Embarrassing Table Manners

acwxx

I have just returned to Donegal after working away for six years. When did Donegal get such bad table manners? Is it just Donegal or Ireland in general?

Is it because that somehow education was supported and people who would have not normally got a third level education are now qualified and in good jobs? They may have salaries and job titles but I have seen an alarming amount of people in so called professional jobs during business lunches
1 actually putting knives in their mouths
2 scraping food with their knives and forks on plates, making a terrible noise
3 speaking with their mouths full
4 pointing with their knives while talking to someone
5 holding cutlery like a pen or pencil
6 holding cutlery like hammers and labour tools

do I need to go on?

Aren't these people embarrassed? They are at business lunches and have the manners of navvies.

fee fi fo fum

acwxx wrote: »

I have just returned to Donegal after working away for six years. When did Donegal get such bad table manners? Is it just Donegal or Ireland in general?

Is it because that somehow education was supported and people who would have not normally got a third level education are now qualified and in good jobs?

Manners , including table manners , have very little to do with an individuals' level of education.

Education at home perhaps, nurture , if anything.

mamakevf

TV would have a lot to do with it methinks, every eating scene is littered with all that you say.

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater

I have a feeling that people haven't changed their eating habits in the six years you've been away, rather you've changed the way you perceive people. Sounds like you lived somewhere slightly more pretentious than Donegal, maybe London or somewhere like that?

The fact that people from perhaps a more working class background have had access to futher education in recent years makes no difference in my eyes. Anyone is capable of bad table manners regardless of how privileged their upbringing.

Welcome home.

muffler

Horse to water and all that jazz

bohsboy

Check out The Four Lanterns after closing time.

sollar

Basic level of table manners is good, but not to the level of snobbishness.

Some of the ettiquete is way over the top. I don't think i'd enjoy eating with you op you'd be scanning every movement to make sure it fits your new found standards.

sweet girl

A person's geographic location has got nothing to do with table manners in my opinion

bohsboy

bohsboy wrote: »

Check out The Four Lanterns after closing time.

hahaha.

Piriz

sollar wrote: »

Basic level of table manners is good, but not to the level of snobbishness.

Some of the ettiquete is way over the top. I don't think i'd enjoy eating with you op you'd be scanning every movement to make sure it fits your new found standards.

100% agree, well said...

as another poster on boards mentioned before in relation to table etiquette; 'when you finish your meal you should lift your tray and pour the contents into the bin leaving your empty tray on top'

acwxx

sollar wrote: »

Basic level of table manners is good, but not to the level of snobbishness.

Some of the ettiquete is way over the top. I don't think i'd enjoy eating with you op you'd be scanning every movement to make sure it fits your new found standards.

My standards aren't 'new found'. We were brought up to believe that table manners are extremely important and I have always judged people on them. Of course at school, there would be people without manners, but they were usually a certain type of person. Wealth has nothing to do with it, there are so many who live in huge houses due to their father making money as a builder etc. They had money to buy the right clothes but had never been taught how to behave. Basically, their gutter roots followed them.

I am raising this now as I have never had a supposedly 'high level job' here before as I left a year after graduating. I suppose that I always assumed that if people had high level jobs they would know how to conduct themselves. I find it very difficult to have respect for a CEO who puts her knife in her mouth and cannot hold a knife and fork properly! We are due to entertain clients from another country at the end of the year and I am going to be extemely embarrassed...

Dun

Ah come on people, it's not some hoighty-toighty etiquette, it's basic table manners the original post referred to. I have noticed a drastic increase in everything mentioned above, but not just in Donegal.

In all honesty, I don't care about this in everyday life - my twenty year old brother eats no better than he did when he was about six. However in the company of strangers or in a professional setting - which the original post refers to - it's hardly out of the ordinary to expect someone to employ these basic table manners. If you don't care about how you behave in front of people, it's little wonder if people then start wondering if you approach your work in a similar manner.

implausible

Op, it's quite hard to take your points on board when you use language like this:

a certain type of person

and

their gutter roots followed them.

I suppose that I always assumed that if people had high level jobs they would know how to conduct themselves.

The implied class snobbery clouds your point - that table manners aren't seen as important any more. They aren't taught anywhere and people don't have an example to follow in society or on tv. Added to this, there is the fact that everybody is eating out more and going for a meal is no longer regarded as a formal occasion.

It is not confined to Donegal and you will certainly raise hackles by implying that it is.

homer simpson

acwxx wrote: »

My standards aren't 'new found'. We were brought up to believe that table manners are extremely important and I have always judged people on them. Of course at school, there would be people without manners, but they were usually a certain type of person. Wealth has nothing to do with it, there are so many who live in huge houses due to their father making money as a builder etc. They had money to buy the right clothes but had never been taught how to behave. Basically, their gutter roots followed them.

I am raising this now as I have never had a supposedly 'high level job' here before as I left a year after graduating. I suppose that I always assumed that if people had high level jobs they would know how to conduct themselves. I find it very difficult to have respect for a CEO who puts her knife in her mouth and cannot hold a knife and fork properly! We are due to entertain clients from another country at the end of the year and I am going to be extemely embarrassed...

The way i see this is you have a problem with the way one of your work colleague eats, its not in the slightest bit related to a general Donegal problem. Talk to people where you work if you feel that strongly about it.

Also if you intend posting in the Donegal forum again please rethink the way you make type and refrain from making generalised sweeping statements.

muffler

And the final word on this..........