The first conversation

Imagine you're meeting someone for the first time, and you want to get to know them better. The type of questions you ask are important, as English speakers tend to be indirect, rather than direct. The following questions, although grammatically accurate, would sound too direct for a first conversation:

What's your job?
Do you have a boyfriend?
What's your opinion of politics in this country?

Instead, try asking for the information in a different way.

1. Use an introductory phrase

So then, what do you do for a living?
Well, do you work with English people?

2. Don't be too obvious with personal questions

Rather than ask someone if they have a boy / girl friend or are married, ask in a different way:

Do you have family here?
What brought you to (name of place)?

At this point, the other person might well "open up" and mention their partner or family situation.

3. Make a brief comment about a situation, rather than asking for an opinion.

Politics is a sensitive topic, and we're unlikely to talk about it with people we don't know well in a social situation. If you're curious about someone's opinion, you could make a brief comment and wait to hear what the other person says:

This strike is causing us a lot of problems at the moment.
Terrible situation at the moment, isn't it.
Interest rates are up again.

If in doubt, the three most sensitive topics of conversation for English speakers are politics, money and religion.