Hmm Jaradu, sounds pretty bad, man, surely you can't be that nervous. I used to be like that till around age 17, I found that one way to combat it is to take on the "I don't give a shit" attitude and soon you'll realise that you DON'T give a shit if a girl doesn't like you or thinks you're stupid, cos there're plenty more out there. Once you achieve "don't give a shit" status, you increase in confidence (albeit for the wrong reasons)
Nowadays, I am told that
a) I scare girls (by the girls themselves)
and
b) I am sleazy (by my male friends)
a) I don't know why, but my last 2 girlfriends have said that it's because of my height, build and loud voice. Most girls are little compared to me, so they are intimidated...not good
But guess I managed to win them over with my charms in the end.
b) This is bollocks! It mostly arose because I was captain of the badminton club while doing my first degree and I felt it my duty
to talk to all new people arriving in the club - I can't help it if the days I felt dutiful, the new arrivals were mostly female!
I guess I'm on a constant evaluation mission - I get the "hi, what's your name, what course do you do, and how old are you" out the way for every girl, then you can work on the ones that don't put you off from the start
But going back onto topic, I've never used chatup lines except as jokes to people who knew I was joking, so it doesn't count. I couldn't pull them off. Just talk to them and show an interest - I agree with the notion of posing open questions - it works well - a guy who can ask intelligent questions is apparently better than a guy who talks a lot.