have been working on X for the past two years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: If you\u2019re struggling to come up with stimulating ways to respond to these two questions, reframe your answer to <a href=\"https:\/\/theeverygirl.com\/7-ways-to-respond-to-the-worst-small-talk-questions\/\">divert the conversation to topics you\u2019d prefer to talk about<\/a>. For example, respond to \u201cWhere are you from?\u201d by saying, \u201cI\u2019m from X but I moved to Y because Z.\u201d Respond to \u201cWhat do you do?\u201d with \u201cI work in X but lately I\u2019ve been spending my time doing Y because Z. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-do-you-spend-your-time\/\">How do you spend your time<\/a> off?\u201d This diversion tactic lets you avoid unwanted questions and it helps you to move the conversation to topics you\u2019ll find more comfortable and engaging.)&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do you find it difficult to talk to strangers? How do you move the conversation beyond superficial details and get more personal? When people first meet each other, the conversation typically revolves around their background and what they do for a living. After that, the conversation often stalls or dies out. To keep the conversation going, prepare stimulating responses to common questions. Here&#8217;s how to strike up a conversation with a stranger, according to communications expert Leil Lowndes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":52819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[620],"class_list":["post-66810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-communication","tag-how-to-talk-to-anyone","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How to Strike Up a Conversation &amp; Keep It Going - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Striking up a conversation with a stranger isn&#039;t that difficult. The real challenge is to keep it going. Here&#039;s how to talk to strangers.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-strike-up-a-conversation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Strike Up a Conversation &amp; Keep It Going\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Striking up a conversation with a stranger isn&#039;t that difficult. The real challenge is to keep it going. Here&#039;s how to talk to strangers.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-strike-up-a-conversation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-05-19T13:39:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-05-25T17:20:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/conversation.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"940\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"601\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-strike-up-a-conversation\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-strike-up-a-conversation\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\"},\"headline\":\"How to Strike Up a Conversation &#038; Keep It Going\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-05-19T13:39:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-05-25T17:20:36+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-strike-up-a-conversation\/\"},\"wordCount\":421,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-strike-up-a-conversation\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/conversation.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"How to Talk to Anyone\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Communication\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-strike-up-a-conversation\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-strike-up-a-conversation\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-strike-up-a-conversation\/\",\"name\":\"How to Strike Up a Conversation & Keep It Going - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-strike-up-a-conversation\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-strike-up-a-conversation\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/conversation.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-05-19T13:39:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-05-25T17:20:36+00:00\",\"description\":\"Striking up a conversation with a stranger isn't that difficult. 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