"Would you eat lunch with a stranger?"
This was the question my friend Tony asked on his message board
earlier today.
Said he was at a Papa Ginos recently and some dude didn't know how the whole "we'll call your number when it's ready" thing worked.
So Tony, being the nice guy he is helped the dude out. "That's your food."
I guess the dude was from ... El Salvador? Something. Foreign. So he asked if Tony would mind eating lunch with him. Sitting across from him and eating and talking. Doesn't sound abnormal or anything. Sounds fine.
However, if I was in that situation, and he asked me that same question "Would you mind if I ate lunch with you?" I'm sure my head would immediately start burning and my tongue would morph into a second scrotum, rendering itself useless when it came time for me to answer.
It sounds terrible, and as some people on the board see it very "American" of me.
I dunno, man. I'm just really not good with small talk. It bothers me that shooting the shit with a perfectly nice stranger usually feels as Herculean a task as driving a nail with my forehead.
I've said it before, I'll say it again, I'm a social retard... and I'm not proud of it.
earlier today.
Said he was at a Papa Ginos recently and some dude didn't know how the whole "we'll call your number when it's ready" thing worked.
So Tony, being the nice guy he is helped the dude out. "That's your food."
I guess the dude was from ... El Salvador? Something. Foreign. So he asked if Tony would mind eating lunch with him. Sitting across from him and eating and talking. Doesn't sound abnormal or anything. Sounds fine.
However, if I was in that situation, and he asked me that same question "Would you mind if I ate lunch with you?" I'm sure my head would immediately start burning and my tongue would morph into a second scrotum, rendering itself useless when it came time for me to answer.
It sounds terrible, and as some people on the board see it very "American" of me.
I dunno, man. I'm just really not good with small talk. It bothers me that shooting the shit with a perfectly nice stranger usually feels as Herculean a task as driving a nail with my forehead.
I've said it before, I'll say it again, I'm a social retard... and I'm not proud of it.
posted by Hooker at 5:20 PM
6 Comments:
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You're not the only one! Small talk is tough for all but the most socially talented. I'm a dunce at it.
FYI - Tony's not normal.
<3Sask.
Maybe not normal, but definitely nice. Like saint-nice.
i've never been so hot at small talk either, until i lived in a country where my communication skills were equivalent to those of a table knife. as i eventually learned more spanish, i revelled in small-talk: entirely one sided conversations where i spouted out short sentences lacking verb-subject agreement, but was incapable of deciphering any response i was given. now that i'm back where i can understand the language of the masses, small talk isnt quite so intimidating. i still suck at it, but at least i can understand when the people i'm talking to are making fun of me. on second thought, i think i preferred it when i didnt understand...
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