Our goal is to promote face-to-face interactions via short, five-minute conversations.
We designed the “You Can Talk To Me” wristbands and badges, which you can wear to let others around you know that you are ready to engage in a short conversation.
You can experience that conversations can be fun and playful, that interacting with others can be a game.
Practicing how to connect with other people is a great way to improve your social and communication skills.
Meeting new people helps you learn new things about yourself, about others and about the world.
Do you (sometimes) feel that…
...it is hard to express your feelings and thoughts, even at home or with friends?
...you are afraid to start a conversation with someone you would like to connect with?
...it is hard to handle if you are rejected?
...a conversation becomes stressful although it should be fun and playful?
...you look lame when you run out of topics?
You are at the right place if you feel sometimes like any of the above. Or do you feel that you can communicate perfectly? Great, then you can help others!
In fact, we all can communicate and we always do! Why couldn't we do it better?
Communication can be fun with almost anyone if you practice – and it is easier than you have ever thought!
The aim of the program is to promote face-to-face interactions via short conversations to strengthen the feeling that we can communicate with the people around us and that we do have many opportunities in our everyday lives to do so. We can talk to friends, family members, co-workers or acquaintances and we can engage in short conversations even with strangers whenever we have some time to connect with others (e.g. while waiting for the bus or in the supermarket). It doesn’t necessarily mean that we want to initiate a longer conversation or that we want to establish long-term relationships, the goals are simply to learn how to connect with other people, how to pay attention to them, and how to be more effective in your face-to-face conversations. These interactions can be a lot of fun! The conversations can be little games, and while “playing” you can improve your social and communication skills.
You Can Talk To Me. Hoy about you?
would like to talk to other people and you like listening to other people's thoughts;
want to improve your social and communication skills;
want to improve in interacting with others for a few minutes without expectations or fear;
want people to see that you care about relationships;
like to meet new people;
would love to practice how to talk about anything and how to be a good listener;
want to help others or connect with them by listening to them;
want to know the world better, through other people's experiences, thoughts and opinions;
like to try new things and to step out of your comfort zone.
Nowadays, connecting with each other face-to-face can be more challenging.
We often find that it can be hard to express our feelings and thoughts, even when we are talking with friends or family.
We tend to forget that conversations can be playful and fun.
We might be afraid to start a conversation or that we get stuck during one. Many of us experience some communication issues from time to time, but we can get better with practice.
We can get better in recognizing opportunities to connect with others and we can improve our social and communication skills by practicing conversations.
Engaging in short interactions with the people around us is a great way to get to know them better, which helps us feel that we live in a friendly and open environment.
Everyone can talk, most of us often do, but there is always room for improvement if we step out of our comfort zone! You can always practice in slightly new, slightly different situations, or with people whom with you typically wouldn’t engage in a conversation.
You can always learn new things about yourself or get to know other people better.
It can be fun and interesting to get to know the world better via other people’s experiences and stories.
In order to achieve our goals more easily, we designed “You Can Talk To Me” wristbands and badges. Wearing them whenever and wherever you feel like you are in a mood to interact with other people is a signal telling them that you are open to engage in a short, five-minute conversation – a conversation with no particular goals or expectations, just a game, for the sake of the personal connection itself. Wearing these signs makes it easier for others to know that you are ready to start a conversation as well as it encourages those who are around you to initiate a conversation with you. Wearing the signs makes it easier for people who are ready to connect to find each other in any situation.
You can order our wristbands and badges from our website or visit our festival stand at SZIN Civil Falu for cooperation games and more information about the program.
Anyone can join the initiative, but if you do, please note the following! You must accept the rules of the initiative. The rules are not strict, but you damage both your own and the initiative's credit if you do not respect them. We cannot, of course, control you or enforce them, nor do we want to, but please be aware of them and follow them if you join.
You can learn a lot from short conversations, but you might also have some bad experiences – just as in any conversation you have (e.g. feeling that you are not being listened to, meeting someone who asks questions that are too personal, having difficulty in finding a common topic, finding it hard to end a conversation that you no longer wish to continue, etc.). In this case, you should ask for help (e.g. from a trusted friend, your parents) and use this experience to learn how to avoid bad experiences in the future while still making the conversation better.
Your emotional and physical safety is very important.
If you don’t feel comfortable approaching others on your own, ask your friends to join you.
It’s okay to express your boundaries or to step out of situations that are uncomfortable for you.
Only wear the signs in places where you feel comfortable (e.g. your workplace, your own neighborhood, when you are around family members).
Don’t share personal information you wouldn’t share under other circumstances either.
Whether you talk to strangers or not is up to you, but if you do it’s important to take every precaution you would normally do when interacting with strangers (e.g. stay in public places).
If you're under 18, we recommend you check with your parents first and that you try the program at your school or at family gatherings. Also, regularly share your experiences with your parents, teachers you trust, school psychologist, etc. They can help you a lot in processing your experiences or if you encounter any difficult or unpleasant situation!
You may be happy to talk to people of your own age, for example, but not so much to people much older or younger. The same thing goes for talking to strangers. Just because you're wearing the sign and accept the five-minute rule doesn't mean you must talk to everyone, everywhere. However, if you reject someone, please do it kindly but firmly, so that the others know your boundaries, but you don’t hurt their feelings either.
Please note that some people may not always be open to a conversation, but the opportunity to talk, to know that they can come to you, can mean a lot to others! Don't be discouraged if no-one contacts you for a while. It doesn't mean that they don't want to talk to you! It could be that not enough people know about the opportunity yet, they do not know exactly what it means, or that others need more time to work up the courage, so just keep wearing your wristband and badges!