Which Way To Effective Communication, Sir?

I sometimes resent the fact that I am no good with people. I envy my other friends who have no problem going up to a total stranger and ask for directions. Some of them are even capable of going up to a total stranger and at the end of the conversation, exchange telephone numbers. It needs no special mention that these friends are guys and are obviously up to no good, but that is something else. The main point is, they are good at talking to people whereas I suck. Completely.

And that is troubling because for the next two weeks, I am required to talk to total strangers who I have never met before in my life and ask them about how many tablespoons of sugar do they take in a day and whether or not they believe that potatoes can make you fat. Not only that, in order to hunt down these strangers, I am required to ask for directions from other strangers. It's a catch-22 situation - there is no way out of it.

Of course the optimist will tell me that this would be a very good chance to overcome my inhibitions and learn how to talk in a civil manner to people who will one day become my patients. For once, I would have agreed with that thought were it not for the fact that some of my friends were greeted by barking, flea-infested dogs rather than scowling, sugar-infested patients. These anecdotes are very much a turn off for me to get in the chummy mood.

However, I guess that I really do not have a choice. Sooner or later, I will have to start opening my mouth and stutter some unintelligent sounds which were actually supposed to come out as 'Do you believe that preparing a diabetic meal is difficult?'. Unless my short term goal is to be the most hated person in the group for not pulling his weight, I'll have to start going through my Communication Skills for Dummies book. Pronto.