Dear Dr Date,

I don't have any problems talking to my male buddies about sports, beer and guy topics. But whenever I'm with the girls, they just want to talk about shopping, desserts and girly stuff. How can I relate to this?

Yours, Lost Leonard

Dear Leonard,

If you find yourself in unfamiliar and uncomfortable conversational terrain, you can bridge from these to your favourite topics. See today's article on conversational bridging for more details.

However, if you find that your best topics are all typically masculine - for example, sports, cars, cage fighting - then it would do you some good to broaden the scope of your interests.

Learn a couple of things about topics that women generally talk about.

You don't have to know much about something to have a good conversation about it. You just need to be genuinely curious.

Be interested. Search the Internet for a brief background on the topic. Then, the next time it comes up, ask her to teach you something about it: 'I like how you're so into fashion. If you were my stylist, what do you think would look best on me?'

This article was first published in The New Paper