I always love learning more about people. I think it is one of my favorite reasons for teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) and a huge benefit of being a highly relational person; I’ll be honest, a lot of my ESL classes involve having students become comfortable discussing themselves. I believe everyone has a story to tell and is interesting (although, people may argue with you on that). So, I decided: let’s get to know each other! These are 28 questions to ask friends that I came up with to help you get to know each other better.
I feel like since we’ve moved to Georgia, I am constantly asking questions to get to know someone. Sometimes it can be a little anxiety inducing, but I’ve found when I have questions to ask to get to know someone off the bat, it definitely reduces some anxiety for me 😉 . I hope these questions help you too!
28 questions to ask to get to know someone
The questions are below. Scroll down to see my answers to the questions + a pinnable image with the questions.
- What is your favorite store?
- What would be your last meal?
- How did you meet your significant other?
- What is the last new years resolution you made?
- What is an embarrassing story you can tell?
- What are your favorite phone apps?
- What is a cause you are really passionate about?
- What is the song that always is stuck in your head?
- What are things you normally save on?
- What are things you normally splurge on?
- What is your number one pet peeve?
- What is your favorite TV show?
- What is an unpopular opinion that you have?
- What was the first thing you noticed about your significant other?
- What is your favorite band?
- What would be your dream location to live?
- What is your favorite season?
- What TV show can you watch over and over?
- What pizza topping do you hate?
- Who is your style icon?
- What is your favorite type of book?
- What celebrity couple are you rooting for?
- What is your most used emoji?
- What cheesy joke makes you laugh every time?
- What helps you relax?
- What topic do you think shouldn’t be taboo?
- What is your personality type on MBTI?
- What chore do you hate doing?
MY ANSWERS TO 28 QUESTIONS TO ASK FRIENDS
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE STORE?
I love shopping at ThredUP which is an online consignment store; the shirt I’m wearing above is actually from there! I love thrift stores for home decor. We have a favorite second hand book store too 🙂 . If money wasn’t an object, I love the aesthetic of Anthropology. However, let’s be honest, I’m not going to pay $100 for a headband.
WHAT WOULD BE YOUR LAST MEAL?
I love food. I feel like there would be a lot of options here. There were three things that came to mind: my parent’s Thanksgiving meal which includes their turkey dressing, tempura sushi, or street tacos. For dessert? Strawberry cake or Italian creme cake. Basically, I’m easy to please.
HOW DID YOU MEET YOUR SIGNIFICANT OTHER?
We met on a blind date that took two years to set up. You can read the story here.
WHAT IS THE LAST NEW YEARS RESOLUTION YOU MADE?
I always make new years resolutions and quite a few of them! I also have a word of the year to create a theme for myself. I used to do monthly goals to track on it, but I switched them to quarterly. I track my goal completion everyday on my phone though.
WHAT IS AN EMBARRASSING STORY YOU CAN TELL?
I went to go see this scary movie in high school where water is apparently haunted in this building (spoiler: it turned out there was a body in the water tower for the building). Usually whatever this thing was attacked people around water or in the bathroom.
Well, after seeing this movie, I am using the restroom in a Wendy’s and all of the electricity goes out. I started screaming. I ran over to the bathroom door and couldn’t get it open. This was before smart phones so I was completely losing it and there was no light. I feel a slight push on the door and I see all of my guy friends standing outside of the door because in my terror I was pulling on the door the wrong way.
I emerge and the whole restaurant is staring at me too. Turns out that all of the electricity on that street had gone out at the exact moment I was in a vulnerable place in the bathroom haha!
WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE PHONE APPS?
Tally (I track all of my overall goals daily here), Goodreads, Fitbit, and more.
WHAT IS A CAUSE YOU ARE REALLY PASSIONATE ABOUT?
There are a lot. Removing mental health stigma. Advocating for yourself with Doctors: I should have been diagnosed my autoimmune illness from things I said at medical appointments several years earlier and had horrible quality of life for years. I was not diagnosed until I basically already knew I had an autoimmune diagnosis and had lost half of my hair.
