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December 15, 2004
Small talk
People write how-to books on making small talk. (The author of that one is Director of the Shyness Research Institute at Indiana University.)
After 11 years here in France, I realize to what extent good small talk requires mastery of the language and popular culture, especially for the wittiness-challenged. My rhetorical incapacity trips me. The overflowing wheelbarrow of my mind lurches into soft dirt and tips over. Self-consciousness raises the wheelbarrow onto stilts. The bull stands still in the middle of the china shop.
Posted by Mark at December 15, 2004 09:48 PM