How to Break the Ice with Foriengers

Hi, I am a Englisg-major college student from Taiwan, and this is my first time to visit this website, which is so useful and convenient for anyone from anywhere. I am so glad that I can ask someone or even more to solve my questions about English and meanwhile I can also help someone to solve his/her questions as well!

Anyway, I got a question here: How to break the ice with foreigners? All of my dear teachers tell us all the time that we should grasp any chance to talk in English, especially when coming across those foreigners whose native spoken langage is English. Somehow, I find that it's easy to talk to someone but so hard to start a conversation that interests that person I am talking to.

Can you guys share me about your personal experience or advices when you're under the same situation?

Thanks for any reply

All the best,



a confused Taiwanese student, Willow Tasi.

It is always nice to ask a simple question like this: What do you do for living? or Are you a student? From there on, you should try to pick up more info for asking further questions. One question leads to another; It works in my case, though!

I have always found starting out by saying something on the lines of "Excuse me I noticed...(fill in the blank)". It seems to work. Something I have used is "Excuse me I heard you speaking and was wondering where you are from?" One I used with an Irish visitor was "Excuse me I know you are from Ireland by you accent but which part?" It is also sometimes useful to ask what brought a visitor to your country. Starting a dialogue is difficult even between people of the same country. Don't be insulted by Americans who just want to get on their way. We tend to be like that, always in a hurry. Also, don't be afraid to talk about you. It helps to build a trust. Americans especially tend to be a bit untrusting of others due to our excessive crime rates and violent tendancies. We are taught from a young age to not trust strangers and our paranoia is worse in other countries (after all we aren't exactly popular). Be aware also of your body language. Americans have big personal spaces so don't stand too close. Generally an arm's length is good. As my Nicaraguan spanish teacher explained people kept backing up from her when she would talk to them. In her home country people stand close together to speak but in America they stood back.

Hope that is helpful! Good luck and best wishes!

I find that it easier being indirect and impersonal, rather than approaching with a direct, personal question.

For example, let's say your "target" is watching a baseball game on TV in a department store. You can casually start talking about the game (e.g., "Can you believe the ump missed that call?" or "Man, the Dodgers are doing terribly lately.") and let the conversation go for there. Or someone's waiting for a bus, and you comment or ask about the bus service in the area. After you're chatting, you can THEN introduce yourself and/or start the personal questions.

Ask yourself this: If a foreigner approached you on the street in Taibei, which would you feel more comfortable with:

a. Coming up to you directly and asking in Mandarin, "Are you a student?" or "What do you do for a living?"

or

b. Standing next to you at an intersection and casually saying in Mandarin, "I can't believe the traffic here. Is it always this bad?"