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Would you talk to a random person on a street if they approached you?

2

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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 307 ✭✭Figbiscuithead


    Yeah I'd be very open to chatting to strangers out and about and when I'm home in Ireland, where I find this happens more often than anywhere else I've lived or travelled to, I'd be half keeping an eye out for it hoping it happens at bus stops, bars, cafes, waiting rooms etc. (that sounds a bit pathetic :o).

    Saying that, if someone is really out of it or acting in a threatening way or being sleazy, I'd understandably have my guard up and walk on.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,495 ✭✭✭KatW4


    I don't usually like speaking to people I don't know on the street because I'm quite awkward and shy.

    Once, after work, a woman asked me to text someone with her phone. She said she had forgotten her glasses and couldn't see. It seemed like I was texting her ex husband because I had to type something like "you think you're great sleeping in her bed but you'll never get over me." Very awkward!

    Another time, waiting for a bus outside Ilford station (England) and a man came up to me looking for money. I told him I didn't have any and so he walked off. A few minutes later, he came back and asked again and I said I had told him already that I didn't have any. He absolutely lost the plot with me. Screamed at me to f**k off back to my own country! I was quite shaken after it and now I keep my head down when walking anywhere!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 135 ✭✭LittleMuppet


    I'd talk to nearly anyone. I love a good oul chat, so I do!


  • Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 51,690 Mod ✭✭✭✭Stheno


    Generally no, I've no interest.

    My OH would talk to the walls, we were out in Dublin City Centre a couple of years ago and some young fella in dire straits came up asking if he could have money for food. OH took him to a place where he had a sit down dinner and he was delighted.

    Me I'd have walked on.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,587 ✭✭✭Pocoyo


    Stheno wrote: »
    Generally no, I've no interest.

    My OH would talk to the walls, we were out in Dublin City Centre a couple of years ago and some young fella in dire straits came up asking if he could have money for food. OH took him to a place where he had a sit down dinner and he was delighted.

    Me I'd have walked on.

    He probably put the food in a doggy bag as soon as you left and sold it for drugs.

    The other day i approached a guy for a chat and he looked at me as if i was mental or some kind of freak all i said was,
    'I need your clothes, your boots and your motorcycle.'


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 9,622 ✭✭✭Ruu


    Pocoyo wrote: »
    He probably put the food in a doggy bag as soon as you left and sold it for drugs.

    The other day i approached a guy for a chat and he looked at me as if i was mental or some kind of freak all i said was,
    'I need your clothes, your boots and your motorcycle.'

    You shouldn't have been wielding that butcher knife! :o


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 666 ✭✭✭Full Marx


    Not in Dublin city but elsewhere yes.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 34,809 ✭✭✭✭smash


    After a hectic night out I suddenly came to my senses and realised it was bright out and I was sitting in a doorway in Grafton St chatting to a homeless person. Drink is bad, m'kay...


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,324 ✭✭✭JustAThought


    Full Marx wrote: »
    Not in Dublin city but elsewhere yes.


    People with dogs tend to team up & talk with anyone around - especially if they look like they're out in the cold walking a ( ran-off) dog too! It seeps into your other life & you forget sometimes & just open a conversation with strangers - even if you don't have your dog with you that day!!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,484 ✭✭✭Chain Smoker


    I pretty much always do, the times where I can actually be helpful in a way other than giving money make me feel good enough to keep at it. Somehow never seem to encounter much aggression from the ones who aren't obviously and immediately wanting to kick my head in.

    It's pretty funny to look back on some of the incredibly lame excuses I give for not giving money/completing their survey/listening to the story of their divorce on the spot too. Had one dude ask me for $8.60 there a few weeks ago, the excuse I gave him was "sorry, you're not allowed ask for that much or that specific of an amount of money" in a tone as if it were some flat rule beyond my control.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,647 ✭✭✭lazybones32


    Pocoyo wrote: »
    He probably put the food in a doggy bag as soon as you left and sold it for drugs.

    The other day i approached a guy for a chat and he looked at me as if i was mental or some kind of freak all i said was,
    'I need your clothes, your boots and your motorcycle.'
    "You forgot to say 'please'."


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 14,521 ✭✭✭✭mansize


    Don't make me tap the sign.

    Fcuk off.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,121 ✭✭✭✭Spanish Eyes


    I'd talk to anyone as long as they are not threatening.

    Anyways, was on the DART the other day and this lady was opposite.

    Me being me said, "lovely day isn't it?" and it went from there. What a lovely person, and what a life story she had, amazing. Was sorry to get off at my stop. But that's life.

