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Since this guy is not happy with his conversations, he likely hasn't done much introspection. Strong interpersonal connections are most often founded best when two people have common interests. If you're not interested in several popular things or what another person has to say well then you're gonna have problems. I also stressed the importance of being well rounded and knowing a little about a lot of things.
Thanks for the honest advice.
People often discourage me from trying to improve my general knowledge base to become a better conversationalist. That is because for most people the way they interpret the world is different and they learn more from experience than trying to go back and analyse that experience. So they cannot understand why I would want to build a factual basis for communication that they have already developed naturally.
You say it took you several years to learn convo. Well, I am in a similar predicament. It is just so frustrating and emotionally upsetting that I have not been able to get the basics of something so integral to human interaction. Something that most people were able to learn in secondary school but for some odd reason I just didn't 'get it'.
It's weird how listening to people talk they will rocket from topics about food and lifestyle to celebrities, favourite movies and books and then insist that you don't need this fundamental cultural background to communicate. You just need to get out of your own head and stop analysing.
I trust them because so many people are saying the same thing to me. Really and truly I have no better option. I just wish there was some way they could explain this to me so I could understand what it is they're trying to say EXACTLY.
It doesn't help that when I'm in sets, 'no' tends to be a favourite word of most girls:
ME: Tell me something interesting about yourself
THEM: Uh, there's nothing really I'm quite dull.
ME: Any passions?
THEM: Uh, not that I can think of. I can tell you what I do for a living.
ME:So what you up to today?
THEM: Just shopping.
ME: Do anything interesting earlier?
THEM: Meh.
I guess it is a reluctancy to speak to strangers, so I can't really blame them for that. Just wish I was better at getting people to open up.