4Getting a Conversation Going – the Basics

“It was one of those parties where you cough twice before you speak and then decide not to say it after all.”

– P.G. Wodehouse

4.1    Breaking the Silence

Often conversation just happens. You don't think about it and just discover yourself talking with someone, maybe responding to their questions and getting involved in some topic. In this chapter, I'm going to look at how you initiate a conversation, not one with an obvious aim and purpose, but a simple casual conversation with a stranger or someone you don't know well. For many people it's the hardest thing. How exactly do you initiate a casual conversation?

P.G. Woodhouse's famous character Bertie Wooster clearly struggled at times:

“What ho!” I ...

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