These were;
- Don’t multitask while you talk. Give the job your full attention. If you don't want to be in a conversation, then don't be.
- Don’t pontificate - set aside your own ideas and as thoughts come into your head, get rid of them so that you can listen better.
- Ask open-ended questions – who, what, when, why, where, how?
- Go with the flow – don’t think up new questions instead of listening. Some people join conversations in order to talk, and don't really care what the other person is saying.
- If you don’t know, say you don’t know – talk should not be cheap
- Don’t equate your experience with theirs – it never is, so let your conversation partner tell their story they way they want to, without your intervention.
- Try not to repeat yourself – it’s patronising and boring.
- Don't get stuck in the detail. Keep stories short and to the point, nobody can listen for long to a rambling account, so don't give one.
- Listen to what the other person is saying
- Be interested in people. If you aren't really interested in what they have to say, you won't listen properly and you won't have a conversation.
Afterwards, we practiced for a while and then made appointments to talk with some of the adults who work at Bootham, one-to-one.
Here is what happened....
Andy
On one of the Thursday lesson 2 in February, we had been asked to talk with one
of our school member. Before the talk, I felt not thing. I didn’t care about
the talk because it is a thing that we usually do daily and daily. I’m mind was
free and ready for it.
JD was my partner and we had a conversation about thing that around us,
such as our family, what we had experienced, home place, food and world
problems, etc. Although it seems to be a normal talking like daily, in fact it
had given us a great chance to have some conversation with foreign people. Not
only improving our listening skill but also open up our eyesight to
the world what we will face to. What kind of problems did the old generation
had before and what they had changed. This talk was a fantastic experience for
us the oversea student.
Haruna
My precious conversation
I talked to
SP to improve my English skills in one of the skills lessons before
half term. We talked for about half an hour. Before the
conversation, I was very nervous, because I did not know her. This was
the first time I had met her. When we started chatting, I could talk to her
comfortably since she was a very kind and friendly person. We talked about
a lot of topics; our family, my dad’s job, chocolates, Japan, my high school in
Japan and my home town. The topic I remember most of all was
about the chocolates. Both of us like chocolates so we became lively. After the
conversation, I was very excited and I felt we had known each other from a long
time ago. I had so much fun I forgot about the time. I hope I have
some more opportunities to chat with her. I believe
having conversations like this is very useful for me to make my English better.
I will try to do that as often as I can.
Sean
CONVERSATION
REPORT
On the last Thursday before we left for half-term holiday,
each one of us doing skills had a conversation with a person we didn’t know or
met before. I didn’t know about the conversations happening that early, so I
was not prepared at all about what to talk about. Then we just started to talk
about random things.
I had a conversation with a lady called AS, she was a
very polite person, and she was also a really good listener, I was very glad
that I could talk to her.
We first talked about
my thoughts for Bootham School, and we ended up talk about everything happening
in life. We still had a great conversation although we didn’t have a clear
topic, I think we were just more about a chilling conversation, and I quite
like it.
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