What's happening?

How did you spend your winter break? Did you read anything good last year? Did you hear about the earthquakeThe shaking of the surface of the Earth after a sudden burst of energy at a tectonic plate boundary. in Japan?

These are the kind of questions you might be answering this week as you come back to school. But now some expertsSomeone who knows a lot about a particular subject. say they are worried, because most young people are not very good at taking part in this kind of small talkPolite conversation about unimportant things. Also known as chitchat. .

At MichiganA state in the northern USA. State University in the USA, business students now have to take lessons in how to speak to other people.

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Teachers there say they are worried that time spent indoors and online during the pandemicAn outbreak of disease which occurs across a wide geographic area, as opposed to an epidemic, which is confined to a particular region. means today's teenagers are not very good at talking to each other.

Being able to talk and listen to others is a very important skill. When people talk and work out problems together, they become better at working things out on their own too.

And even though the world of work is more and more online, building relationshipsThe state of being connected to another person. There are lots of forms of relationships, from relationships with family, to relationships with friends or relationships with people you work with. with people is still a key part of being successful in any job.

Yes! We are losing the skills we need to speak to each other. And no matter what you want to do in your adult life, speaking to other people will always be important.

No! Small talk is useless and boring. It takes up too much time and does not really help you get to know anyone.