How to Keep the Conversation Going (With Examples)
When engaging in social interactions, you may want to develop strategies to keep the conversation going. This requires reflection and practise to ensure your conversations flow easily. By knowing how to continue conversations, you can improve your professional relationships and feel more at ease socializing with a variety of people in any situation. In this article, we discuss how to continue a conversation and provide several questions to help you continue conversations.
1. Ask open-ended questions
Open-ended questions refer to questions that require the other speaker to explain their answer. Speakers can answer closed-ended questions with yes or no, while open-ended questions require longer answers. Here are some examples of closed-ended questions:
2. Ask follow-up questions
When having a conversation with another person, you may find it beneficial to ask follow-up questions because this shows the other individual that you care about their experiences and opinion. When your conversation begins to slow or when you don’t know what to say, you may want to ask follow-up questions. Here are some examples of follow-up questions to keep the conversation going:
3. Determine when to share and ask questions
When communicating with others, you may want to consider your balance between sharing and asking. A strong method to use is the IFR method, which is an initialism for inquire, follow-up, and relate. Inquiring requires you to ask a sincere question, while follow-up requires you to ask another question, and relating requires you to share information about yourself or your experience. Here are some IFR examples:
4. Consider limiting questions
When having a conversation, you may find it beneficial to limit the number of questions you ask. By asking too many questions, the person you converse with may feel interviewed and may limit their answers or explanations. Consider providing personal details and personal information between questions to contribute to the conversation. By providing personal details or information, you also enable the other person to ask you follow-up questions. This can change the direction of your conversation.
5. Show interest
If you want to keep your conversation going, you may want to show the other person who you’re interested in the conversation. You can do this by using both verbal and nonverbal cues. For example, a strong cue or form of body language requires you to nod your head while the other person speaks. This shows them you pay attention to what they say and that you still follow the conversation.
6. Discover common interests
You may find it beneficial to determine common interests with other people to provide you with strong talking points. When you have common interests with another person, you have more opportunities to continue the conversation. For example, if you both enjoy reading books, you can provide the other person with book recommendations and talk about various components of books you’ve both read.
7. Maintain eye contact
Maintaining eye contact helps you continue conversations because the person you speak to can tell you’re paying attention to them when they speak. When individuals feel uncomfortable, they may habitually turn away or avoid eye contact. By maintaining eye contact, you can show the speaker that you’re interested and that you care about what they’re saying. It can also make you appear more confident.
8. Establish comfort with silence
When trying to keep a conversation going, you can develop comfort with silence and consider when it’s appropriate to speak and when to take a break. This ensures you consistently continue the conversation when you’re relaxed and prevents forced conversations. By becoming comfortable with silence, you also ensure the other speaker feels more comfortable, which can promote easy conversations.
9. Discuss previous conversations
When trying to keep your conversation going, you may want to discuss a previous conversation to get clarity and show the speaker that you pay attention when they speak. When doing this, consider whether the speaker mentioned topics you thought were especially interesting. Here are some examples of phrases to use when discussing previous conversations:
10. Share a story
If you don’t know what to say to continue a conversation, you may want to consider telling a story. This helps you develop a relationship with the other speaker. Before engaging in conversations or social events, you may find it beneficial to think about some stories you can tell if you need to continue a conversation. Think about stories that relate to particular subjects you want to discuss, and ensure they’re appropriate for your audience.
11. Be informed
To keep conversations going, consider spending time every day doing research on subjects that interest you. This ensures you have the knowledge required to elaborate on subjects as they arise. You can read about amusing stories that you recently read. When you’re well-informed, you can have more light-hearted, interesting conversations.
How to Text Asking for a Date
Once you’ve established a rapport and you want to take your conversation to the next level, you should arrange to meet up in-person for your first date (or date early in your relationship). The most acceptable way is to text for a coffee date. Set a date and time and then show up prepared to have an in-person conversation.
Whether you’re texting with a romantic partner or a potential one, you should have a good idea about how you wish your conversation to go. Prepare a few topics ahead of time to help you keep the conversation on track. Don’t type out your questions as though rehearsed. Allow the conversation to have a natural flow. Choose topics that are relative to the person, your region, company they work for, career, and other personal interests.
How To Keep a Conversation Going with a Girl at a Party
It’s a subtle change, but you’ll find that by interviewing her to objectively learn about her, you consciously shift all that pressure/focus away from your own impression and onto finding out more about her. In a way, it frees you.
1. Understand That She’s Not Perfect…
Even if you’ve known her for a while, you may still assume that she’s exactly what you want. but there could easily be something about her that you don’t know, but would want to before you ask her out.
2. Look for Her Real, True Personality.
Don’t blindly assume she’s perfect, but do try to uncover the real her (almost like a reporter). Remind yourself that there’s no need to feel nervous… you’re not trying to impress this girl, you’re figuring out if the real her is worth your time.
3. Remember to Be Yourself.
. Because if you act completely different than your real self and she likes it, she’ll be insanely disappointed when she discovers the real you… and if she doesn’t like it, maybe she would have actually liked the real you!
More Ways To Get The Girl
When you’re really looking to get a girl, you know there’s more to it than just how to keep a conversation going with a girl. To get the whole process, read these articles as well:
Knowing how to keep a conversation going with a girl is perhaps not quite as easy as just shouting “will you be my girlfriend,” but it is fairly simple if you know a few simple steps to do it.
The road to how to get a girlfriend runs straight through learning how to talk to girls, so this is about as important a set of steps to learn as possible. Besides, following these steps makes the whole process so much more fun. You’ll be able to stop stressing about how to keep a conversation going with a girl and just enjoy it for a change.
Source:
https://ca.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/keep-the-conversation-going
https://dating.lovetoknow.com/dating-conversation-topics/17-ways-keep-text-conversation-going
https://www.mantelligence.com/how-to-keep-a-conversation-going-with-a-girl/