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How to deal with aggressive openers?
Hey all, this is my first time writing on this forum. Glad to join you guys :)
I have just came across a post regarding aggressive openers earlier and it made me think of a situation years ago when I was in class:
I was there with my friends, and one of them had brought two friends along to the class. The two guys are handsome and are very confident. Halfway through the class one of the guys looked to me (I was not sitting beside him by the way, our mutual friend was between us), and said: "Hey dude, can I take a look at your notes?"
Immediately I felt so offensive. I have never met this guy in my life and he just called me a dude. Since I didn't know him at all (we haven talked since he joined mid class and our mutual friend did not introduce us), I did not stand back and just hand him over the notes.
What would you have done in this case? After reading about the aggressive openers thread I noticed my story might be similar, but just simply "ignoring" and stay unfriendly apparently does not work in this case?
I think one possible reply would be
Hey, I'm Mr Y. What are you studying?
This shows him the ettiqueue of introducing yourself and avoids folloing his lead.
Maybe later you can even say
Finding this subject challenging?
You can also go for the collaborative frame
I'm in the midst of preparing them. We can exchange notes later when convenient
Instead of him taking for free, you suggest a fair exchange.
