Etiquette Analysis: On Conversation III

Introductory conversations are arguably the hardest conversations to have but also the easiest. You know nothing about the person and therefore, can ask a variety of questions to spark conversation, as Emily Post advises:

“In talking to a stranger who has just been introduced to you and about whom you are in complete ignorance, there is really nothing to do but try one topic after another just as a fisherman searched for the right fly. You ‘try for nibbles” by asking a few questions… Do not snatch at a period of silence. Let it go for a little while. Conversation is not a race that must be continued at breakneck space.” Emily Post (1945). Etiquette, 42.

Sound advice! Especially with regard to letting silence exist. Sometimes a barrage of questions is more awkward than silence.