Talking About Hobbies: Small Talk Around the World

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Text to type: Small talk is short, polite talk. You use it with a neighbor, a coworker, or a person at the bus stop. The talk is light and friendly. It does not go deep. Safe topics are the weather, weekend plans, hobbies, food, and sports. In daily conversation, hobbies are a safe shared topic, because most people like to talk about the things they enjoy. People also use related everyday talk about the weather, food, and sports to keep the chat going. This kind of talk is the same in many countries, but the favorite hobby changes from place to place. The next parts show some real examples.

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Text to type: Karaoke is a very common hobby in Japan. Karaoke means singing with a recorded band. The words show on a screen, so you can follow them as you sing. In 1971, a man named Daisuke Inoue built eight coin machines in the city of Kobe. They cost 100 yen for one song and used 8-track tapes. Today, friends in Japan often rent a karaoke box by the hour. A karaoke box is a small private room with a screen and microphones. Some people also go alone. Singing alone is called hitokara. On Monday, coworkers may ask about the weekend, and "I went to karaoke" is an easy and friendly answer.

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Text to type: Another easy weekend topic in Japan is a trip to an onsen. An onsen is a Japanese hot spring. Japan has about 25,000 hot spring sources and about 3,000 onsen places. Dogo Onsen in the city of Matsuyama is one of the oldest. There are simple rules: you wash first, and you do not wear a swimsuit in this kind of onsen. Some talk changes with the season. In late March and early April, people talk about cherry trees. Hanami is a picnic under cherry trees. Ueno Park in Tokyo has over 1,000 cherry trees, so it is a popular place for hanami. Weather talk and hanami talk often mix at this time of year.

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Text to type: In Germany, Monday talk is often about football, and very often about FC Bayern Munich. The top league, the Bundesliga, began in 1963. FC Bayern Munich play at the Allianz Arena and have 31 Bundesliga titles. Football is not only for watching. The German football association, the DFB, has about 6.6 million members, about 8 percent of the country, and over 31,000 clubs. Not all weekend talk is about a match. In Munich, people also talk about a Sunday walk in the Englischer Garten, a big park in the city. Cycling is common too. About 42 percent of adults cycled at least once in 2020.

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Text to type: In Spain, cafe talk often follows El Clasico. El Clasico is the match between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. The two teams first met on 13 May 1902, and Barcelona won 3-1. As of 10 May 2026, the two teams were tied at 106 wins each, with 52 draws. Lionel Messi scored 26 goals in these matches. In Switzerland, hiking is the big weekend hobby. The country has more than 65,000 kilometers of marked trails, many through the Alps. About 50,000 yellow Wanderweg signs show the walking time to the next place. About 2.7 million people, around 44 percent, hike often, so "Where did you walk this weekend" is a normal Monday question.

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Text to type: In the United States, sports talk is often about the NFL, the American football league. The NFL has 32 teams. The Super Bowl is the last NFL game of the season and one of the top TV sports events in the country. Remember, this sport is American football, not soccer. Family time and sports talk meet at Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday of November. A federal law fixed this date in 1941. Families eat a big meal together, and many watch NFL games that weekend. So the small talk at the table mixes food talk and sports talk, two safe topics from Part 1.

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