Questions tagged [conversations]
Questions about having conversations with other people, and how to achieve certain things when having them. This can be covering (or avoiding) certain topics, starting them, keeping them going or bringing them to a close.
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What is a good framework for breakup conversation with my girlfriend after a life changing injury?
This question is a follow up to my other question here
My girlfriend whom I have been dating for 8 months is quadriplegic due to a complete SCI due to sporting accident. She needs near constant, daily ...
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What am I doing wrong if people repeat their original offers and requests despite me declining them?
Problem
I've noticed a common pattern in my interactions. A person—whether a coworker, relative, or acquaintance—makes an offer or request. I politely and respectfully decline, explaining why it's ...
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When is confirmation or acknowledgement desirable in a mail dialogue?
In a mail dialogue, when is confirmation or acknowledgement desirable? Or to put it differently, when does the conversation end and both parties are clear on what is agreed to?
For example (shortened):...
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Strategies for talking less on dates or job interviews
I have a problem where I talk too much on dates and job interviews. This can lead to revealing too much information, not asking enough questions (especially on dates), and veering into overly intense ...
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How to politely tell my girlfriend to move out? (we hadn't actually agreed to live together)
I know the title sounds worse than it is, she's not that creepy to just move in with me out of the blue.
But the thing is, I live very close to where she works, so when the occasion came for me to go ...
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How to carry a conversation with a stranger?
I'm in my early 30s in the US and have been suffering loneliness for a long time and try to attend more social events, but I found myself having difficulty carrying conversations with strangers ...
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How to handle someone who repeatedly returns to previously-discussed points in conversations?
I was recently asked (by a family member) about an personal event I was planning. During the conversation, the person I was talking to kept pressing me for details on every conceivable aspect of the ...
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How to defend opinion against victim card (Ad Hominem)
Edit: I found the term, it is Ad Hominem
This frequently happens that when I present the opinion that considers morality as an emergent and highly subjective experience and that at the core of rule of ...
user36233
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How do I deal with an office colleague whom I cannot avoid and he just won't stop talking about his favorite topic?
I like a little social interaction with my colleagues. I've spoken 1-1 for quite a while in order to get to know my colleagues at my new desk job.
There is a particular colleague who is obsessed with ...
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How to handle a person joining a conversation by asking a question you just answered?
I ran into this issue multiple times and I don't know how to act. For context: communicating in groups does not come naturally to me, so I often rely on skills I learned over time and not everyone may ...
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How to interpret and respond to people who belittle themselves?
Background: I am totally blind. I am using a screen reading software to use the computer. I am a programmer.
Whenever I meet new people (especially in the IT industry), the following happens in many ...
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How can I confront someone about things said behind my back without betraying a confidence?
I am a volunteer in an organisation, and running a very successful part of it with a great team under me.
Another part of the organisation is really struggling and the person who is my equivalent in ...
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How to tell someone a friendship has run its course?
This person (male) and I (male) went to high school together over 10 years ago, during that time we spent a lot of time together, the typical bro-relationship.
Since then a lot has changed, I went to ...
user35765
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How to handle seemingly friendly questions from stranger in social situation that ask you where you work etc?
Background : you are at a bar or some similar social place, where people gather and meet, and someone has struck up a friendly conversation with you, talking about the game playing on TV, etc, and ...
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How to contact a girl classmate, being a boy, whose number I got from her school friend? [closed]
I am a 15-year-old schoolboy. This year a new girl took admission in my class.
More than often, in the beginning, I saw her staring at me. Sometimes even I gave a look to her. This happened for many ...
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How can I raise my opinion to a biased person without looking too offensive?
Personally, I am a 25 year old male who has just graduated with a Computer Science degree and currently a Software Engineer by profession.
Recently, my dad was very interested in numerology after ...
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What is a good way to ask a tech retail worker tips on how to apply for a job where he works at and how the job is like with salesmanship tips?
I moved with my family to enter university in Eastern Turkey from the west coast and I decided to try working in a place since I couldn't join the classes due to certain reasons. I first worked at a ...
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Decline giving personal information to salespeople [closed]
My country is full of pushy salespeople who are asking for a phone number, name or email in scenarios where they are not warranted.
Scenario 1: Cashier at a pizza shop asks for my phone number before ...
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How do I respond when my partner shares a topic I can't relate to?
I (19 M) met my girlfriend (18 F) about two weeks ago, we quickly declared a relationship and it's the first time for both of us to have a romantic relationship.
She is into hobbies which I am not ...
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A friend always talks in dry-professional language even though being very close to me for years
It is strange that one of my close friends, who I know for years and have spent a lot of time in recreational activities, talks to me in very dry-professional language. It is a very minor thing, but ...
user9533
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In group discussions, how should I deal with a person who frequently participates in the discussion with incoherent comments?
Context: I'm a student who is in a philosophical discussion group which meets weekly and discusses readings and thoughts about a particular topic. It's hosted by an organization so I don't have ...
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How to start the interaction in one online meeting in a friendly manner?
I have always had some issues to start interactions. Things usually go smoother when the other person starts talking. But there are times I need to start the interaction and I often end up doing it in ...
user32212
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How to make amends with someone that I had a fallout with, after talking about a sensitive topic?
I have an acquaintance, John, that I have known for a number of years. John and myself are both a part of a social media group made up of a number of friends and mutual friends. Recently I had a ...
user11723
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How to quickly tell if someone is an asker or guesser?
I realised that most of my interpersonal conflicts arise when I (an asker) ask a guesser questions that they find uncomfortable answering. To overcome this, I am thinking that when I meet a new person,...
