How to talk to Football fanatics?!

[Rex.]

Alot of my friends often talk about the games and stuff and I myself ain't a fan of those. How should I get into their conversations?

 

[Kyrbi0]

Why do you want to get into their conversations?

 

[Rex.]

You know... I don't want to be seen as antisocial and also, being alone isn't great.

 

[Kyrbi0]

Well, alrighty then.

Thing is, the funny part is that even football fans aren't all that different from game fans; fans of any kind follow similar trends. Both get excited about a very specific subset of the human experience, for example.

You might have to gain some football knowledge in order to talk to them. I'm not sure there's a way around that, unless it's sufficient for you to simply 'leech' off the conversations (i.e. laugh when everyone else laughs, nod your head like you know what's going on, etc).

 

[Rex.]

European soccer.

Man, there are so many league and matches and I can't one which relates to what they're talking about!

 

[Rex.]

Universal I guess. Mostly UK,europe leagues.

 

[Chaosy]

I don't see the issue.

I played football for 7 years, but I never watched pro matches.
This is basically what most fans talk about.

It's not any different now when I am not longer playing.
However, my friends know this and are accepting of it.
I generally ask things, which works since I don't need to know much in order to do that.
"Where are they in the standings?"
"Which team do/did you think will/would win?"

Questions such as those work for every match.
And my friends are happy to answer because it makes them look smart lel.

 

[Dr Super Good]

How should I get into their conversations?

Well any combination of having a lobotomy, suffering a neurodegenerative disease, being concussed or deprived of oxygen would help with having a conversation about football (soccer to people from the US). I guess if you are referring to a kind of rugby (American football) it is probably the same but if you ever played it chances you already have one of the previously listed health problems.

More seriously you need to question if they really are your friends. When I was going to highschool all the male kids used to do was talk about football, drugs and sex. Suffice it to say that none of them I considered true friends, and most of them I avoided talking with.

Later when I went to university I met much nicer people who did not want to talk about football at all.

 

[Alok]

Go play FIFA or PES, that way you can learn much about football through your own field of gaming.

 

[SA Dashie]

Talk to them about other things and try to find out their other interests and they should understand that you don't have much interest in the sport.
There is no point in hanging around them if you can't relate or enjoy being around them.

 

[Shadow Fury]

This situation reminds me somehow of my own friends at school. They don't talk about football but about other topics I'm totally not interested in. Do you know what I do? I don't even try to take part in these conversations and prefer to stay "anti-social" until a good argument is raised.

 

[Kyrbi0]

Why are they 'friends', if they don't share your interests?

 

[Shadow Fury]

Why are they 'friends', if they don't share your interests?

They don't necessarily have to share my interests to be called "friends". As long as we support/help each other, it's fine for me. Certainly they won't be best buddies but we all know there are very few to call as such.

 

[Shar Dundred]

I agree with Shadow Fury.
It is actually pretty anti-social to think that you cannot befriend
someone just because of different interests.
And nonsense too.

 

[Kyrbi0]

It's not that you "can't", it's that you generally "don't". What is a friend but someone with whom you share interests? Just looked it up, though, and the definition ("someone with whom one has a bond of mutual affection") seems to elucidate things a bit.

So I guess it's not that it's not possible to "share a bond of mutual affection" without having something in common, but it seems quite unlikely to me (a majority of the time, similar interests will bring new people to you that you then befriend... and even if not that, by being friends one grows to pursue similar interests, often enough).

(and not every interest, surely; I'm not saying you can't have a friend that has some different interests. Just that there will almost invariably be N shared interests, where N is 1 or greater)

 

[Shadow Fury]

So I guess it's not that it's not possible to "share a bond of mutual affection" without having something in common, but it seems quite unlikely to me (a majority of the time, similar interests will bring new people to you that you then befriend... and even if not that, by being friends one grows to pursue similar interests, often enough).

This is demonstrably false. I have befriended a guy for about 10 years without sharing any particular interest for something, although we got along pretty well and helped each other reciprocally. Does it mean our friendship was fake? No, I think not.

 

[Kyrbi0]

This is demonstrably false. I have befriended a guy for about 10 years without sharing any particular interest for something, although we got along pretty well and helped each other reciprocally. Does it mean our friendship was fake? No, I think not.

Interesting thing to say, since I never said it's "impossible for people to be friends without similar interest", nor that "a friendship w/o similar interests is fake". In fact that idea never entered the conversation.

What I said, if you read the very post you Quoted, is that "it seems unlikely to me", largely because whether it's a cause or effect, friendships often end up as "people with mutual interests" (i.e. either you have mutual interests & thus come into contact, get to know & befriend them... Or you become friends for other reasons & thus spend time together, eventually developing mutual interests). Not "always", not "every time", not "no exceptions", and certainly not "and if so, it's faaaaaake".

 

[Shar Dundred]

I see what you mean, @Kyrbi0, I really do, but this post of yours:

Why are they 'friends', if they don't share your interests?

is saying that they are no friends without sharing interests. That is horribly wrong.

I understand that you have changed your point of view by now and have seen that such an
assumption was false.

 

[Kyrbi0]

I see what you mean, @Kyrbi0, I really do, but this post of yours:

is saying that they are no friends without sharing interests. That is horribly wrong.

I understand that you have changed your point of view by now and have seen that such an
assumption was false.

Thanks.

Sure, but like, then Quote that or something. It's obvious that it was merely the first in an ongoing conversation, though, so like you said, my position has evolved somewhat.

 

[Shadow Fury]

not possible = impossible if I am not mistaken :3

 

[Kyrbi0]

not possible = impossible if I am not mistaken :3

Once again, reading comprehension:

Quote: "So I guess it's not that it's not possible"
i.e. "(I guess) it is not that it is 'not possible'..."

 

[Shadow Fury]

Once again, reading comprehension:

Quote: "So I guess it's not that it's not possible"
i.e. "(I guess) it is not that it is 'not possible'..."

Didn't see the first "not"!