Young men can be rather nervous of women and assume a shy, taciturn lass is thus because she does not like them. But if you get them talking about themselves they can generally keep the conversation up without much help for longer than you might imagine. If you can avoid looking totally bored, the ones worth having will eventually become sufficiently intrigued to ask you about you.

I did have the most terrible trouble with this sort of thing in my distant youth being absurdly shy, but in my early twenties my career took me to the big city, and becoming somewhat desperate and knowing no one in the metropolis, I used the personal ads to find dates - it was huge fun and I met many really great young women, if not find love. But it kind of boosted my vestigial dating skills so I was ready when the real thing came along!