Psychobabble

I'm a firm believer that you can learn a lot about someone by analyzing the way that they play games. Whether it be basketball, football, video games, or party games, you can see a lot in a person by the way that they compete. You can see if people hate to have things not go their way. You can see the way they handle defeat, the way they handle success. You can see their level of humility. This is why I feel like I can learn more about somebody by playing a game with them than most other things, including having a conversation. Most of the time, first conversations are filled with bullshit and fronts(I'm guilty of this, but I'm constantly working on it lol.).

I think this also works, although not nearly as well, with watching movies. Some people are loud and obnoxious, regardless of whether or not other people are trying to enjoy the movie and would rather not hear their random mumblings(yeah, random mexican people at Palm Promenade, I'm talking to you -_-). Some people get way too into the movie, and get way too mad when the protagonist gets knocked down. Some people are trying so hard to not be scared that they don't allow themselves to get soaked into the movie, and avoid enjoying the movie altogether.

I'm sure that there are several other ways to get to know someone without having to conversate verbally with them.