When I was sunbathing on the beach the other day, I heard the American girl (I assume it because of accent) who sits behind me was telling to her friends that she met a man there. I was thinking: can people do that? How? Is it a common thing in US? What do people say when they’re first meeting? I mean it’s not something I’m used to in Turkey.
Note: Sorry if it sounds like a reliationship question, it’s rather a cultural comparison question. Though it’d be nice to hear how you meet with strangers.
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Some people are naturally social and outgoing, others aren’t. We’re a nation of 330,000,000 and all of us have our own individual preferences on when, if and how we socialize.
I spent most of my teen years and early 20s trying to meet girls at the beach with varying degrees of success.
You do it the same way you do anywhere else. Try to find an opening to start a chat. Jokingly toss them a frisbee. Ask them their favorite ice cream flavor while in line for a treat. Mention you like the band they are playing. Base further attempts or your assessment of success on their reactions and either continue or move on accordingly.
From Texas here. Can certainly be pretty common if someone is just playing music, has a dog or kid, and even if Somthing peculiar happens. Last summer I went to a beach further south and found a washed up jellyfish on the beach, some people saw me looking at Somthing and before I knew it a lady offered her kids sand shovel to help pick it up and we carried it back out as far as we could
Same way any two people ever meet anywhere in the world – but it’s at the beach
it’s pretty easy for me to imagine a scenario where two people set up on the beach next to one another and started chatting. this is pretty common in the US in general, but especially on a beach where people are relaxing.
Small talk.
Generally positive comments on currently happening situations like the weather, the crowd, the music, the food, the sport event, etc.
We’re a country used to initiating and participating in small talk. Whether in a line, a bench waiting for a bus or just hanging out in a group of people we are not familiar with.
So, at times its not too difficult to meet new people.
Yes it happens all the time. Alcohol helps, but it is not necessary. Americans are usually just very open to conversations, especially during leisure time. Some ways conversations have started for me on the beach recently:
“Sorry to bother you, but may I ask where you purchased that hat? I really like it”
“Excuse me, would you mind taking a photo of my family”
“Oh my god, look there is a manatee right behind you”
“Pardon me, you look familiar. Are you from the Atlanta area?”
Man, every summer at the beach, the goal was to meet some girl on vacation and have a week of fooling around and having fun, and it happens more often than you might think. Now that I have kids, sometimes you might have another family staying nearby, and the kids play on the beach and you just sort of make small talk and chat with the other family a little bit.
Small talk is big here.
Now that I’m older and more introverted, I could care less about making friends at the beach. Back in my early to mid twenties, it was quite normal to go swimming and socialize with others at the same swimming spot (didn’t grow up near the ocean but rather rivers and creeks). The more, the merrier!
It does depend on the region, people in the Northern states and New England (which actually are also northern states, pretty much) are known for keeping more to themselves, though I’m guessing it’s not that weird to talk to a stranger in line. One way is to complain out loud about something and somebody else is likely to join in.
In the South where I live, it’s the opposite, and it can get annoying. If you are in a small space and someone else comes in, they are pretty much guaranteed to start talking to you. Or you find yourself feeling like you have to say something. It’s too weird (and rude?) not to.
That said, it’s 7am and I’m sitting in a car dealership waiting for my car to get serviced, and there are like 10 guys in the waiting room, all sitting 2-3 chairs apart, all on their phones. I haven’t heard a word in 20 minutes. It’s all males so maybe it’s like a men-in-the-restroom kind of thing. Plus, it’s just too fricken early to be social. God never meant for human beings to be in car dealerships at sunrise, it just ain’t right.
Option 1:
– “Hey, we’re getting a volleyball game going, want to join us?”
* “Sure!”
– “Cool! My name’s John Bob, what’s yours?”
* “I’m Ella May!”
– “Nice to meet you, do you want to serve first?”
Option 2:
– “Mind if we set up (our towels and umbrellas and stuff) next to you?”
* “No, go ahead”
– “I’ve got beer/coke/drinks in the cooler, want one?”
* “Oh, thank you! I’ll have a beer/coke/drink.”
– “Here you go, what’s your name?”
Option 3:
Imitate Johnny Bravo and then run from the beath police
You see a person, and you talk to them. It’s not rocket science. You can talk to people you don’t already know.
You go to the beach and start talking to someone… it’s not a difficult concept to understand. How you do it is the trick. I go to beach party meetups and that’s how I met my friends when I moved to Florida. I met some rando’s a couple weeks ago and we merged groups
So I actually live at the beach. Not ocean front, but it’s walkable to get to. I have met more than half of my neighbors at my beach access. See the same person a few different times and figure they might live here. Actually met a new neighbor recently because I asked about his shoes. After talking to him for a bit I realized he was a neighbor on the next street that I haven’t met yet.
Sure! But really, I just wanted to pet your dog.