    Two ships that meet..... and so on.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,877 ✭✭✭CFlat


    I was in a railway station this evening and this guy started asking us what time a train was going to a particular location, I didn't know so went on my phone to check it out. I told him what I found out and he started talking about Irish Rail and comparing it to the UK, where I think he said he lives and we talked for a few minutes which was fine, then out of blue he asks, "so what do you lads do for a living?"

    I don't mind shooting the breeze with someone but you can go f**k yourself if you think I'm going to tell you what I do for a living. That's the same as asking me how much I earn and that's none of your business.

    But to answer the question I wouldn't be rude and ignore someone but in truth Id rather you didn't bother me.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,314 ✭✭✭BOHtox


    You see... I have literally zero social skills


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,127 ✭✭✭✭castletownman


    I literally live of Hozier's lyrics: "Talk with every stranger. The stranger the better".

    Bar chuggers. Feck them


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,643 ✭✭✭R.D. aka MR.D


    If I'm at home in Donegal then yes, i'll talk to anybody but 9 times out of 10, they aren't a stranger which is usually revealed shortly into the conversation. :rolleyes:

    When I lived in Dublin, I absolutely avoided it. I went for a visit a few years ago and at bus aras, literally 2 mins from the door, i was approached. I took out my headphones and then I was like 'duh, what are you doing!?!' to myself. She was asking for money of course!!

    I used to think Dublin was bad until I went to the US. Jesus, the homeless there are awful. The amount of abuse they give you when you don't give them money is unreal.Las Vegas was particularly bad. In San Francisco, one guy waked up to us and asked us for money and we declined and he just started screaming "**** you" at us. My OH used to make documentaries and he made one with some homeless people in the city that he was living in and they told him that the worse thing that you can do is give them money. So, he doesn't even entertain the idea. But the abuse is unreal.
    Then when I was there, i learned about these people who are trust fund kids but they beg for money. In Portland, there were tons of them. It was very weird!

    Also, at first I had a really hard time telling who was homeless/begging and who was just being friendly. My OH knew right away because he's from there. That's what upsets me about how things used to be (are?!?) in Dublin. For people not from Dublin, it's really hard to know who is genuine. Once you are there 6 months, it's totally obvious. Both my mother and best friend got hassled when they came to visit me. After I met my mum one evening she was telling me about a woman begging from her. I said, 'did you tell her to **** off?' and of course she hadn't. We were waiting on a bus and lo and behold who comes up to us but the same woman and I turned to her and said 'go away' in a really angry voice and she just walked off. My mum couldn't believe it, she said 'i told her to go away but she wouldn't'. They prey on people who aren't familiar. I'm sure your one knew that I wasn't going to take any of her ****e because I knew her game. It's really awful.

    I've been living in Asia, people try to talk to you here all the damn time because they want to practice their English. In my first year, I'd be polite but now I just ignore them. It's my damn job to speak English and listen to students and try to decipher their broken sentences, I'm not gonna do it on the train ride home, for free. I'm more likely to speak to women though as every single man that has come up to talk to me in Asia, has been a creep. It's just so annoying, it would be like if I saw a bunch of Spanish people on Luas and marched up to them and started using broken Spanish, not with the intention of getting to know them but just to practice. Who would want to be bothered like that? If they were tourists they might think it was funny but if they lived there and were just on their way home or out or something...


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 23,646 ✭✭✭✭qo2cj1dsne8y4k


    Generally I'd be good for chats as long as it's not on public transport because that's me time and I just need to relax, or as long as they're not looking for cash monies. Nearby where I work there's a homeless man that begs there and he's super nice and sometimes when I get out of work early and am not in a rush I'll go get him a tea or coffee and we chat for ages. I actually look forward to chatting him because apart from his situation now, he's had such an interesting life, he's a lovely positive person and the last time I spoke to him, he was days away from having really exciting and positive things ahead of him. He's never looked for money, he's happy enough with tea and cake and chats, and that suits me perfectly.
    So, yeah I'll talk to anyone as long as it's not on the train


  • Posts: 50,630 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Hi stranger! How's things? :D

    Creep.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 16,620 ✭✭✭✭dr.fuzzenstein


    Creep.

    G'wan, giz a fiver, bud!


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,863 ✭✭✭✭inforfun


    After arriving here I really had to get used to the chance that some randomer starts chatting about absolutely nothing while you are having a piss in the toilets of the pub.


  • Posts: 50,630 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    G'wan, giz a fiver, bud!

    It was a euro back in my day.
    inforfun wrote: »
    After arriving here I really had to get used to the chance that some randomer starts chatting about absolutely nothing while you are having a piss in the toilets of the pub.

    Here as in Ireland?

