“At some point, wasn’t it easy just to walk up to someone in the
playground? It wasn’t a struggle to say something appropriate.”
Anesh never lets a language barrier stop him from talking to anyone he meets,
and he doesn’t think you should either. His Toronto ESL students become
confident English speakers by starting conversations with strangers in public
When a multiple homicide in Robbie’s Florida community hit close to home, he
wanted to do something to help. So he began a foundation to encourage
strangers to talk to each other—to comfort and support each other, and to find
solutions to problems like gun violence. He believes he’s not “training”
people to talk to strangers so much as reminding them how to do something most
of us instinctively understood as children.
We chat about the great things that can happen when people start talking to
each other; the things that can go wrong, and how to handle them; and the best
way to start a conversation out of the blue (a simple compliment goes a long
Guests
Anesh Daya has been teaching,
managing, and developing English as a second language (ESL) programs in Taiwan
and Canada since 2001. In 2009, he started On the Spot Language, an innovative
activity-based English language immersion program, which he developed to help
students effectively use their English outside the classroom. On the Spot
Language has won several awards, including the Jusoor Disruptors Lab
Competition. In 2017, students voted it BEST ESL school in Toronto.
Robbie Stokes Jr. holds a degree in
Management Information Systems from Florida State University. After
graduating, he launched Stokes Consulting Group; he also assisted the national
president of his fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha, in Atlanta, GA. He relocated to
Washington, D.C., where he was an event coordinator for a congressional
delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives. Finally, Robbie decided to
follow his dreams, and founded “I Talk to
Strangers”, a social movement whose
philosophy encourages and challenges individuals to create genuine
relationships through meeting new people. His motive is to push a new idea:
that meeting new people increases personal and professional opportunities,
experiences and lessons learned. Robbie has traveled the world, meeting
people, documenting his journey through a soon-to-be-released film and book,
participating in numerous speaking engagements, and encouraging everyone he
meets to talk to strangers.
Show Notes.
On the Spot Language, Anesh’s Toronto-based ESL
The I Talk to Strangers Foundation.
