Saturday, July 14, 2007

Breaking the Ice with Small Talk

Listen and then write your ideas on the topic.

9 comments:

  1. in our country, for example,ask someone's age is impropriate.

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  2. In our country, we break the ice asking about what is the other person's job, for example. Or, what he/she is doing.

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  3. I'm living in a multiracial country, they are Malay, Chinese and Indian. In general, to break the ice by asking somebody's age and religion is considered inappropriate as religion is quite a sensitive issue to raise up.

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  4. I am from China. In my opinion, Chinese people are easy to talk with when they feel the person they meet are friendly. They would like to share almost all the topics with foreign people, but some of them may not like to talk because of poor English or shy. Just like western people, Chinese people prefer natural topics at early stage of meeting, such as talking about weather or events they both have seen.

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  5. in my country, lebanon, middle east, u can start a conversation by talking about the weather, jobs or politics although there r different political parties but its the issue nowadays. asking about age or religion is not considered appropriate.

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  6. International marriages can be hard. One of the reasons of this could be different cultures, different points of view, costums, and even food. In my opinion people who are in this situation have to be very respectful, understanding with his or her companion.

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  7. I'm from Taiwan. In my country, we break the ice by asking whether he has had his meal, and then go for a big meal together. It's inappropriate to ask one's age.

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  8. I am Argentinian, in my country we break the ice asking about the weather. I consider inappropriate to ask how much I earn.

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  9. I guess we should always be careful on personal questions no matter where we are ( in our own country or in a foreign one). I have always thought that asking someone’s age or whether someone was single or not while making small talk was quite inappropriate. When engaged in a conversation, I think we’ll probably sense when it’s the most appropriate time to ask more personal questions.

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Thanks for posting a comment. I appreciate your interesting in sharing your ideas.

Best,

Randall

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