Where are you going?

Driving up the dirt road, with her friend Casey, Rachel suddenly sees a very old bent lady walking with a stick. She stops and pushes the old lady into the car.

...

Rachel: Where are you going?

Old lady: [points towards the shops]

Rachel: I’ll drop you at the supermarket. OK?

Old lady: Thank you, thank you.

Later...

Casey: That was a beautiful thing to do.

Rachel: It’s not difficult. She was walking up the road, we were driving up the road, so you stop and put her in the car and take her where she’s going.

Casey: Not everyone would stop.

Rachel: Keep your eyes open. There’s a lot going on we are usually too busy to think about.

___________

Voiceover

Sometimes we are too shy to offer help, or worry that it might cause problems. Casey might be such a person. Hence her admiration for someone like Rachel who acts spontaneously and gets stuck in even when it brings problems. As Rachel says, she tries to help everyone, and even though she gets taken advantage of sometimes, she learns a lot from constantly coming into contact with new people.

Perhaps speaking styles reflect this. There are those who guard what they say, are constantly editing out content. Then there are others who plunge ahead and take care of problems as they arise. Maybe it depends who you are speaking to. It probably pays to be careful of your phrasing when dealing with the police or insurance companies (the former are just waiting for a chance to slam you, and the latter are just waiting for you to slip in an ambiguity so they can slam the door). However, in the conversational arena there’s a lot to be learned when you bump up against people.

...