The Forum - Etiquette

With Courtney Traub and Annick Paternoster in the studio!

This is the seventh Forum episode I’ve got to present on the BBC World Serivice.

-UPDATE- This program was made Pick Of The Week and had a lovely recommendation in the Times!

‘Always pass the salt and pepper together, even if your fellow diner has asked just for one of them’. That’s the standard advice given by countless dining etiquette manuals, one of the many rules regarding proper manners that have been handed down from generation to generation. But what if some of the rules have become outdated, silly or just wrong? And why do we have etiquette in the first place? Where do the rules of polite conduct come from and are they the same the world over?

Iszi Lawrence follows the story of etiquette across time and over several continents with the help of Annick Paternoster, Lecturer at the University of Lugano in Switzerland who has a special interest in the history of politeness; Professor Daniel Kadar from Dalian University of Foreign Languages in China, the HUN-REN Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics, and the University of Maribor in Slovenia; Courtney Traub, author and editor of the travel website Paris Unlocked; Japanese writer and cultural commentator Manami Okazaki; former Chief of Protocol at the Foreign Ministry of Grenada Alice Thomas-Roberts; and Forum listeners from around the world.

It will be broadcast on 23rd March 12:06 Local time BBC WORLD SERVICE EXCEPT EAST AND SOUTHERN AFRICA & WEST AND CENTRAL AFRICA.

Or Listen Right NOW below and on BBC Sounds: