The awkward silence at a dinner table can send you into panic attacks. Believe me. I have been there. You become super self conscious and hyper aware. You start asking yourself questions. Am I chewing too loud? Is it my fault that this silence is so awkward? Am I breathing too heavily? Is it obvious that I am freaking out? Is that making other people nervous?
Trust me. It is no fun.
So, now come time for what could potentially be an awkward dinner, I come out swinging with a dinner conversation topic pre prepared. They never what hit them. I am now much more popular and liked by the families of my girlfriend.
This trick I actually carried over into other social aspects of my life. Not because I was nervous, but just because networking is incredibly important in this world, and conversing with people is the way to accomplish that goal of building a strong network.
When I think of fun conversation topics, or great conversation starters I keep a list. I even have a list of conversation topics for couples (but I have not needed that since my last first date a year ago).
You have to be careful with a good dinner conversation topic. A lot of times, if you phrase it wrong or just blurt out your dinner conversation topic, you can make the discussion feel contrived, forced, and even more awkward than the silence that preceded it. So be careful, be casual and be timely when you start a dinner conversation topic. You can do this by prefacing it with how you came to wonder about it.
For example, if you wanted to get on the dinner conversation topic of what names might mean, which is always interesting, you can start by saying “So the other day somebody asked what my middle name was and what that meant. Is that weird?”
And remember to ask follow up questions. People love talking about themselves, so once you get them started, keep them going, and you will soon be fast friends all by your ingenious dinner conversation topic.
Post some a dinner conversation topic in the comments below, and see what other people like to ask.
