I needed pizza dough. That gave me a reason to ask somebody where it was. An ordinary errand can contain that much of an opening.
In the short grocery recording, I greeted the person and said I was trying to find fresh dough to make a pizza. I asked whether it was in the bakery. Then I followed up about sauce and cheese and said thank you.
I explained afterward that this was an example of the daily talking I had practiced. I needed something. I asked. The exchange could be short and still give me a chance to use my voice.
What did I actually have to do?
I had to approach a person, ask where the item was and respond as the errand developed. Those were the ordinary things that had once felt so difficult to me.
The questions were about what I was actually shopping for. I asked about the dough, then sauce and cheese, and thanked the person.
The example I gave using Target
I also described an imagined trip to Target. You ask an employee where something is. They tell you it is in the back corner. You can thank them and go get it.
Or you might say something about how far they must walk during a shift: “I bet you walk like two miles here.” In the example, I imagine that they might laugh and agree that it feels like they walk forever.
Then there is another choice. You can keep talking or go get the item. The imagined answer was part of my illustration. I used it to explain how interest in a response could turn a practical question into a little conversation.
A conversation while waiting for food
In a group call, I told a story about going into Tropical Smoothie to collect food I had ordered on my phone. It seemed slow. A woman and her child were waiting too.
I asked how long she had been waiting for her food. We went back and forth for about four minutes, until her order was ready. That was my recollection of the encounter.
The wait gave us something in common. I had a question about something happening right there. I didn't need to invent a long introduction about myself.
The next part comes from the answer
The same idea shows up in the cookies conversation. I asked a man about the food he was looking at, and he told me he couldn't eat it because he was diabetic. I had to respond to his answer, not the one I might have imagined.
That is the follow-up work I practiced: hear the person, get interested and see what comes next. Sometimes there is more to say. Sometimes the errand is complete, and a thank-you is enough.
A grocery store or another ordinary place gave me chances to work on those things. I didn't have to make every conversation into a major event. I wanted to be able to do the everyday speaking my life required and learn from doing it.