I am having some problems talking to girls and I am wondering whether I am somehow supposed to talk to them differently in certain aspects than when I talk to guys.
Background is this: I am a guy in his mid twenties who has no experience with girls (virgin, never been kissed, etc). In addition to that I have had very limited interaction with the opposite sex and am not very social so my social skills may lack at times.
I am on a graduate trainee program at a leading recruiter and in the scenarios described here all my colleagues are people in their early to mid twenties, i.e the same as me.
Anyway we work in small teams that change from time to time and I have two female colleagues, a few years younger than me who I quite like (not in the romantic way, though they are rather pretty, but just as people). They however seem to dislike me (though this isn´t 100% confirmed either).
Anyway both of them said that I am a bit weird and that I "insult them". I know I have my quirks so that weird part is justifiable but the insulting thing bothers me. I am not a very vocal person but every now and then they´d say something so illogical (like claiming that they can´t control themselves when shopping and hence end up spending too much money) that I have to say something back at them. I always do this in a lighthearted way, like on a sitcom where the characters rip on each other but not in a mean way but in a way that is generally quite funny (I have to admit that due to my lack of real social interaction combined with a simultaneous diet of sitcoms has perhaps affected my sense of humor and how I speak). I do this with guys all the time and guys do it to each other and much more harshly but nobody ever gets mad. Sometimes I just say some weird things that no guy would ever give much second thought to and would brush off as humor but these girls seem to get offended by it. Basically banter, when I do it with guys it always goes well and when people hit me with banter, I also take it well and as humor. However these girls seem to take it seriously, as if I am actually meaning to offend them.
Another example was when the other day I said something (that was very practical and relevant to our activities) relating to a certain rule that the girl thought was different. I repeated myself (as I had recently read up on this and knew I was right) and she insisted the opposite. I then went to the source material and proved that I was right (not in a mean teasing way, simply looking something up matter of factly) since this really affected our current situation and in fact would prove to be of benefit to her as well. Instead of thanking me or just saying nothing like a guy would have, she actually got offended by it and said "why are you making this into such a big argument" when in fact I was calm and cool all the time and simply proved something I knew was right.
I am just wondering what exactly am I doing wrong here when talking to girls. Is it these particular females that behave this way or am I doing something systematically wrong when talking to girls?