Small-talking with new colleagues!

[AnonymBruker]

Hello!

I hope this is the right place to ask this question!

Now, I am a spanish, hopefully soon an employee in a sales company here in Oslo. As you see, my second language is English, but I can also speak Norwegian in a way that people can understand, hehe. But in writing, uuhm not so much :-) yet.

Anyways, I'm wondering if any one could come up with some good small-chatting tips with my potential new colleagues? What can I talk with them about when we're at the office, VS when we´re sitting down having lunch?

I see that the culture is not formal (which is good), and I just want to be myself, but I feel maybe right now that I don´t have any subjects ready to talk about.

Thank you so much for your suggestions!

Anonymous poster hash: 3bf46...e25

[AnonymBruker]

By the way, It´s completely fine of course that we speak english or norwegian to each other in the company. :-) So that´s not the problem, it´s only what I can talk about with them that is quite an issue right now :-)

Anonymous poster hash: 3bf46...e25

[AnonymBruker]

Hi! Small talking can be a challenge, especially in a foreign country where I'd say most would prefer their native language. Depending on the indivdual's social skills, the difficulity will vary when it comes to small talk.

Here's a few tips I find useful:

-Be the first one to say hello when you meet someone you know.

-Get to know the person; ask questions about them.

-Be an attentive listener and focus primarily on them.

-Ask open-ended questions to prevent "yes" or "no" replies.

I could name many more, but there are resources out there which I myself have used that is way easier to look up. To get you started, I recommend reading this page and watching the video: http://www.artofmanliness.com/2012/08/22/how-to-make-small-talk/

Hope it helps.

Anonymous poster hash: b00d6...6aa

[AnonymBruker]

Været, barna, hagen/hytta/oppussing, reality på TV.

Anonymous poster hash: daf63...ff0