I’m not like this super antisocial, misanthropic person (only a little), and being bad at making conversation has never bothered me in the past.
But now, my AP Spanish Language and Culture class demands that I make immediate, rapid-fire small talk, and in Spanish at that. One of the sections on the AP exam that requires I be able to carry out a fluid conversation, and I’m plain awful at it.
Over the years of struggling with small talk, I’ve developed a strategy of asking lots of questions to put all the burden of conversation on the other person (which they’re usually more than happy to carry—people love talking about themselves), but obviously this doesn’t work here, since I have to fill a 20-second time slot by myself without missing a beat. Since English is my second language, I also developed this habit of rehearsing the words I’ll say a few times in my mind before actually saying them out loud, but in the such short amount of time I’m given (20 seconds), this doesn’t work here either.
Any help with getting better at making small talk/conversations? The APs are coming soon and I am freaking out.
Just talk to people, constantly. Talk to your classmates in Spanish, talk at your parents in Spanish (even if they don’t understand)…I even got in the habit of talking to myself in Spanish. Also, listen to Spanish radio and watch Spanish television where they make rapid-fire small talk.
Also, on the topic of the AP test–remember the conversation is only 12.5% of your score. I COMPLETELY bombed the conversation section–went off topic, got completely lost, stuttered my way through–but I did fine on the presentation, both writings, and multiple choice, so I still pulled off a 4.
@wonderlanddd Thanks, that makes me feel a bit better. No one talks to me in my Spanish class, but I’ll definitely try talking to myself in Spanish. When you talked to yourself in Spanish, what did you talk about?
@782593795238 Literally everything, lol. I kinda just started narrating my life. Also, I tend to talk to myself anyway (I prefer the term ‘thinking out loud’) because saying things out loud helps me organize my thoughts, so I just…switched that to Spanish.
@782593795238 I took AP Chinese, but I also had to prep a lot for the small talk/long conversations for the AP test. What I did to prepare is that I talked to my parents exclusively in Chinese for at least 2 hours a day, and in return they’d ask me small talk questions like: How was your day? What book are you reading? What would you like to eat? Another thing I started doing is actually watching Chinese dubbed or subbed movies. It sounds crazy, but I did it with movies I had watched at least twice, so I knew what was coming. Let’s just say, I learned quite a small chunk of vocab from Chinese-subbed Lion King.
If those options aren’t readily available to you, try making your daily agenda in Spanish (What will I do today? Who do I meet up with? Where do I go? stuff like that), or talking to your Spanish classmates exclusively in Spanish.