7 Conversation Starters For You And Your Roommate

It’s hard to start a conversation with your roommate, especially if you don’t know them that well yet. I was friends with my roommate before we roomed together in my second semester at Salem State. It was easier for me to talk to her because we already knew what the other liked. But finding topics to talk about is really difficult. These are just seven of my tricks to deciding on topics.

1. Majors

This is a generic conversation starter. It’s probably one of the most boring ones, but it certainly does help you figure out if you’ll be in some of the same classes as your roommate. This can also be talked about further. You can include classes in it, or your minors if your college requires you to take one. You can make this boring conversation starter more interesting, depending on how creative you want to be.

2. Spirit Animals

Spirit animals are definitely a more fun conversation starter. My roommate and I talked about our spirit animals all the time. It was a different animal each time we talked about it. Spirit animals are just a fun little thing to talk about that makes you excited.

There are two ways to decide on your spirit animal. Your zodiac sign tells you what your spirit animal is, although I don’t really like following that. My roommate and I just decided that whatever our favorite animal is on that specific day was our spirit animal. She even included her favorite actors or pets as her spirit animals every once in a while. There really is no limit to what you could consider your spirit animal to be, which is nice.

3. Music

This is a very easy-to-follow conversation starter. My roommate and I liked a lot of the same musicians and genres of music, which made it easy to decide what we listened to over the speakers we had. Music is something everyone likes, so this should be an easy conversation starter. Music was actually how my roommate and I became best friends, so I believe this one will work every single time. There are so many different types of music and different musicians, too. You can definitely find something music-related in common with your roommate. Then you can blast your music on your speakers, too, and get yelled at by the upperclassmen.

4. Sports

Sports is another conversation starter that works a lot of the time. My roommate and I watched a lot of hockey together, but we like rivaling teams, which made it a lot more fun. Sports don’t always work because not everyone likes them. I love every sport, but my sister hates everything that’s not football, for example. So this is a harder conversation starter to use, but it will give you something to watch, too, if you can agree on a sport.

Even if you don’t like sports, though, everyone knows something about sports. It might not be a lot, and you might not know any of the athletes who play that sport, but it’s usually enough to have a decent conversation about it. My sister hates baseball, but she knows enough about it to talk to her boyfriend when he starts mentioning baseball. Even if you don’t like sports, you can still talk about it with your roommate, even if it’s just a five-minute conversation.

5. Movies/Television Shows

This is another conversation starter that might not work for everyone. My roommate did not like television shows, but we watched a lot of movies together. I found a couple of new actors to obsess over while watching movies with her, so that was a good thing. Our dorm was always where the party was because of the DVD collection we had. So we made a lot of other friends that way, too. This is a really good way to start conversations.

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My dorm building had a game room on every floor, and that’s usually where we watched the movies. A lot of people would watch the television with us, so our conversations were focused mostly on the movie we were currently watching. Movies are usually a better topic than television shows just because of how difficult it is to watch television at school. You can watch movies on your computer, and you can usually hook your computer up to the televisions in the building, so it’s much easier to talk about movies.

6. Food

The best way to start a conversation is by talking about food. Unless you’re hungry, then it’s a painful conversation to have. Everywhere you go on a college campus you see food, so it’s a safe topic to talk about. We all need food to live, which makes it a conversation everyone will gladly have. All of my friends love food, so it was a conversation topic we talked about all the time.

It’s amazing how many conversations you can have about food with your roommate and friends. We tried so many different recipes, which didn’t really come out great because we had to use the microwave to cook them. But we had some amazing conversations and bonding experiences while talking about food. We also made a lot more friends because we shared the food we made with everyone in our hallway.

7. Books

Books are a slightly harder topic to have a conversation about because not everyone has time to read. Or even like to read, honestly. I loved to read, and I always had three or four books on my desk that I would jump from. My roommate, on the other hand, wouldn’t really even read her books for class. Although, she was a philosophy major, so that could have been why. But even if you don’t like reading, you usually still have a favorite author or a book you like to read over and over again.

Hopefully, these conversation starters will work as well for you as they did for us. Let me know in the comments if you have any other suggestions!