As I understood from the discussions, ‘talk to’ has a sense of direct communication between person to person where as 'talk with' indicates an extended conversation, preferably involving more than two persons, as:
This is a serious matter and I can not keep quite. I will talk to John about it and try to resolve the issue.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Thursday he's willing to talk with the Taliban leaders in a bid to bring peace to the country
Interesting. If that's what you have understood, perhaps we should discuss it again. It seems to me that everyone has a different opinion and, therefore, few of the commentators so far have the right answer. Perhaps there is no right answer.
'Talk with' was rarely, if ever, heard in Australia when I was young. Sometime during the 80s or 90s, someone came up with the idea (perhaps from America) that 'talk to' tended to imply 'talk at', ie. a one-way monologue, and the more inclusive, touchy-feely and politically correct 'talk with' was adopted by more progressive people.
My opinion, for what it is worth, is that they mean fundamentally the same thing and always have. If you talk with someone, you talk to them and vice versa.
The following conversation never occurs, except as a disapproving correction of A by B:
A: Will you talk to John?
B: Do you mean "with John"?
A: Sorry, yes.
It doesn't occur in other contexts because there's no other reason for B's response.
