The art of conversation

I just had a conversation in French about the mechanics of written Chinese.

That got me thinking about the conversations I used to have in college sometimes, when the subject could be anything, and nobody was really trying to prove a point or defend what they thought the "right answer" to anything was. It was just an exchange of information, and I usually enjoyed it immensely and came out of it with the feeling that I had learned something. It's a shame that social conventions sometimes keep people from just sitting down and listening to each other. Everybody has something they like, or something they know a lot about, and you can learn things from people just by letting them talk. There were people I worked with who I'm sure could have taught me things, but I never really knew them outside of work, so I never got the chance to really talk to them. Get me going on a subject I know about and I can bore you to death with it, but on the way to being bored to death you might learn something about the subject and about the way I think.

Try it sometime. Sit down with somebody you know, or would like to get to know more about, and ask them something, and see where it goes.