People often ask personal questions when they are trying to be friendly. I just don’t want to have to tell people where I grew up or what I do for a living or where I live or if I have siblings or children etc. just to make conversation and be friendly. Many people ask these types of questions believing that people want to talk about themselves. I don’t want to have to give out a BIO just to be friendly. I’d rather get acquainted by talking about things that are common ground - current events, ideas, and observations on the things around us - whatever. I like to talk and I make friends easily, but I just don’t know how to answer when I want to be friendly without answering a lot of questions that I consider personal. How can I preserve the friendly flow of conversation without giving out information when people ask questions? What are specific answers I could give without lying or telling my information or seeming rude, when people ask where I live, where I am from, where I work, if I have children or family in the area, etc. etc. etc? I do not want to seem as though I am hiding something because I am not, I just don’t like having to tell so much about myself just to be nice.
2006-08-19
08:47:53
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9 answers
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Family & Relationships
➔ Other - Family & Relationships
Don’t want to lie because maybe we will get to be friends and then it would be weird to have started out lying. Don’t want to tell them “none of your business” because they are such socially acceptable common questions. I’d like to get to know people through opinions and personality before I start answering specific questions about the details of where I live and work and who is in my family. If we become friends, then I will reveal these things in the natural course of events. When first getting to know someone, I’d like to just talk about ideas and opinions and need a graceful way to avoid the requests for specific information that I feel they do not yet need to know. Imagine: I’m new in town and living alone and I work at XYZ place that closes at 5:00. My folks have passed away and I was an only child and yes, that’s my car... When first getting to know people, I’d like to reserve as much privacy as possible without having to lie. How can I do this elegantly?
2006-08-19
11:59:30 ·
update #1