Yesterday in class we were talking about the differences in communication between men and women. In a nutshell, women talk as an end in itself, and men talk in an effort to achieve something (whether that's an answer to a question, or to solve a problem, etc.).
This came up in a conversation I recently had with one of my boyfriend's residents - we'll call him Jeremy. He was expressing his frustration with a female friend from back home. He was saying how she felt that he didn't care anymore because he never talked to her anymore, and he was frustrated because he has a different life now than he did in high school and he can't just talk all the time anymore. I talked to him about how men and women communicate differently and for different reasons, and this seemed to really resonate with him. The conversation went something like this:
Me: I think she wants you to talk to her just because. Girls talk as a way of expressing how they care. Girls talk just to talk. Guys talk to get something.
Jeremy: Yeah, that makes sense, I guess. I mean, I don't really initiate a conversation unless I need something.
Me: Exactly. Why do you think girls go to the bathroom in groups of 10? We'd miss out on the opportunity to talk some more.
Seth: Yeah, if guys talked to each other in the bathroom, they'd get punched in the face.
All that just to say, I'd never really thought of the differences in communication between genders like that before. And to be able to apply that to help someone...that was really wonderful.
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