    I think it's what a lot of Irish people miss when they move away, is that random chit chat. Though it's happened to me in lots of places other than Ireland too!

    Most memorable was in a train station in Brussels where two homeless men chatted with me while I was waiting for a friend, chatted for almost an hour and they tried to give me cans of beer and then wanted to buy me coffee. One of them couldn't speak English and one of them translated everything between us. Was deadly :)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,812 ✭✭✭✭sbsquarepants


    gimmick wrote: »
    Some knobhead approached me a few years ago telling me he was an urban poet and would I give him €1 to hear his rhymes. I politely declined, at which point he started spouting some utter shíte and told me I was now cursed.

    Later that week I won free flights on a Ryanair flight, got bumped up to a suite in my London hotel and found £80stg on Oxford St.

    He really did suck at curses :)

    Or did he......

    Back in Dublin perhaps some gimmick lookalike, pulled rossanna davison in a nightclub and then won the lotto with the change from the €50 she gave him for a taxi home the following morning!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,814 ✭✭✭harry Bailey esq


    I wish random people would approach me on the street :(
    Seriously though I'm quite chatty with people be they strangers or not. There's another thread running at the moment about dogs,and how great they are,I've made quite a few friends walking mine,from all walks of life,spanning from people in their 20s to their 80s,people who I'd probably never interact with otherwise.If your anyway Street smart you'll be well aware of who to engage in conversation with,and those who you should probably avoid.I might sound naive in saying this,but most people you'll encounter over the course of your day are good decent people,plugging away through life just like everyone else.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,863 ✭✭✭✭inforfun


    It was a euro back in my day.



    Here as in Ireland?

    I think it's what a lot of Irish people miss when they move away, is that random chit chat. Though it's happened to me in lots of places other than Ireland too!

    Yes, here in Ireland. In The Netherlands we dont do that, talking to strangers while they are taking a piss. Or in the city i lived in, in any case.

    Serious business that , cant distract people then.


  • Posts: 50,630 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    inforfun wrote: »
    Yes, here in Ireland. In The Netherlands we dont do that, talking to strangers while they are taking a piss. Or in the city i lived in, in any case.

    Serious business that , cant distract people then.

    Had many a random chat in The Netherlands.

    Though that might have been due to the narcotics :P

    (and also never at a urinal other than "ma'am can you leave the gents toilets please" :D)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 25,243 ✭✭✭✭Jesus Wept


    gimmick wrote: »
    Some knobhead approached me a few years ago telling me he was an urban poet and would I give him €1 to hear his rhymes. I politely declined, at which point he started spouting some utter shíte and told me I was now cursed.

    Later that week I won free flights on a Ryanair flight, got bumped up to a suite in my London hotel and found £80stg on Oxford St.

    He really did suck at curses :)

    Same thing happened to me in temple bar years ago, presume the same guy. Life has been generally upward since. :P


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,863 ✭✭✭✭inforfun


    Had many a random chat in The Netherlands.

    Though that might have been due to the narcotics :P

    (and also never at a urinal other than "ma'am can you leave the gents toilets please" :D)


    Yep, that stuff can make people chatty. Whether there is anything they say that makes sense in that situation is a whole different matter.

    And it makes you pick wrong doors apparently.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,134 ✭✭✭Lux23


    Yea, it depends on the situation. I am no longer on the market but around Halloween a lad started talking to me in the Off Licence. Ordinarily I would be dead set against a bloke chatting me up in a shop but he did in such a way that I wasn't intimidated.

    I have had some dodgy weirdos approach me. Once on Henry Street, a guy from Iceland I think who had just moved to Ireland stopped me. I thought he was looking for directions, but after about two minutes I realised he just wanted a chat. I said to him "do you need help with anything?" and he was like "No, I heard Irish people were really friendly". So I tried to walk away and he grabbed my arm and said again "I thought Irish people were really friendly." I just ran off.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,160 ✭✭✭Huntergonzo


    I travelled Ireland extensively in my last job as a land surveyor and ended up talking to hundreds of people, particularly around Dublin City centre where there's loads of people out and about.

    Have to say I really enjoyed talking to strangers on the street and I tend to humour people anyway so they say a bit more. I met so many it's very hard to remember individuals but all I can say is there's an incredible variety of people out there. There's normal, chatty, nosey, sound, interesting, rude, but my favourite of all = the utterly insane, I used to have a reputation in the company for attracting nutters to talk to me (don't now what that says about me!).

    But in the 7 years I spent surveying I can't honestly remember anybody trying to con me, some little northside knacker did rob my sun cream and newspaper one day but at least he left the machine worth 30k untouched, he clearly had his priorities straight!


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