Small talk is so easy and so hard at the same time. It's easy to do, but hard to get started and sometimes hard to continue. It's like doing homework for me. No homework is really hard, but it is really hard to get started and hard to continue it when I want to be doing something else.
Small talk is not taught in school. It's something that adults just expect kids to know how to do automatically... because it is so easy. No wonder why so many preteens/teens are not good at small talk. They don't know how to start small talk and they don't know how to continue small talk. And then they are told that they are being rude so then it makes it even harder for them to come up with something to say. It's all a big misunderstanding. I noticed this when we were guests at Mrs. Nancy's house and she said to my brother, thanks for coming and my brother responded with, uhhhh... and then Mrs. Nancy repeated, thanks for coming! And my brother said, you're welcome? He wasn't being rude, in fact, he was embarrassed because he didn't know how to respond. That's why we teach small talk at KTU. Now my brother knows to respond with, thanks for having me!
Small talk is important because we are expected to do it. It's like changing out of our pajamas in the morning. My mom told us that if we don't know how to start small talk, just talk about the weather.
