Thursday, 11 April 2019
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One Step Beyond
You made it! Now you are one step beyond, ready to find your way wherever you want. Throughout the year you have acquired and consolidate...
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You made it! Now you are one step beyond, ready to find your way wherever you want. Throughout the year you have acquired and consolidate... -
Fond of TV series? Which one is your favourite? Find here the one you'd like to watch in your resting time at home. You should try t... -
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ReplyDeleteI got surprised because there are big differences about topics in small talks, in Spain we do not usually talk about weather because here is not an issue to us.Moreover in the video is inappropriate ask about family when in Spain there is a typical topic. Nevertheless, Spain and England have similarities in topics about money, we do not talk about salary, cost about phones, clothes, etc. In addition we don’t talk about politics because it is a conflictive topic and usually finish with arguments.
Firstly, the weather is not a topic which is very used in our country because there is usually a good weather. However, attending to the religion is so different because we often ask if the other person likes holy week. In addition, if the other person has lost weight it is normal to say it to them. On the other hand, if he or she has gained weight we are not used to say it.
ReplyDeleteThe topics like salary, job, age, sports, politics, entertainment, health, appearance and cost are more or less the same in Spain. However, the family is really common in a small talk here. For instance when you ask someone about their parents.
Is it the same in your country?
ReplyDeleteI think that in my country is appropriate to talk about same things than in the Uk but there are some exceptions. In the UK is appropriate to talk about our hobbies, series, the job that we want to do and our appearance (only our hair or clothes), but in the UK people talk about things that it doesn’t make sense in Spain, for example the weather because it’s always sunny, or the religion. Nowadays I think that it isn’t a taboo. In addition, I think that people in my country don’t have any problem to talk about their age, their family or about politics.
However, in both of the countries is not appropriate to talk about our salary, our weigh because it makes us feel uncomfortable with people who we don’t know so much.
If you meet new people and you don’t know their ideology and their way of being in depth, you usually make small talk. In Spain, we talk about different topics such as superficial issues of the moment, sports, for example the result of a football match. Also, people usually comment on tv programmes relative to current topics like the elections.
ReplyDeleteNevertheless, with some people you can talk about politics but only if they are near people.
Patricia Vargas Niño, 2 C Bachillerato.
After having a look of that video I have found some curious things.
ReplyDeleteOn the one hand, for me it's not to strange talk about family, even more, it's common to ask about your close family. Besides, talking about politics is not unusual, however it's not what you talk about when you meet someone. Finally, we don't talk about the weather because it's always the same. It is good.
On the other hand, there are a lot of similar topics such as sport or entertainment. We spoke about them constantly.
I found this video useful because some topics that are normal for me, are taboo or inappropriate in another culture.
Starting a conversation with someone you have just met can be difficult or might feel awkward, but if you know what it’s appropriate or inappropriate to say, you won’t have any problem.
ReplyDeleteDepending on the country, there are some questions or expressions that are or aren’t appropriate to say. In the video, the women focused on the USA and Canada. I am almost completely agree with them, but there are some questions or expressions that they considered inappropriate that I don’t think that are awkward at all.
For example, according to one of the women, asking if you have children or not is an inappropriate question, and I don’t feel it like that, because there is nothing wrong without having or not having children.
In conclusion, although I am agree with them in almost every expression, there are some of them with which I am not completely sure about their rank of adequacy.
ReplyDeleteWhen we are meeting new people we have to start a conversation so that we can keep a talk with him/her. This step is called small talk and it is used to “break the ice”.
And depending on the culture of every place there things that may not be said whereas in others are seem to be natural.
In my country (China) when we want to start talking to a person that we didn’t know before it is very common to ask first if he or she has eaten, it is a way of showing how polite you are. And according to the video, talking about someone’s body is not unusual, for example “You look very fit!”.
And in the country where I live (Spain) is not very usual to talk about weather because here the weather is always very nice.
Anyway, I found this video very useful and interesting.
I am not shy, so I think I won’t have difficulties the first days of my erasmus year. Maybe I will feel out of place the first days because I am very home-loving, but I think I won’t have many problems to adapt to the new ambient.
ReplyDeleteRelative to the small talk I think it will be easy. I love meeting new people and talking with them because I think I can learn a lot of things, so if I ever have to “break the ice”, I won’t have any problem. In addition I think that start a conversation it’s so important and says a lot of people. I would love to be in an Erasmus and I think that if I had the opportunity I am prepared.
In my country it is the same, we have to avoid topics like politic,age,health and also weather, because in Spain talking about weather is an “elevator’s conversation”. It happens when you see someone in an elevator and you have nothing to say but it is bother not to say anything, so if you talk about the weather with someone it will seems like you don’t want to talk with him.
María Díaz.
In my country it is the same, we have to avoid topics like politic,age,health and also weather, because in Spain talking about weather is an “elevator’s conversation”. It happens when you see someone in an elevator and you have nothing to say but it is bother not to say anything, so if you talk about the weather with someone it will seems like you don’t want to talk with him.
ReplyDeleteRelative to the topics like religion,politics, etc, I think that we have to avoid it because it is a personal information and we don’t have to answer for it, because it can also suppose a little dispute. People have different ideas and maybe the don’t want to share them.
María Díaz.
All counties have taboo topics, and my country is not an excepcion. Based on the topic mentioned in the video, there are topics like weather, religion or politics that we rarely mentioned, specially if you do not know the other person. In Spain the weather is good all the time, specially if we are in the south of Spain, so is a nonsense talk about it, but is true that we usually mentioned it when we want start a conversation. In my opinion, is so strange talk about politics with someone who you have not got confidence, but it is true that depends of the situation.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, there are topics which simply are unpleasant, like comments about the body, for example the typical “you are more slim” or “you are more overweight since we run into for last time”, you just do not know if the other person have a health problem, we are differents, maybe you do not care talk about it, but you do not know how the other person could feel.
Lucía Ventura.