Idle chatter with someone next to you on the train or bus may seem like an activity favoured by the elderly and disliked by many private others. Yet if you start up a conversation you may be surprised as to how appreciated that chat could be to the other person.
A conversation while travelling is a perfect, unhindered opportunity to really listen without distraction to the person seated next to you – be it a stranger or friend – and, through shared conversation, be inspired by what you see along the way.
Talk helps the journey go faster and allows you to build up your trust of strangers, which over recent years has significantly diminished, particularly when we’re reminded by endless signs to be on the lookout for suspicious activity in a terrorist-fearing world.
I was on the train with friends just this weekend when within a minute of sitting down one of my friends had struck up a conversation with the stranger next to her and continued to talk with him for the rest of the journey. As is the way, they swapped their own brief life stories. Through this they realised that they could help each other out with work and so by the end of journey had also swapped contact details. This same friend tells me how her grandfather would meet his friends on the bus instead of at a cafe, enjoying the benefit of gossiping about all they saw from the window, without paying the expense of a cup of tea. Her behaviour is evidently hereditary.
Those carrying children – the smaller the better – or pets have a relatively easy opportunity to speak with strangers as a comment about the cute, cheeky or rebellious behaviours of their little ones is the perfect opener to beginning a discussion.
Start with a light topic for conversation, and ask questions. There have always been popular opening lines for chitchat that are universal – from the weather to the international language of football, the latter of which we’re bound to see more of in the lead up to this year’s World Cup. Yet it could be paying a stranger a compliment through utilising your observation skills. Another friend of mine commented on a t-shirt a man was wearing and ended up dating him for several years. Given that they were both travelling, this is the ultimate speed dating.
Before Sunrise, the 1995 film directed by Richard Linklater about a girl (Julie Delpy) who jumps off her planned Eurorail journey with a boy (Ethan Hawke) for an unexpected romantic evening in Vienna, shows of the interesting conversations that can be struck up with a stranger, and encourages the importance of embracing a spontaneous spirit. Its sequel, Before Sunset (2004) provides an insight into the passage of time.
While many of the conversations you embark on are unlikely to lead to love or offer business contacts or inspiration, you never know until you try.
Image: jhartney
