How to approach or "get to know" someone?

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When I was a child and oftentimes didn't play with other kids, my dad told me to approach them.
I told him that I didn't want to, because I have no idea what I'm supposed to say to them.
He told me to simply say "Hi, my name is ..., what's your name?", and then "Do you want to be my friend?"

That worked wonderfully in the playground context, and until about the age of 9-10. After that age, this wonderful trick ceased working and very often resulted in bullying.

Now, as a 20 year old adult who obviously doesn't play on the playground anymore, how do I approach someone?
What do I say? As far as I know, you need to first introduce yourself. But how do you do it? Does it depend on the context? What do you do after introducing yourself?

You don't always need to introduce yourself, although you can, and average reactions will depend upon the type of community. Why do you want to approach people anyway ? Have they some kind of expertise that they can use to help you with something ? Are you just hungry and was wondering if they were going to finish eating all of their food nor not ? (I have done this before to try and get free food which sometimes works to get free food if they ordered too much to eat)

Did you need a foreign-language partner and suspected that they might be someone who speaks another language ? Are you taking a survey for some kind of opinion-poll and want to know if they can spare a few minutes to answer some questions ? Hey, I got an idea, you can watch examples of how some people approach others... something like this video-clip perhaps...?

I know you can figure something out if you just witness enough examples. Let me know if you want me to find more for you.

Hi, my name is ______, what do you think about _____(fill in the blank was something you both have in common, such as the university, or the weather, or anything really). Within five minutes you'll know if you're going to click or not.