Recently, I went out to a bar with my friend Nicole. I didn't actually know her well as we had only met once at a meeting. When I found myself in her town, we decided to meet up. Since we knew little about each other, we shared our stories, and she asked me many questions about my travels.
When answering her questions about what I had learned in my travels, I told Nicole that travel had greatly improved my ability to "read" people and situations.
"Oh? OK. Read my friends over there," she challenged me.
So I offered her my opinions about her friends and the other people in the bar.
"How did I do?" I asked when I had finished.
"Wow!" She was shocked.
You might want to know how I was able to get those people right. For sure, I knew nothing about mind games. I judged(判断) their personalities simply by reading their body language, facial expressions, dress, and the way they talked with one another.
I had travelled a lot before. When I was travelling, I couldn't always understand what people were trying to say to me as most of them didn't speak English. Non-verbal communication became very important. Whenever words failed, I depended on people's facial expressions. By watching how people behaved, I tried to work out how they felt about something. The tone (音调) in people's voices was quite helpful, too.
The more I travelled and the more I talked with different people, the better I became at "reading" people. If you travel widely, you will be able to develop this ability, too.
