This week in
Vitamin V…
We’re talking about what you should do in a conversation, and what you should not do.
Or as we say in English, the Dos and the Don’ts.
Don’t #1: Don’t ask the other person to correct you.
Do #1: Listen
Do #2: Have Fun
And today…
Do #3 — Ask Questions
About two years ago I took a taxi in Prague.
When I lived there, I didn’t take cabs often.
I usually walked or took the tram or metro.
I must have been late.
I don’t remember.
What I do remember is the taxi driver kept asking me questions.
I’m not usually chatty with strangers, but this guy, he was Russian, kept the conversation going with his questions.
And not just questions about me, but questions about the words I used.
If I said something he didn’t understand, he wanted to know what it meant.
Flash forward a few years…
Another taxi in another city.
It was last January, before the panic-demic made everyone too afraid to leave the house, and I was visiting Austin, Texas with my father.
We wanted to leave the hotel to go to a restaurant — no metro or trams in Texas — so we took a cab.
But this time, the driver, a Spanish speaker from Cuba, didn’t have any questions for me. And when I tried to ask him about his home, the answers were very short.
Now, who do you think had better English?
The Russian or the Cuban?
The Russian, of course.
I think driving a cab in a city that has a lot of English speakers must be the best school in the world. All day you get to practice, listen, and most importantly — ask questions.
You can do the same.
It’s not rude.
In fact, it shows the other person you’re interested (everyone likes to talk about himself/herself).
And if it’s a question about English, you make the other person feel smart.
As we say in English, it’s win-win.