Is you...or ain't you?

Are you a good conversationalist? The art of spoken language is just as I stated, an "Art". This art must be perfected and refined, which takes many years, and sadly, some bad situations. The key is to learn from each situation and try and do better. We want all those around us to feel comfortable...What about these suggestions?

1. Keep polished on your grammar. It's always nice when we can be confident we're using proper English.
2. Think before you speak.
3. Listen carefully- listening is an art. I am trying to perfect this art, which is difficult for me because I have the gift of gab! Instead of trying to think about what you're going to say when the other person is finished talking, listen carefully to what they're saying so that you can respond properly to them.
4. Keep it clean- using profanity can often send the message that we have no other vocabulary to use in our conversations. Although you may feel this is true, there are fabulous words out there just waiting to be extracted and uttered!
5. Please and thank you...let us never forget the importance of these. I sing a little song to my children that says this over and over and talks about when to use this (thanks to their preschool teacher for helping us learn it) and these phrases never go out of style.
6. When your opinion differs from the person with whom you are having the conversation, there are many ways you may convey this without being rude. Instead of saying, "You're wrong", try saying something like, "Well in my opinion" or "In my experience" or "It seems to me". These phrases are much less threatening but still allow your opinion to be expressed.
7. Avoid gossip- if you don't get entangled in this topic in the first place, then it's easy if it arises to stop it by saying something like, "Oh, but she has such nice things to say about you" or "I really like ______, so let's talk about something else". If someone says something unkind, find something positive to say.