A Horse of a Different Colour

Chit-chatting. A fairly universal human activity. "How was your day" "Who d'ya think'll win the next match" "Do you consider the fact that many urban poor people are a minority to be evidence of continual racism" You know, the usual.

Yes, apparently the normal give-and-take of friends around coffee has extreme variants. When the other American girl and I get together for breakfast, we go an hour easy chatting about trashy reality tv, who we think should win Top Chef, and whether Eric or Bill is the dreamier vampire. When you throw a Brit into the mix, conversational topics are slightly elevated. And by slightly I mean they're so far above what I'm used to I've had to silently swig my way through philosophical banter before escaping to a discussion about Coors Light.

But those of course are the two extremes. Fortunately I've hit upon a few tactics to help me gain some intellectual ground (or at least appear as though I've done so).

1) Do not, under any circumstances, try to keep pace with your English conversational partners when it comes to beer/wine/liquor. They'll drink you under the proverbial (or literal) table while gently reminding you that the empirical data concerning individual or national emancipation shows... (that's when I shifted over to another group who were talking about Coors Light) You've no chance of making a valid reply much less understanding what they're saying or, indeed, keeping them completely in focus.
2) Ask questions. Generally, a group of post-grad intellectuals will all be very well versed in their own area, especially if you're fortunate enough to end up around a bunch of PhD students. And that's not your area, so obviously you should be completely ignorant! This way, you seem (and probably will become) interested, and (more importantly) aren't required to voice any opinion or learned reasoning. Oh, well, but you always have to be careful not to ask a stupid question. In fact, to avoid that, just go ahead and observe rule
3) Just don't talk. Smile, nod, frown, shake head, do what you have to do to look like you're following the flow of conversation all the while thinking to yourself, "I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts, there they are all standing in a row, I really did like the Lion King. Really Disney is quite brilliant. I should see if I can find that on YouTube when I get back... or maybe I'll watch that video of the baby laughing at weird noises. That's cute. I don't want a baby though. I still can't believe Harper cried for an hour because she wanted a cookie."

Honestly, though, I can keep pace with almost everything people chat about here. It's only when people delve off into their particular fields where I pretty well lose grasp of my own sanity. But it's what post-grad work is for. Exposing yourself to new ideas that will hopefully inform and aid the studying of your own field. Maybe by the end of the year I'll not only be able to tell the difference between different English accents (right now everyone either sounds like Hugh Grant, Eddie Izzard, or Keira Knightley), but I'll also be able to chit-chat with everyone I know knowledgeably... or at least without looking like a fool.

At least that's my dream.