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How to better explain to my wife that I feel she commited a small betrayal of our trust, when she feels it was irrelevant?
Background:
I try to avoid shopping while hungry as I make bad decisions but I wasn't expecting we'd be dropping by the store when my wife and I were out on a walk. She asked if I intended to share ...
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How to deal with an egoistic friend who only talks politics and religion?
I'm 27 M (living in India). I have this friend (say John). We were school classmates for 9 years. We shared a good relationship during school days but our mentality and perspectives to look at the ...
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What type of support should I offer my partner who clearly hates his job?
Background
I'm a 22-year-old and have a long-time partner, who I have been with since we met at university. We both live in the Midwest in the United States, and have been planning to move into an ...
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How to ask parents to stop screaming at other sibling?
There is a large age-gap between my younger sibling and I (it's just the two of us). I am a college student (at home due to the pandemic), while she is in middle school. More often than not, I find ...
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How to help a close friend seek help with possible early onset dementia
I have a close friend who is genetically predisposed to early-onset dementia. My friend is relatively young (mid-30s), but has been having concerning unexplained behavioral shifts, such as:
...
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How to avoid being a wallflower in a group conversation
Is there anything I can do to avoid being the only person who doesn’t say anything in a social group setting?
The obvious answer is to talk, but I find it difficult to (i) find the right time to ...
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How to let people know I am fine?
When I'm sitting by myself, people sometimes come to talk to me or ask me if I'm okay. I suspect this is because when I'm not controlling my expressions, it looks like I'm scowling or frowning, and ...
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How to make eye contact while talking with more than one person?
My question looks similar to this question but in my case, I am the one doing the talking and not the listening. So, in an office environment or while talking to friends, when I am talking and two or ...
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How do I approach feeling unappreciated for taking care of my girlfriend's niece for two months?
Spurred by the quarantine, girlfriend[27] and I[29] hastily moved in after two months of dating back in June. Around our three-month mark, her 12-year-old niece was subjected to serious trauma from ...
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How to tell a doctor or nurse to speak to me in technical details without being rude
I have regular appointments with nurses and doctors due to a long term but not serious health condition. It's often a new doctor or nurse I see each time so I have to try to judge how best to ...
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How to talk about my life without showing off?
As the title says, how to talk about myself without showing off?
when I was 21 years old and I was still studying, I was hired by an IT corporation and I had a good income. Now I'm 24 and my income is ...
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How to ask an otherwise helpful person who often reacts rudely to my questions to stop?
A while ago I joined a Discord server for a team (2 vs 2) chess game called bughouse, owned by a guy who I'll call Jake for the sake of anonymity. As I got more interested in the game, he and others ...
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How to get a young Egyptian woman to talk about herself
About half a year ago a young Egyptian woman contacted me via Facebook, because she was looking for a native German speaker who also has some decent English skills. Of course at first I suspected some ...
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How to be there for my friends during the pandemic?
2020 was a bad year for (face to face) human interaction, and 2021 is going down the same route (at least in my country, and in many others for sure).
For almost a year now, I have barely seen my ...
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How can I prevent my girlfriend from promising things out of obligation?
I've been in a loving relationship for over a year, but especially with coronavirus, my girlfriend is somewhat convinced that she is not meeting my needs since I feel lonely quite a bit. (It's not ...
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How to defuse meaningless arguments?
This is about my mothers husband (let's call him Bob for now). I visit them from time to time, and they are mostly pleasant to be around.
However, Bob has the tendency to blurt out completely false ...
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How to have honest talk about current job with ex-colleagues?
When I switch jobs I have colleagues that we get along and keep in touch.
When we meet I'm find myself in a situation where I have to explain about my current employer and the job I do and to give ...
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How to effectively counteract a rhetorical technique where a position around a complex issue is summarized in one word?
I've recently listened to an interesting Dutch podcast. The podcast talked about framing, and specifically about how people sometimes frame things by using a tactic that uses single words or images to ...
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How to express to a friend that someone outed their HIV status to me and that they should be aware who they share it with? [duplicate]
One of my gay friends told me that another friend of ours is HIV+ and that I should therefore avoid him. I told him is HIV status doesn't matter to me and that he should never have to tell me. And ...
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How to express that you are here to listen without missleading them about your feelings?
In a social network group (Twitter), there is a boy who shows signs of loneliness and needs for a partner but with immaturity. This group is made of know unknown people and I know him less. And his ...
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How to respond to a baseless accusation/claim without owning the burden of proof?
An honest response to an accusation should be constructive. One way to achieve that is to express empathy, question,break down broad terms(if any) into specific instances and address each of them.
But ...
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How to debate with someone who uses other people's arguments as their own?
I sometimes end in face-to-face conversations/debates with my (adult) brother over a variety of topics that he usually brings up himself. They're often the kind of topics I don't pay much attention to ...
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How could I have communicated better to my wife that I don't like my toddler's shoes?
I have three toddlers whose shoes I have to put on and take off several times a day. Two of them have shoes that I can put on and take off very easily. The third has shoes I struggle with every day, ...
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How to encourage conversations beyond small talk with close friends
I had 2 friends in high school, and we were quite close. Then college life started, and we went to different colleges. One of them went to a college out of state. And so there was no physical contact ...
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How can I better handle 'bad-news' talks about family members I don't care about?
There are a few people in my life that I can't avoid because they're family, but that I do not care about at all. Yet, from time to time a parent or grandparent will start sharing things about these ...
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Dealing with Extremely Chatty Housemates
I am a graduate student at the moment and sharing a house with undergraduate students. What I've noticed is that a lot of undergraduate students who are studying let's say relatively soft subjects ...
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