Casual dating can be synonymous with casual fun, and although people often confuse it with “casual sex”, things don’t escalate that fast from the first moments that you meet each other. The key to any relationship, be it casual or stable, is to know how to talk to your partner.

Most of the time that we spend with our casual dating partners is talking. Sometimes we might get stuck in an awkward topic, or launch a sensitive subject during the small talks that we have with our partners; we’re embarrassed that we can’t advance the conversation any further, but that doesn’t mean it has to be the end of the nice chat that you were engaged in and enjoying. If you’ll master our next tips, you’ll be learning in no time how to talk when you’re casual dating.

Encourage your partner

If you get stuck in a topic and run out of ideas, try encouraging the other person to talk more about him or her. People love talking about themselves, and that’s the subject they are best familiar with. Start asking questions, and remember, always be genuinely interested in your partnersand what they have to say.

Listen

To be a good conversationalist means to be a good listener, but this doesn’t mean that you have to isolate yourself from the conversation; you still need to actively engage in it. Become genuinely interested with what your partner has to say and ascertain what the other speaker is saying. Be attentive during the conversation, nod or smile, and provide good comments on the message that your partner tries to convey to you.

Get creative with what you have

Always have interesting topics at hand for conversation starters. Try to stay informed with the news, entertainment, or latest trends, so you always have something neat to start with and add to your partner’s opinions. Flirt.

Learn the rhythm

It’s just like music, and it’s imperative that you need to know when to pause and wait in the talk. If you start monopolizing the conversation and get too carried away, then the talk will begin to look more like an interrogation, rather than a friendly chat; your partner will get annoyed and eventually abandon it. This goes vice-versa. Monopolize the chat only when someone puts you in that position by showing a keen interest in you.

Use your body language

It’s a well-known fact that 55% of our communication is expressed nonverbally, through nonverbal cues, facial expressions, or posture changes. Most of the information we try to convey comes unconsciously and is accompanied by speech through these following elements, but we can also learn to express them consciously.

Nothing will ever get better without practice. You may find yourself in critical points where the small talk will begin to take a monotonous direction, and you will be forced to light up the mood, even if you’re a bit shy.

Learning how to talk when you’re casual dating is easy, once you learn the pace. You’ll begin to find ‘conversational gems’, pieces of information that could present genuine value for you, thrown in the most casual of conversations. And you’ll be surprised that you also will throw these ‘gems’ out for others. We can learn so much more and have nicer, more prosperous and enriched relationships if we only encourage, listen, and dance more in the rhythm of the words that we share with each other in our day-to-day lives.