What is socializing? Why do we socialize? What is the need to socialize? That’s enough questions for just a single topic, Socializing has its own benefits depending on an individual’s needs, if you socialize with other people, it can help you in plethora of matters, say you are totally new to a country or town and you need a job, socialization play a significant role in that, if you have socialized with others, you build networks and that network can one day get you a job, same is with if you want to start a business, or you are looking to buy a house, or you are looking for friends or many other thousands of things.
Being a newcomer, an individual suffers from many problems and socialization is one of those. The feeling of being away from home in a strange city with different people, different traditions, different cultures and last but not least different language is a bit harsh on them. They feel shy and uncomfortable talking to other people because they feel that they will be overseen based on their culture or a language barrier. However, they are mistaken with that fact. As I mentioned earlier socialization has its own benefits. Try being active in the community
Here are some helpful tips on how to start a conversation and be active in community:
- Eye Contact: establish an eye contact whenever you see a person walking by you and give them a warm smile, this describes your personality. Smiling is so powerful that it will attract other people to you and their perception of you would be a friendly person
- Greeting: greet people with some friendly words like “hello” or “how are you?” you can also give them a friendly gesture by a handshake as well. Introduce yourself and ask for their names. (Fun fact: research say that if you try calling people by their names, they feel happy and special)
- Take initiative of beginning a conversation: try to merge and talk with people, in the initial stages start with talking about things like weather or how their day is going or other thousand things.
- Build up a conversation: So, after the first step, try building up a conversation, I would advice you to not talk about sensitive matters such as politics, religion, economy etc. instead talk about sports or any recent phenomena or events taking place around that place, people love it when you know more about their countries and their lifestyle. For instance, in Canada, people love hockey more than anything so, it is good to have some knowledge about hockey.
- Participate: try to participate in events taking place in the community this way you will not only socialize with other people but will also learn something new in your life and that skill will help you in the future as well. You will learn skills like event planning, event management, public speaking, etc. active participation in the community is highly appreciated, this will not only help you with getting to know other people, but you will also feel welcome by other people because even though you are an immigrant you are still interested in the event neglecting the fact whether you know about the history or purpose of that even/function.
- Be you: You might have noticed this often that people try to adapt with conversation that is good, but they try to change and often end up being caught up in a conversation they might know nothing of. The only advice for it would be “Be you”. If you be yourself, you can get exactly the person with same interests but if you try to be someone else during any conversation or any community event you might end up being with people where yours and his certain interests would seem to have a clash and end up being lonely.
- Volunteer: this is the most important thing; it not only can be helpful in socializing but also will look good on your resume. Volunteering is a big thing here in Canada. Be a volunteer in several organizations such as Red cross, Big brother Big sister, Culture hub, Moncton cares and many more, you get to meet with all kinds of people and a chance to get to know each other. It even looks good on your resume if you apply for a job (possibility to get a high position with good salary). Try to blend in with that organization, think that you are a part of it, and you will feel awesome.
- Look for support: It happens with many people, the strange feeling when you are this far from your home. This shock affects certain capabilities of an individual and socialization is of them, they just not feel it right to go and start a conversation with other people. It happens with everyone for the first time, one thinks too much before connecting with people on that matter.
Please if you are suffering from this problem, just talk with someone with whom you are comfortable or give a call back at home, this will help you get over that fact. Try focusing on your skills like self-confidence, adaptation and projection. Just remember we are here for you always if you feel like you need someone to talk to just contact us and we will do everything in our hands to help you and we would love that. Our volunteers are always there for you.
These were certain tips to help you socialize with the community, they have their own world of magic, connecting with people, spending time with them, fun activities we can do with them and many other such things. Remember we get one life and make sure to live the fullest of it.
