Places to meet people in Manchester and how to approach them.

Friends can bring great joy to our lives. They listen to us when we are down, they laugh with us when we are happy, they share our successes and our failures and they entertain us. Before you can make friends, though, you have to meet people. That is the first step. So how do you meet people in Manchester?

A big city like Manchester offers many opportunities to meet people. The first rule is you start with theatres, sports clubs, coffee shops and even grocery stores in which you can make new acquaintances with whom they will be able to form friendships.

So, how do you meet people in Manchester?

Be ready yourself and make yourself someone that people would like to meet. Take care of your appearance so that you are clean and have good personal hygiene.

Be prepared with a pen and paper in your pocket or bag so that you can exchange phone numbers when you meet people if you’d like to do that, too. That way you can make contact again easily later and you are not relying on just bumping into them again if you really want to get to know them.

Go to the right places

Once you are prepared to meet people you need to find the right places to do just that. Where do people in Manchester go to socialise? These days, a really popular place to meet people is in coffee shops, and Manchester has many of those. In these coffee shops you will find plenty friendly, intelligent people with which to chat.

Make the first move

Often, people in the coffee houses of Manchester will be reading, or doing something artistic and this can give you a great way in to a conversation when you first meet them. You can break the ice by asking them about what they are reading or doing, after passing a friendly comment such as ‘that looks an interesting book’ or ‘that is very good’. It will make the other person feel appreciated and valued and they will be likely to say something positive back to you in return. That’s how conversations start.

Relax

If your first attempt to engage people in conversation in a Manchester coffee shop doesn’t work, just order yourself a drink and sit down, or go about your shopping etc. If you are visiting a coffee shop, go prepared with a book, too. Just sit down with your coffee and start to read. You may meet people who come up to you and ask you about it.

If you are in a grocery store, you may, politely, make comment on what another person has in their basket. This is particularly effective in an ethnic supermarket or up-market shop where they may have some interesting ingredients in their basket. There are many of those in Manchester so when you meet people you might have an opportunity to say ‘Oh so you like cooking Thai?’ or something like that: anything that shows a positive interest in them and is accompanied by a smile.

Once you meet people and break the ice with a first conversation, you will find it much easier to make friends. There are many opportunities to do that in Manchester.