I attended a workshop Small Talk: It’s a BIG Deal presented by Ellen Stein on November 8th.This was a workshop that really benefited me to become more confident to socialize. Usually when it’s a lot of people, I don’t like to talk to strangers. This workshop helped me understand how we can communicate better with people. Sometimes the problem can be that you don’t know what to say to them, she went over that too. First she came around and introduced us and expected us to introduce ourselves. As she was coming around, I was confused on why is she coming to everyone but when she came to me, I was like wow, I was not expecting this kind of gesture. Especially my name, when I told her my name she asked me again because she was not getting my name right, so from there I was more confident in that she actually wanted to know our names and not doing it to just do it. She gave us a worksheet which we had to fill out by putting the name of which relates to the statement. So we had to ask the people in the room and find someone that has similar answer to the question or statement. Then we went over basic tips such as saying hello, remembering the person’s name your taking to, etc. Then she gave us some scenarios and asked us to talk to our group on how would we start the conversation according to the situation. She asked for our opinion on how would we decide on who to talk to without knowing the person. Everyone then shared their responses and we commented on them. At last she showed us a demo with a volunteer student. She was being interviewed by the student and they had to show us a good representation of what the conversation should be when you go for an interview. This workshop was only for 2 hours but showed a lot then 2-hour worth, I can use all the tips and gestures in future that can help me get a good job and extend my connections with people. All of this will only help me, so it was a fun and amazing experience. Also I got to meet new people that I would have never gotten a chance to meet or know if it weren’t for this workshop.
