Meeting people on the train

Talking to strangers has always come naturally to me because I like chatting with people. For example, a long journey on the train can be well spent chatting with the person sitting next to you, if that’s OK with them. I remember one journey when I was sitting next to a young woman, and we were talking about dialects. She was Swedish-speaking and I am Finnish-speaking, but that didn’t slow down our conversation. I had been long wondering about a Swedish phrase, and she explained its background to me.

The rest of the trip was spent very nicely discussing dialects. I remember that conversation with gratitude, because that encounter reinforced my belief in how strangers of different ages can get answers to questions they may have, as long as they have the courage to ask.