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View Poll Results: What is harder?
Making Forced Small Talk with Strangers? 14 35.90%
Public Speaking 25 64.10%
Voters: 39. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 12-17-2007, 12:32 AM
 
Location: Ocean Shores, WA
5,092 posts, read 14,803,950 times
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I don't like to speak to groups or to engage in small talk.
Nor am I especially interested in listening to anyone else doing it either.
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Old 12-17-2007, 07:08 AM
 
Location: in a house
5,835 posts, read 5,182,292 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by johnycakes View Post
I do a fair amount of presentations in front of large groups of people all the time. I am quite comfortable in that format because it is inherently impersonal but with a stated purpose. Much more difficult is making idle chit-chat with people I don't know. In fact, I have been known to intentionally make rather rude exoduses from such situations when I realize the strangers and I have nothing to talk about. I just find that intolerably tedious and I'll just about come out and say that before getting out of that kind of predicament.
Hey there Johnnycakes! Good to see you again. Long time....!
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Old 12-17-2007, 07:17 AM
 
419 posts, read 2,017,036 times
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Interesting replies so far.

Public speaking is easier because you work from a script. Small talk is harder because you are always trying to think of what to say and feel like you are being judged by your replies. Though I understand most new friendships start with small talk.
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Old 12-17-2007, 08:45 AM
 
16,579 posts, read 20,661,245 times
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Public speaking used to be easy for me and part of my job but now it makes me a nervous wreck. Small talk is easy--just ask people questions about themselves because people love to talk about themselves.
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Old 12-17-2007, 08:51 AM
 
Location: In a tiny, noisy, frigid cube
200 posts, read 887,186 times
Reputation: 142
Quote:
Originally Posted by questioner2 View Post
Interesting replies so far.

Public speaking is easier because you work from a script. Small talk is harder because you are always trying to think of what to say and feel like you are being judged by your replies. Though I understand most new friendships start with small talk.
Oooooooh, you took the words right out of my mouth!

Because I have issues with constantly blushing, I prefer the public speaking. At least then, I can't tell that people are staring at my neck wondering what's wrong with me. Social situations where I'm forced to interact with people I've never met before make me very anxious.
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Old 12-17-2007, 09:13 AM
 
Location: DFW
12,229 posts, read 21,446,340 times
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For me, public speaking is a nightmare. My knees started knocking when I read a bible verse at my brother's wedding, seriously! Luckily there was a podium between me and the 250 guests so nobody could tell.

On the other hand, making small talk with strangers is super easy. My much more reserved husband is always begging me to stop, in fact. I remind him that we wouldn't have gotten together if I was afraid to talk to strangers! I've also made many other friends that way.
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Old 12-17-2007, 10:42 AM
Status: "81 Years, NOT 91 Felonies" (set 3 days ago)
 
Location: Dallas, TX
5,789 posts, read 3,583,738 times
Reputation: 5687
It's HIGHLY dependent on the individual.

For me, public speaking is better because I have time to rehearse and time to anticipate likely responses to my speech - and furthermore, try to think about two or three levels ahead ( Level One being I "X", they say "Not X"; Level Two being me bringing in reasons that "Not X" is baseless, with They bringing in reasons to doubt my rebuttal of "Not X", etc).

For me, impromptu speaking can be VERY difficult, not the least because I have trouble with word retrieval (medically diagnosed in fact). What that means for me is that I have to think about what I have to say well ahead of time, write it down, then (if making a speech) repeat it until its FIRMLY committed into memory (particularly the "word retrieval" mechanism that ..well..retrieves the word from my memory into my conscious thought.

In short, I have all the data I need in my brain, but the search engine is very inefficient.
(or, if you prefer an analogy with older "technology"...all the books in the library are on the shelf, but the card catalogue's very disorganized)
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Old 12-17-2007, 10:44 AM
 
Location: earth
463 posts, read 645,017 times
Reputation: 62
I love public speaking sometimes. I learned early in school (some times at the expense of my grades) that when speaking in public, it is best to tell a joke. Regardless of whether or not the audience laughs with you or at you, either way you feel relaxed and its easy to get the ball rolling from that point. It is easier to speak when people are smiling at you.

I hate small talk. Especially forced small talk. Everything is just people trying to play the various roles of their persona's. It's stupid and fake.
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Old 12-17-2007, 10:51 AM
 
Location: Pinal County, Arizona
25,100 posts, read 39,200,144 times
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I'm a public speaker - I give talks/speeches/seminars to groups of 10 to 5000. I am comfortable with these type of venues.

Put me in a small, social setting? I can hold my own I guess but, I am also looking forward to the end of the event
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Old 12-17-2007, 10:53 AM
 
Location: Camberville
15,837 posts, read 21,372,529 times
Reputation: 28139
I HATE small talk. It's pointless drivel and I'd rather not have to deal with it. Getting my hair cut at the salon is a NIGHTMARE because it's all small talk. Often times people don't understand what I'm talking about either as I make lots of references to the news.

Public speaking only bothers me when I don't know what I'm talking about. If I'm sufficiently prepared, it's no big deal.
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