Small talk in German

As I said previously, this weekend a friend of my wife came to visit us from Köln (Cologne). The city is around Bonn, the previous capital of (Western) Germany before reunification. But that's not what I am going to talk about. Is about doing small talk in German.

First of all, I am happy. Before, months ago, when we met her friend, we were speaking in English the whole time, and when she was speaking in German with my wife I was missing 90% of the conversation. And now, I hardly miss a bit of the conversation and I am even able to take part in my broken German. And that feels really good. I feel I am making progresses in the language.

On the other hand, when learning German, there are some things that come along. Such as doing small talk with people. Normally, I don't like doing small talk, I prefer saying nothing than saying something stupid, irrelevant or superfluous. But when I have to, I do, much to my dislike. And now, I must do small talk in German. What a horror! I must think of something irrelevant to talk about, and then the correct grammatical structure in German. And then later expect the reaction of the people: are they not answering because what I said was stupid? because they did not understand what I said? should I care and do more efforts when I don't really care about this conversation?

Anyway, I tried my best, and I think it went pretty well. On the other hand, if you are wondering what is the best subject for small talk in Germany? Don't doubt about it: the weather. It is perfect and it is taken very seriously.

The photo above, is my coffee machine.