I have basically the exact same problem...

I talked to the first tutorial person, and I got as far as

"As a general rule, if you say the next thing an NPC told you to say, it will proceed the dialouge. General phrases are "about x" or "give me y".", or something similar. After that, I've tried tons of things, but I still haven't gotten any far. I tried talking to the other tutorial people, but I can't even get past saying "hello".

Is this a glitch, or am I just missing something?