WHAT IS THE SONG THAT ALWAYS IS STUCK IN YOUR HEAD?
I’m not sure I have many, but Devin does. I should admit that we have banned a few songs in our house because of it.
WHAT ARE THINGS YOU NORMALLY SAVE ON?
Travel, airplane tickets, clothing, home decor, and more that I put in this post here.
WHAT ARE THINGS YOU NORMALLY SPLURGE ON?
Travel gear because having wet feet or wet clothing on vacation is the absolutely worst. It takes forever to dry things out. Anything that keeps your things dry is worth it too!
WHAT IS YOUR NUMBER ONE PET PEEVE?
The smell of peanut butter literally makes me nauseous and it has for years. I also hate when I can tell people are on their cell phone when they are driving behind me. I spent a long time in physical therapy because of people not being conscious drivers in very, very basic driving situations.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE TV SHOW?
Pushing Daisies, The Office, The Good Place, This is Us, The Wonder Years.
WHAT IS AN UNPOPULAR OPINION THAT YOU HAVE?
Sometimes being a childless couple in a religious community feels like being a third class citizen. We have to work really hard socially to make friends. People often ask invasive questions about really private matters. When we go on vacation or do something fun, we have received judgmental comments about our life choices implying we’re selfish. If I gain weight or am having hormonal issues that make me carry weight in my stomach, I’m always asked if I am pregnant (often, in front of people). If I experience something hard, I’m often told it isn’t bad because I don’t have children yet. In contrast though, it makes me really grateful for the friends we have because they are amazing.
WHAT WAS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICED ABOUT YOUR SIGNIFICANT OTHER?
Devin was standing in my kitchen with his hip popped, a big smile, and twinkly eyes.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE BAND?
I used to be so into music and I’ve really dialed it back the last few years. Being interested in music takes a lot of time and during grad school, I listened to basically instrumental stuff for two years. I like everything I listened to in high school and college. Spotify spits out some great stuff for me.
WHAT WOULD BE YOUR DREAM LOCATION TO LIVE?
I really like Georgia weather, in exception for the hot summers. If we could find somewhere green with milder summers near some foothills and a lake, that would be awesome. If this place exists, tell me!!
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SEASON?
Spring and fall! I love transition seasons, being able to wear a cardigan, and all of the beautiful colors.
WHAT TV SHOW CAN YOU WATCH OVER AND OVER?
The Wonder Years.
WHAT PIZZA TOPPING DO YOU HATE?
Pineapple. Mushrooms are a close second.
WHO IS YOUR STYLE ICON?
I love Taylor Swift’s street style when she was in the vintage phase. Zooey Deschanel’s street style.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE TYPE OF BOOK?
I love any book revolving around personality psychology, self-help topics that relate to something I’m experiencing, fairy tales of all kinds, biographies of interesting people, science fiction, young adult, and the list keeps going. I like family friendly content though, which to me, means no graphic sexual details or topics. I’m not really into short stories.
WHAT CELEBRITY COUPLE ARE YOU ROOTING FOR?
I want everyone to be in a happy relationship. I’m definitely rooting for Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn though.
WHAT IS YOUR MOST USED EMOJI?
The laughing/crying eyes one.
WHAT CHEESY JOKE MAKES YOU LAUGH EVERY TIME?
A lot of them. It doesn’t take much!
WHAT HELPS YOU RELAX?
Naps!
WHAT TOPIC DO YOU THINK SHOULDN’T BE TABOO?
Mental health.
WHAT IS YOUR PERSONALITY TYPE ON MBTI?
It used to be INFJ, but now it is showing up as an INFP. I can confuse people by being outgoing in certain situations and because I am a very relational person, but I need so much down time.
WHAT CHORE DO YOU HATE DOING?
Cleaning up the animal’s cages. This is a thing that has to be done like every three days for the bunnies or they will smell us out of the house though.
