From my experience through Swiss friends and Swiss members here, there is not a specifically Swiss set of conversation topics. Like every other nationality, there are a huge variety of interests.

Don't single out Swiss people for different conversations.

Cat torture... definitely cat torture...

My work colleagues (female, average age about 20-25) seem to talk more about their favourite bands and clothing labels than anything else... In the first month or two they wanted to clarify all the stories about Australia (Does everyone have a kangaroo in their backyard? Is it really sunny every day? What's the beach like - is the sand really that clean on every beach? Do you have a barbecue for lunch and dinner every day?). Was quite amusing hearing some of the alleged 'truth' about Australia...

They are also interested in the progress of my research on beer, and the comparison to Australian beers ... some of them have been impressed by my dedication, but not to the point of giving me tips on further areas for exploration ...

My experience is that they like to sit together at a table drinking coffee in perfect silence. For Americans, this is extremely uncomfortable. For the Swiss, perfectly normal. Go figure.

Not at around 2:30pm when all the old ladies are out for their coffee break and are chatting away like wildfire about all their boboli's and their wicked neighbor !!!

Sada, what is a boboli???????

a "bobo" is like a little scratch, a little pain or ache ... usually used for children when they hurt themselves, oh un petit bobo !!! the "li" is a Swiss German adding for all things small like Brot-Brötli, Auto-Autöli.
Sorry, this is what happens sometimes, I mix up the languages.

Don't be sorry, your command of the English Language is first rate - I never cease to be amazed by the posts of some members to whom English is not their first language

Oh thank you smackerjack

This makes me think of another subject we talk about rather often. Languages. Maybe some have noticed that quite often, the Swiss speak in English together ...

I've got a good friend (Swiss) who always talks to her (also Swiss) boyfriend in English.
Some of their Swiss friends look down on this as posing, but as she is one of my
English students, I'm happy that she does this to keep up her command of the language. It's also a kind of bond between them.
I think it's great.

Apart from politics, culture & places, I see them taking a lot of interest talking about sports/games (football, F1, ice hockey, badminton, biking, hiking) and many of them like keeping fit. You can surely initiate a conversation on wine & swiss-german language. Some of them are fine to talk about family/kids/woman including cracking wife-jokes, which possibly is a common topic in all cultures ! I spend a lot of time managing customer (banking) relationships and very regularly I meet new people. I make it a point to ask the hobbies and then try to make some conversation around those. However, it's important to know who you are talking with and it's advisable to start conversation on standard/common things and then try finding his interests as you along.

[quote=CHexo;483135]SVP - Schweizerische Volks Partei - It certainly has nothing to do with the NPD! Not even close! Get your facts right!
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NPD ?? Not at all. The Deutsch-Nationale Partei was important in the 1920ies, was NOT right-wing extremist, and in 1933 hoped to get Hitler and the NSDAP into the parliamentary system by entering into a coalition.
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The NPD can be regarded as a successor to the NSDAP, the Deutsch-Nationale Partei however was somewhere between what in Switzerland now are FDP and SVP, and was dominated by the leadership of industry.
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Also the Deutsch-Nationale Partei was liquidated after the Reichstagbrand.

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Sure, as many Swiss Germans speak better English than French or Italian, and many French/Italian speakers speak better English than German

I agree with this completely! It depends of your socio-economic surrounding what you hear more and what you hear less. The people I have contact with talk a lot about political and social/sociological issues, sports are non-existing whereas if I go to public gathering places the latter seem to be omnipresent.

Boboli's? Thank you for that. I thought you might have meant Buberli's Buber as in Junge, boychen's.

1989 stint in Zurich we had a Swiss Spitz we got at a tierheim near Zug. Walking him the next day I still remember the first sweet old lady that came up and told me I had ein Schoene Boob. Culture shock which my husband found hilarious.

Just wondering if anyone knows what the talk is at the Schiessen get togethers.

Misunderstanding! She meant "än schöne Bueb", a nice boy. Seldom, though, but you may call a dog a boy. That's Schwiizerdüütsch which doesn't always make sense

Mondays - kantonal cheese vote
Tuesdays - Laundry room gossip
Wednesdays - the relative origins yodelling
Thursdays - cuckoo clock discussion
Fridays - the artistic merits DJ Bobo
Saturdays - sausage gossip
Sundays - silence

what? no chocolate? I want some chocolate too !!!

Sorry but that sounds like the BBC Radio 4 morning schedule.

My answer to the title of the thread "what do swiss like to talk about" today is: anything and everything, loudly, enthusiastically and constantly and within close proximity of me trying to read my blasted book on the train .

Wow, wow and again wow... you lucky girl. What a lovely thing to happen. We all wait for that moment but it usually never comes.. so you give us hope Nothing like a man with humour

Yes i feel very lucky thanks, it was hard in the beginning we had to wait 1 yr before i could move over here to be with him so had to do with letters, phone calls, and once a month 1 of us would fly to the other (oh god how the tears i have cried at the airport)

I hope people who have not met that special person yet does so soon