📘 Part 3: Social Interactions and making friends

This episode's vocabulary

Convivial (adj.) - friendly and making you feel happy and welcome.

Interest group (noun) - a group or organization with particular aims and ideas that tries to influence the government.

Theme (noun) - the main subject of a talk, book, film, etc.

Vulnerable (adj.) - able to be easily physically or mentally hurt, influenced, or attacked.

Unsavoury (adj.) - unpleasant, or morally offensive.

The pros and cons (phrase) - the advantages and disadvantages of something, especially something that you are considering doing.

Observation (noun) - a remark about something that you have noticed.

Icebreaker (noun) - something that someone says or does in order to make it easier for people who have never met before to talk to each other.

Extrovert (noun) - an energetic person who enjoys being with other people.

To crack a joke (idiom) - to tell a joke.

Wry (adj.) - showing that you find a bad or difficult situation slightly funny.

Barrier (noun) - anything that prevents people from being together or understanding each other.

Questions and Answers

M: In what situations would people be willing to get to know new people?

R: Well, I suppose, comfortable ones, broadly speaking. No one is in the mood to make friends if they're under pressure, are they? And they need to have things in common and a sort of convivial atmosphere to help things along.

M: How do people usually make friends?

R: I think that really comes down to their age, doesn't it? Kids will do that at school mostly, and adults will get to know people through work or shared interest groups. Aside from that, I'm not really sure.

M: And where do people go to meet new people?

R: Anywhere that lots of people gather who don't know each other, like a bar or a club. That could be a dance club or a club with a particular theme or activity, like outdoor sports.

M: What are the benefits and drawbacks of meeting people on social media?

R: Well, I suppose the benefits are that the range of your social network could expand beyond just your local community. You can talk to people who are further away. As for the drawbacks, I suppose that might leave you more vulnerable to interacting with people who are maybe a bit unsavoury or have very different expectations about your conversations because they grew up in a different culture. So there are pros and cons.

M: How do people usually start a conversation?

R: Well, lots of ways, really. It could be an observation about the weather or some common ice-breaking topic. More extroverted people might crack a joke or make some wry observation about the shared situation or context.

M: Why are some people unwilling to have conversations with others?

R: Oh, Lord. I mean, well, they could be stressed or angry or just not like talking to a particular person if they are nice, or if there's nothing they can get out of it.

M: Is it difficult for adults to talk with children?

R: Some of them, I imagine, especially if they're trying to talk about awkward or abstract topics or concepts or have no experience dealing with young people.

M: And is it easier to make friends for adults or children?

R: I don't know. I guess it depends on the strength of the relationship, to be honest. It's easier for adults to make friends with people who they have just met, for example. It's like a short-term relationship. Maybe in a workplace with a short-term contract. But for children, if they meet the same people every day, then it's kind of easy for them to just fall into that routine. So I think it will depend more on the context than the age, really.

M: Do you think that technology has made it easier or harder to meet new people food?

R: Well, if we think about it, it could be both. It's made it easier to meet people in an online space, but to physically meet them, it's maybe increased barriers because people go for this option sooner than... or they go for it more easily than the one that involves them tmakingan investment. So it could be both, and it could depend very much on your perspective of what meeting people should involve.

M: Thank you, Rory, for your answers!