You Have No Choice

[teacake44]

So you need to get from A to B, and the best, and cheapest way is by coach, it will take two hours to reach B, and you have been allocated the inner seat of two, so that puts you in the middle of two strangers. Do you try to make friendly conversation with either of the two other passengers, or bury your head in a book, or newspaper you've taken along with you, or try to be sociable.

[woofgang]

Mega mis assumption here that behaviour in one place predicts global behaviour.

[Zacs-Master]

Indeed. Teacake’s theories are to science what emmental is to cheese.

[murraymints]

I would say hello and exchange pleasantries...but then I talk to everyone and anyone anywhere..just the other day was sat at the harbour having purchased a box of 8 ice lollies..cheaper to buy 8 in a box from Lidl than 1 from van...took 2 for me and oh and offered the remainder to folks sitting on next benches..ended up having a jolly time between us all chatting..one chap on his own had been looking a bit sad, turned out he lost his wife just a short time ago and this was his first trip out..he thanked me before he left and said that yhe lolly and conversation had done him the world of good and he knew he would be ok now..so..talking IS good !

[teacake44]

murraymints, that made me feel good just reading it brilliant idea, well done!! will keep that one in mind, as there's a mini water park near me for the kids, so with the school holidays starting there's lots of families that just can't afford the crazy prices these vans charge, and the Aldi is just down the road.

[KARL]

I simply cannot stand having a comment about the weather directed at me "out of the blue" so I always try to convert that into something else, preferably in a single sentence. This tends to produce the happy result of revealing who is any good at conversation, the others slink away or simply shut up. If people want a conversation I will give them it - my wife and I were once walking in a Calgary park to pass a bit of time and a man spoke to us. It turned into at least 20 minutes of surprisingly wide ranging sensible conversation without a single word connected with the weather. Another time I was on a tram in Milan and a man reading a paper beside me showed me a photo and remarked on it. I don't speak Italian beyond a few words and he didn't speak English. We had somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes of less than fluid conversation and I believe he enjoyed it as much as I - again the weather did not come into it.

I think I fully understand teacake's motivation for this thread which, to me at least, is no less worthy than lots of others on AB. I also understand why some of the reaction from some regulars on here is what it is. Also entirely clear is how Brits view conversation, they are by and large very poor at it.