Finding somebody is the easy part. These prompts are written for the harder half: having something to say that a person in another country can actually answer from their own life.
Take it into a call and see where it goes. Every prompt in the library is written to be answerable by somebody anywhere in the world, with no shared context needed.
The ordinary details that never make it into travel writing: what a normal Tuesday looks like, what people argue about, what everyone takes for granted.
For developers, designers and founders comparing notes across markets. Specific enough that two engineers from different countries find something real to disagree about.
Ask somebody who lives there. Concrete questions about places you are actually thinking of going, rather than postcard descriptions.
Language is the thing every user of this site already has in common, and it is endlessly arguable. Good for people practising, good for people who are not.
The safest possible opening that is still interesting, because everybody has taste and everybody enjoys defending it. Ask for a specific recommendation, not a favourite.
Comfortably the easiest thing to talk about across cultures, and it reveals more about daily life than most people expect.
Light arguments, not heavy ones. The point is a conversation with some shape to it, and everyone can leave still liking each other.
The human end of the app. These are the prompts that turn a stranger into somebody you talk to again next week.
Treating the list as an interview script is the fastest way to make a conversation feel like a survey. Pick one, and let the answer decide what you ask next.
An exchange, not an interview. If you ask about everyday life where they live, say what it looks like where you are. That is the part most people find interesting.
Some prompts land and some do not, and that says nothing about either person. Move to a different theme rather than pushing a question that has already gone flat.
Ask something specific enough to answer properly. "What part of everyday life where you live would surprise a visitor?" works between two strangers because it needs local knowledge only that person has. "How are you?" does not, because both people already know the answer.
Follow the detail rather than the topic. If they mention a market near their flat, ask what they buy there. Most conversations die because the second question is another opener instead of a response to what was actually said.
Anything that treats them as a representative of a whole country - "why do people there do X?" puts one person in the position of defending millions. Ask about their own life and you get a real answer.
Yes. The whole library is readable here without an account, and you can use the prompts anywhere - a call on SpeakMotive, a class, a language exchange, or a group of strangers who have run out of things to say.
Open a voice or video room, pick a prompt, and see where the conversation goes.
Start a Conversation