Its one of those things, "If you have to ask, You're out of luck".

One thing I always I forget: When you meet someone for the first time (I mean casually, like when walking your dog or something), introduce yourself if you're not introduced by someone else. Because if you don't, by the time you meet for the fourth time, it becomes a bit awkward when you talk about all sorts of stuff, but don't know their name. And especially when the other person somehow knows your name and expects you to know theirs, but you don't, and you can't just ask, and it becomes really awkward. I think there was a Seinfeld episode about this once. I don't remember how he solved the problem though...

About that book, here's an online copy: http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/~alistair/survival/

No, he didn't. It's the episode where he doesn't remember his girlfriend's name so tries asking whether she had any funny nicknames at school. She replies something like "of course I did, because my name rhymes with a part of the female anatomy". Queue a hilarious not-quite half hour of names that rhyme with parts of the female anatomy. She eventually walks out on him when he can't remember her name, but then he gets it: Delores.

Ahh, University of York students. Truly the greatest on earth!

You are a student right? If so you could start working for your student union and be a bartender or something else where you meet lots of people.

True, and very important.

It's also good to end the conversation when you want it to end. And end with something nice. The most important thing is to mark a clear ending so that both of you knows that it's time to do something else now. I think it's a good advice anyway.

Practice, really.

I'm sort of realizing that mine aren't up to snuff, either. For all of my high school life I was comfortable with the group of friends I had, so I didn't have to exercise my social skills.

Now, in college, I am having to make new friends. It's slow-going, but I'm making some progress. Some people know me, I am communicating with people, people recognize me and my work, so that's a start.

So, I will leave you with two things that I have learned:

1) As Nike suggests, just do it. If you are nervous about talking to someone or unsure of how to break the ice, just go for whatever comes to mind. It will get you talking, and even if the ice-breaker is the lamest thing ever, it will soon be forgotten.

2) Don't get too caught up in trying to say the "right" thing. If you take your time coming up with the perfect thing to say, you will probably miss the perfect time to say it. Conversations are musical; there is a beat and a melody. Just focus on the conversation. Go with the flow, I guess is what I mean to say.

Edit: My favorite ice-breaker to date is "What's blue and smells like red paint?" (answer: blue paint) People will either laugh or hit you, and the latter is a good indication that these are people you don't want to be friends with anyways.

You should Dragon Punch (tm) those ones.

Back in High School, I knew this girl who I became pretty good friends with. Problem was, I could never remember her name, even after being told to me once or twice before. This went on for 6 months! I'd be like, "Hey..." and hope that she'd turn around. Finally, I asked my other friend, "Ok, what is her name!?" He laughed for about five minutes straight.

Anyway, back on topic. If you're just wanting basic social interactivity with other people (aka, clubs, class, in the union, etc.), the key is to not care. You'll either befriend people or annoy people.

If you're talking social polite-ness, as if in the working place, try Tae-kwon-do.

[edit] Wrong thread!

Basically, ask yourself this: Do you 1) Really want to interact with people because you share a common interest, or 2) Do you want to reap the benefits of social interaction?

If 1), it all comes down to daring to talk about subjects you know things about. If 2), learn how to manipulate people.

Personally, I'd find that annoying. I don't like being forced into a conversation with a stranger on the bus/train... It's harder to move away from the person or avoid them considering I'm sitting in a relatively small enclosed space. So yeah, I don't like that suggestion because there are a lot of people like me out there.