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can you send me a message on how to transition from such indirect openers you use to a conversation.
Ive tried going from my opener which is like 'its a nice day today' or 'where is the campus gym' to standard stuff like I'll ask 'whats your name?' after that but she is already starting to leave at that point or leaves after i get her name (body language shows she is just thinking I am asking questions to get somewhere)
Hey, well I’ll start off by saying that all of my approaches are done on girls that are already sitting down and not on the move walking somewhere. There’s nothing wrong with stopping a moving target, but you will run into situations where she’s busy or on her way somewhere and she can’t or won’t stop to talk. Whenever she’s walking, it obviously means that she’s going somewhere, and you’re stopping her from getting there.
Personally, I’ll usually wait a bit before I ask a girl her name, or sometimes she’ll ask mine if we’ve been talking for more than a few minutes. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with asking her for her name sooner, but I wouldn’t say that as the very next thing you say after asking where the gym is. To me anyways, it wouldn’t seem congruent, and it would sort of seem like you’re jumping all over the place. If she gives you directions to the gym, then I think it’s a good idea to at least make a comment about it or at least say one more thing about it before you move on to something else.
In that case, I might ask another question about the gym, or make a statement about it, then see her reaction or how she responds to it. A few examples might be:
“Have you ever been there, is it pretty good?”
“Do you know if they have free weights or is it mostly machines?”
“That’s a far walk, is there parking spots there if I just want to drive over?”
“I remember hearing that it’s pretty busy during the day, do you ever train there?”
“Can we just get in with our student card, or is there a membership fee too?”
Etc, etc.
This way, it makes it seem like you’re legitimately interested in what you asked her, instead of dropping the whole subject and immediately going for her name then trying to change subjects immediately after that or thinking of something else to say. And it will also keep her there for an extra moment or two so she doesn’t start to leave once she tells you where it is. I’d have a second question about the gym ready.
If the girl is somewhat talkative, then you can branch off of her responses to any of the things she says in response to your question/statement about the gym. Maybe she’ll be into the gym and she might have a few things to say about it, if not, then you can move on to something else. And I’d even have a reply ready in case she doesn’t know where it is. You could even say that you asked some dude before, and he said go left here ,right there, etc and you basically ended up back in the same spot! Or make up something about how you asked someone, but they weren’t much help. At least it’ll give her a chance to say something else. You could even ask her, which office do you think I could ask at that’s close to here? Just have something ready.
But if she does know where it is and gives you directions, then after she answers one of those questions, you might say something like “well you seem to know your way around campus, how long have you been here for?”
Then from there, you can ask her what she’s studying and how she likes it or whatever other direction you want to go. Usually school is a pretty easy subject to talk about, as it’s something you’ll both have in common and can relate to each other about it.
Or, once she answers a question about the gym, you can always say something like “oh yea, that’s cool, I’ll have to check that out. So what are you up to now, on your way to class?” Then depending on what she says, then you can ask her what class she’s going to, or what her major is etc. Then once you’ve got her talking for at least a sentence or two beyond giving you the initial directions, then you should be able to branch off into any number of different directions and just keep going with fluff talk if you like.
Or, if you feel up to it, and she says she’s on her way to class, you could say “ok, well I was going to walk in that direction anyways, I’ll walk with you for a minute until we get up to xxxx building or whatever”.
But each conversation is different, because I’ll look for things she says and branch off of her answers, depending on what she ends up saying to me. If she’s really into the gym, then maybe I’d end up talking about the gym or the general subject of exercise, health or working out for the first minute or two. Or if she talks about how busy she is, then I’ll ask a bit about her courses and why she’s so busy right now. Maybe I’ll end up asking her if she works too, then empathize a bit with her by saying “damn, that must be a tough schedule to keep up with, for sure”. But if you’re approaching chicks at school, then a very safe subject to bring up is a bit of school talk, because at least it’s something you’ll be familiar with and will have at least a few things to say about it, and it’s also something you both will have in common right off the bat.
Now some may say that school talk is ‘boring’ or dull, but if you’re just starting out and struggling with what to say, then there’s nothing wrong with talking about school for a bit, because it’s better than having shit run dry and her walking away on you because you have nothing to say.
I generally don’t open about the weather, but I have on occasion mentioned it if it’s exceptionally hot or cold out, or something like that if it’s out of the ordinary. But even if you said something ‘lame’ like “yeah, it’s nice out today, that’s why I’m out here enjoying a bit of sun while its lasts”. If she’s at all talkative, or friendly she’ll usually agree and say something similar which agrees with what you’ve said. Then from there you could say something like “so what are you up to now, just on your way to class?” And what I say there will depend on what she’s doing when I approached her. If she’s walking, you might ask her if she’s on her way to class. If she’s sitting around not reading and looking bored, you can ask her if she’s just chilling for a bit on break or waiting for her next class. If she has her books out and is reading, you can ask her what she’s studying, or if she’s studying for a test, or if she’s working on an essay. You get the idea. Just ask or comment on what she seems to be doing when you approached her.
Then from there like I said, I’ll often ask her what her major is, and after that you can ask what year she’s in, and there’s a bunch of school-related things you can talk about just to get you through the first few minutes of conversation. And usually by that time you’ll get the idea whether she’s into talking, or if she’s giving you very short answers and not much eye contact or whatever. This is where I try to get a read on her by watching her eye contact, voice tone, posture and body language etc. If I get the vibe that a chick just isn’t into talking, I personally don’t usually ‘plow’ through it and try to continue, I’ll just let it die out and then try to look for another chick who might be into talking a bit more. That’s the good ting about school, if one chick doesn’t seem into talking to you, then why waste your time, because there’s hundreds or even thousands more that your time would be better spent on.
Depending which direction the conversation takes, other fluff subjects that I might bring up could be:
- what
general area of the city is she from
- if she has an accent, ask about where she’s from
- does she drive or take the bus (I've got a couple funny stories to tell about the bus/parking passes)
- hobbies, sports, what she does for fun when not in school, etc
- what she wants to do once she’s done her undergrad
- general talk about the school, how she likes it etc
- how busy school can be and balancing it with work, does she work too?
- trips or vacations she’s taken, and if you have any funny/cool stories to tell
And those are just a few regular fluff things off the top of my head, but like I said, some conversations could go in any direction depending on what she’s saying back to you. And each of those things I just listed could turn into a whole separate discussion, depending on what she ends up replying with.
And you want to avoid sounding like you’re just going down a list and firing off questions to her. Instead, it’s better if you can comment on her answers, or elaborate a bit by going off what she says to you and include your own comments or stories too.
But if you’re at school and just starting out, instead of stopping chicks on the move, maybe try to find a girl that’s sitting somewhere by herself and looks kind of bored. Oftentimes people will welcome someone to come up and keep them company if you come across as a cool, normal and friendly guy.
Those are just some of my own ideas and examples of how I might do things. They’re not necessarily ‘right’ or the best, but I’m usually pretty good at fluff talk anyways and can keep a conversation going.
Anyways man, hope that helps a bit.