[2020-12-12] What's your favourite kind of cheese?
I've collected questions for years, keeping them in my phone and on other devices so that I could refer to them whenever I wanted a conversation starter.
I've used these questions to get to know new staff at coffee chats with employees, to reminisce with my mom or my daughter, and to prompt conversation at social gatherings.
Today, I thought, "here's a gift I can share with my readers." But, of course, the minute I thought about sharing my list of questions, I took a closer look and said to myself, "let me just do a little re-arranging first."
The questions were originally presented in just one long list. I felt that categories might be helpful. That little re-arranging project ended up taking hours, and the list still isn't where I want it to be.
But I'm sharing the link to Questions by Categories now, while I continue to tweak the categorization in the coming days.
You might find it useful to use some questions for a family videoconference or for a phone conversation with a loved one whom you won't be seeing in person over the holidays. You could even text or email a few questions to a family member or friend for a fun back-and-forth as you learn a little more about each other.
As you use the questions, do bounce around between categories. For example, you could start with a few questions from the Childhood category, then jump to other categories, such as Life, Quirks and Favourites. And don't write off the Hypotheticals at the end of the list; some of the best answers have come from those types of questions. As well, don't worry if the person to whom you posed the question doesn't have an answer; just move on to another question.
And don't feel obligated to continue asking questions if a great conversation flows from your first few queries. The point of the questions is to spur conversation. If a lively discussion breaks out, go with the flow.
Finally, if you have suggestions for questions that I could add to the list, please feel free to pass them along.
The title of this post is inspired by a suggestion my daughter made years ago (at the age of 12 or so). Her addition to my list was the very good question What's your favourite kind of cheese? Most people have an answer to that question, so it's a terrific ice breaker.
