WORKSHEET NUMBER FIVE
GETTING USED TO TALKING WITH STRANGERS
A crucial aspect of speaking a language confidently involves overcoming shyness. The best way to do this is to expose yourself to new people as often as possible.
No matter where you are (your home town or in a foreign country) start speaking to strangers now. If you are at a social event, don't think about it, just go up to interesting people and say the first thing that comes to your mind (Ask if they know the party organiser, say cheerily how great this event is, ask if they heard about the latest funny news item etc.) - something easy-going that gets their attention.
Talking about yourself from the start is not a good way to do this; you can properly introduce yourself after breaking the ice believe it or not. Unless you are in a formal situation, you can be way more flexible with ideas about how you talk to people.
You are to try to talk to at least 3 strangers per day, starting now. Write down an account of how it went - analyse it afterwards, but not before. Do this for the next week. You should have 21 mini-stories at the end. Go for it!!
Don't think about it too much when the opportunity presents itself - just walk up to the person and say the first thing that comes to mind. Going with the flow is essential. You can talk to strangers in your own language if you haven't travelled yet, but if you know where natives of your target language are, you can try this with them.
Practising this skill will be essential in helping you have the confidence necessary to converse more fluently with many people.