Table of contents:
- 1. Use open-ended questions to start a conversation
- 2. Listen to what the other person is saying
- 3. Be careful when joking
- 4. Be open and honest
- 5. Know when to open and close a conversation
Have you ever felt like you ran out of material to talk about when you were with your partner? Or conversations with work friends just suddenly stop. Or do you always feel awkward when you have to talk to other people? If this is the case, there may be something wrong with the way you are talking or maybe you just don't know how to have a good conversation. The following tips can help you solve communication problems that often occur.
1. Use open-ended questions to start a conversation
Try to use open-ended questions when starting a conversation. Open questions are questions whose answers are not just "Yes" and "No". This is intended to open the initial conversation line to be able to open the next topic. For example, you can ask, "How was the trip here?".
Reporting from the TEDx website, Celeste Headlee stated that from that one sentence you will allow the other person to tell their experience and the possibility of finding further topics to talk about will be much greater than you just asking "Was the road stuck?"
2. Listen to what the other person is saying
Everyone can talk, but not everyone can listen. Not a few couples or husband and wife fight just because when one party is talking, the other party is not listening well. Remember, everyone needs to be heard.
If you are in the position of listening, imagine that you are speaking yourself. Of course you want to be heard, right? Don't think too much about what you want to respond to or answer later. Let the conversation flow. Meanwhile, your conversation will not flow properly if you do not concentrate on listening to the person who is talking.
3. Be careful when joking
Humor and jokes in an important conversation are inserted so that the conversation is not too stiff and serious. A joke can also be a tool to break the ice. However, be careful when making jokes. Don't use sensitive things as ingredients for your jokes.
Especially if the other person you are talking to is someone you just met. Instead of building a better conversation, you can actually "kill" the conversation.
4. Be open and honest
In a conversation, it is important to be open and honest, be yourself and what you are. Why so? Even if you are not aware of it, other people are usually able to detect lies in your words. This will certainly make other people lazy to talk to you.
Likewise if you are too closed off. Of course, other people feel awkward when they want to make small talk or ask you questions. Therefore, you need to open up and be honest so that whoever you talk to, you don't have to get clumsy.
5. Know when to open and close a conversation
As a good interlocutor, you should know when to start and stop the conversation from the signal given by your interlocutor. Usually, someone who is trying to end a conversation will seem restless and unfocused on you. Either looking at the clock repeatedly, looking around him, and a series of other things that show that he wants to end for some reason. If you have this, a sign you need to close the conversation immediately.
Building a conversation is tricky. However, don't make this a hindrance to having a nice chat with other people.
