"I believe we ought to have recourse to very simple but cozy and comfortable remedies indeed for combating shyness. It is no use to try and console ourselves and distract ourselves with lofty thoughts, because we only become more self-conscious and superior than ever. The fact remains that the shyness of youth causes agonies both of anticipation and retrospect; if one wishes to really get rid of it, the only way is to determine to get used somehow to society, and not to try and avoid it; and as a practical rule to make up one's mind, if possible, to ask people questions rather than to meditate impressive answers. Asking other people questions about thing to which they are likely to know the answers is one of the shortest cuts to popularity and esteem. It is wonderful to reflect how much distress personal bashfulness causes people, how much they would give to be rid of it, and yet how very little trouble they ever take in acquiring any method of dealing with the difficulty. 

I see many undergraduates, and am often aware that they are friendly and responsive, but without any power of giving expression to it. 

I sometime see them suffering acutely from shyness before my eyes. But a young person who can bring himself to ask a perfectly simple question about some small matter of common interest is comparatively rare: and yet it is generally the simplest way out of the difficulty." 

Arthur C. Benson.