The art of conversation
Oct. 24th, 2003 01:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dchenesI 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.
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.
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Date: 2003-10-24 11:55 am (UTC)(no subject)
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