Answer and then immediately pivot¹.

回答问题后立刻转移话题。

If you can pivot to something people will want to talk about, so much the better.

如果能转移到人们想谈论的话题上，那就再好不过了。

For example, your family member asks you "What should we do about Syrian refugees?" and you don't really want to get into a fight.

比如，家人问你；“我们该怎么应对叙利亚难民？”你真的不想引起争执的话。

"I think we should be a welcoming country. For example, Donald Trump² is the son of an immigrant, and a couple of his wives are immigrants too. I think a more urgent problem is the decline of the American family, celebrity³ culture and throwaway marriages..."

就说：“我认为我们国家应该开放，比如唐纳德·特朗普是移民的儿子，他的几任夫人也都是移民。我觉得更紧迫的问题是美国家庭的衰退，名人文化和随意的婚姻……”

A great technique is just to use the connector "yes, and…." or "yes you’re absolutely right and….."—you can then alter the conversation as you wish.

有一招很好用，就是只说过渡语“是的，而且……”或“是的，你说的很对，而且……”，然后你就可以随意转移话题了。

By using such agreeable words, the brain is more likely to accept whatever comes next—it isn’t primed to critique or defend and is therefore much more accepting of a change.

通过使用类似表示赞同的词，大脑更有可能接受接下来的内容——这样说不是为了批评或辩护，因此更容易让人接受话题的转变。

When dealing⁴ with challenging people who are a little difficult or perhaps speaking out of turn, the tip that I give is to turn a stupid question into a new conversation.

遇上不好对付的人时，比如这个人不随和或说话很鲁莽，那我给你的建议就是把愚蠢的问题换成新对话。

The way you do this is to focus on the person who is speaking.

你可以把焦点转移到正在说话的人身上。

People love to talk about themselves, so the way to change a conversation without them noticing is to ask them a question about themselves—whether it’s maybe a recent vacation or something about their children or grandchildren or something they like to do.

人们喜欢聊关于自己的事，所以转移话题还不引起对方注意的方法就是问一个关于对方的问题——可以问对方最近的假期或关于他们孩子或孙子的事，或他们喜欢做的事。

Whatever it is, turn the focus on them rather than you, that way it’s not so noticeable.

无论谈什么，都要把焦点放在他们身上而不是你身上，这样就不会引起对方注意了。