Charisma from talking to other sims?

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My sim doesn't currently any levels of the charisma skill. I didn't even know that was a possible skill until I happened to read about it here in the skill guides (started playing recently). I've been playing for several sim weeks now, and I socialize with other sims on a regular basis. I don't understand why I haven't attained at least a few levels from these numerous conversations. I'm aware of the acquaintance/friend thresholds, and I think I have plenty to satisfy the first few levels. Probably have at least a dozen acquaintances and 3-4 friends.

Since I didn't know this was a skill, I wasn't going out of my way to learn it. Do I have to get the skill started by reading or talking to a mirror before talking to other sims will count?

[TheTripWasInfraGreen]

Yes, you do have to get it started with a book/class/the mirror, but it will raise from regular interactions after that.

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Thanks for the quick reply. I admittedly read right over the charisma class heading (from the Learning Charisma page) that would have answered my question. Even so, there's a bit of a contradiction by the highlighted sections below (also from the Learning Charisma page). Just offering some feedback that this is a little confusing to us newbies. Great guides though!

Thankfully, there are enough ways to raise charisma in the The Sims 3 that it doesn't have to be boring. Three options are available to help raise the skill while mixing it up a bit. First, to those interested in making a Sim that masters the charisma skill, or makes many friends in the neighborhood, be sure to take the charismatic trait. If your Sim will someday want to complete all the charisma challenges, consider taking the good sense of humor trait because it will help with the joke-telling challenge. Jokes are also nice, quick actions you can use to move the friend bar in the right direction. Performing any of the below actions should allow your Sim to learn the first level of the charisma skill.
As it goes for every skill in the Sims 3, be sure to try and study charisma while your Sim is in a good mood, as it provides a boost to the learning rate. You can raise the skill much faster this way, and gain lifetime reward points while your Sim is reading his book, of course!
Take a Charisma Class
An easy way to break through tot he first level of Charisma so that you can start automatically gaining skill levels by talking to Sims is to take a Charisma Class. Where? The government building in town. It usually costs $400.
Talking to Other Sims
Of course, talking to other Sims can raise charisma. I prefer a controlled pace of learning, like with the books at the library. The trouble with relying on having your Sims socialize to raise charisma is that you must constantly queue up actions. I am glad to say that people who elect to raise the skill by chatting will definitely keep up with the friends requirements of the charisma skill. It would be tedious to use only the chatterbox route, I fear.
To help with marathon talking or joke telling sessions, invite your target friend over and have a nice breakfast prepared. Yes, breakfast. They have no idea what they're getting in to. Make sure the guest's needs are met by doing this, and maybe watching some television. Your Sim can then assail them for the better part of a day with friendly blabber.

Are there any other skills that work like this? I'm wondering what else needs to be started like this. Sounds like I've wasted sim weeks worth of interactions so far. 

[Pam]

Welcome to our Forum!

I think I see where there's a bit of confusion.  The Guide doesn't exactly say that using a mirror will start the Charisma skill.  I'll ask Carl to come by and take a look.

Also, I changed your red font to black italics to keep the post looking tidy and in keeping with the rest of the Forum.

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Welcome to our Forum!

Appreciate the welcome. I was somewhat active on the Sims Medieval site since that was my first Sims game, so I'm not all that new. Took me a while to remember that the sites were technically different when I tried to login to this one, and realized I didn't have a username here.

I think I see where there's a bit of confusion.  The Guide doesn't exactly say that using a mirror will start the Charisma skill.  I'll ask Carl to come by and take a look.

Well I think the class would work as well, correct? The first highlighted section could probably just use a quick reword to say that talking to other sims is not sufficient to attain the first level of the charisma skill. A note in the "talking to other sims" section would also help out to say that this is only effective when a level of charisma has already been achieved.

[Carl]

I've made edits to the page to help eliminate any confusion, thanks for the feedback