This workshop was about small talk. More precisely this was the second installment of the small talk workshops provided by STARR career center. Supposedly we were supposed to learn about how to start, sustain, and end small talk as well as the implications of such. Do keep in mind these sessions are free and non profit, i assume, so any bad mouthing i do must be taken lightly and somewhat jokingly.
The workshop went like this: we were seated in a circle, got a handout, went through the handout, did a small excersize, talked some more, the end. The whole thing was unbearably tense and boring for the most part. While i do appreciate that the workshop was free and of good intent it just really lacked any sort of polish or coherence.
The speaker seemed a good man but his demeanor left me with the impression that i did not want to learn anything from him. He sat in the corner of the room where not even half the people remaining could see him (many left throughout the workshop to go to class, i suspect some of them also had their pants spontaneously combust). What kind of speaker sits in the corner while slouched forward? It does not exactly inspire confidence and a feeling of comfortability.
The workshop’s contents lacked depth and insight, i felt the things i ‘learned’ actually weakened what small-talking skills i already had. I found the sections about physical communication nice but the tips like “repeat something interesting they said” or “tell them what they said was interesting” were horrible. It felt less like a small-talk workshop and more of a “how to pretend you are paying attention” workshop.
Perhaps it was my blunder in going to a social skills workshop and not something more concrete like resume writing. I appreciated the workshop but found it of little use and a poor usage of time. It was also brought to my attention that the speaker did not seem very enthusiastic or motivated, perhaps it was just my imagination. He seemed more obligated to keeps us in the room until time was up rather than actually teaching us something. when the session ended about 30 minutes early he insisted we stayed in the room despite us not doing anything productive and simply sitting there.
Bad experience, scarred, no more workshops, is all i can conclude.
