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Post by Lotus Eater on Mar 17, 2006 23:22:52 GMT 7
I have already begun with my hairdressers - but NOT the pink ones!!  |
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Post by acjade on Mar 25, 2006 5:34:25 GMT 7
What the hell are you going to say to a Martian?? I knew those bloody mushies I dropped back in the eighties would come back at me! |
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Post by Rylee on Apr 14, 2006 10:57:37 GMT 7
I teach a class on small talk to my students and it focuses on getting them to diversify their topics. I start off by asking, "What did you do last weekend?" Then I say, "Wait! Stop!" and grab a piece of paper... I write some things on the paper and then ask again as I give the paper to an astonished student. The students answer, 1) "Sleeping", 2) "Working OT", 3) "Watching TV", 4) "Shopping", 5) "Ping pong / badminton (never mind the wrong grammar). And as they do it, the astonished student marks them off the list in exactly that order.
Gets 'em every time and really demonstrates the point.
Topics I recommend:
- Hobbies (sleeping and watching TV don't count; only things you do to improve yourself)
- Entertainment
- Some Current Events (China goes to space, Australia sinks into the ocean, stuff like that)
- Funny Stories (I used the American going to Taiyuan as an example)
I tell them that those are the safest. And if anyone walks up to me again and asks, "How's the weather?" I'm smacking them. I was once standing at a bus stop huddled under my umbrella and a Chinese guy sidles up to me, looks at me for about 45 seconds while mustering up the courage, and then asks, "How's the weather?" Same thing happened to me on the metro where I grabbed my dictionary and constructed a rudimentary sentence stating, "It's raining annoying men."
I teach them the meaning of the word "cliche" in this instance.
Finally, I point out that as a foreigner, I meet a huge number of new people every day and every single person asks the exact same questions and gives the exact same answer... hence my difficulty remembering names. If you really want to be remembered, you've gotta have something to talk about that stands out from the crowd.
This lead one student to ask me if I'd seen an art exhibit (I had and we discussed it), another asked if I had any pets (I have 3 dogs and a cat and we discussed it), and another asked if I wanted to go clubbing (alas, I'm tying the knot this summer and had to politely decline).
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Non-Dave
Barfly
Try Not! Do - or Do Not... There Is No Try!
Posts: 701
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Post by Non-Dave on Apr 15, 2006 11:27:24 GMT 7
Good stuff Rylee. My classes are the same.
I've been doing a class on meeting people and trying to convince them that if they think a little bit they can come up with some interesting (and still easy) questions to use in a conversation. It's like hitting myself in the head with a hammer, but no quite as much fun.
I tried getting the message accross that they can depart from the script in the book when meeting someone and perhaps even use their surroundings to give a few clues. (If you are in a net bar? If you are on a train?) The only location that seemend to inerest them was the W.C.
This is Grade 1 & 2 High School. Most of them still have a hard time saying their name without numerous "neige, neige, neige's" or giggling fits. About 2000 students in the last 2 weeks - 4 did a good job, 1 cried and the rest....
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woza17
SuperDuperBarfly! 
Posts: 2,203
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Post by woza17 on Apr 15, 2006 12:47:17 GMT 7
This morning in class only 6 girls showed up, company class, the weather is a bit cold so they slept in.
I did my lesson plan and then I told them a funny story about Chinese working girls. This went on for an hour I have a lot of information that they are not privy to.
Everyone is interested in this topic. How much and so on. I about the price of ducks, they charge twice as much as the chickens. How do you know that, they asked. I am doing research. I sometimes make up things in class just to get them going. They gave me their opinions and I played the devil's advocate.
Actually it was nice just having an all women class because I can talk about topics that they not may feel comfortable talking about if men were there.
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Post by cheekygal on Apr 15, 2006 14:55:50 GMT 7
Well... if we are talking about regular conversations with regular people outoftheclassroom... then most of the time I don't like talking about anything. #1 Lack of language skills from both sides #2 Even if it is not a problem - it is a constant awareness of saying something way too much = stress and unwillingness of having a good serious conversation.
But if I do happen to talk about something serious with the Chinese people I meet, it is usually cross-cultural differences, child's upbringing, moral education, travels... I have things to share and some people I meet and are capable of communicating freely with have something to share with me.
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Post by uberzilla on Apr 16, 2006 7:32:33 GMT 7
With the homeys, that is. The radiantly beautiful and endlessly wonderful Yenny put a question to me, I think on behalf of a friend, that seemed like a natural for this place. |
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Post by uberzilla on Apr 18, 2006 4:40:10 GMT 7
Somebody help...I've killed this thread!!!!
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Some of it stems from language hesitancy, but some of it comes from just not knowing good areas for conversation.
they definetly don't want to see me do that 
). I should think that, that sort of diplomatic attitude, would work both ways. After that, if individuals continue to interact, I would think it gets past the cultural and language thing. IMHO 
Of course this is in USA, so really this might not mean squat!