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Miss Manners: I assumed People should not curtsy to international royalty?

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Pricey Miss Manners: In a TV present about Prince Harry and his spouse, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, they described the primary time Meghan met the queen. This was after they have been nonetheless relationship, so she didn’t have any royal titles. She was an American citizen, not British royalty.

I heard that Harry informed Meghan on the final minute, within the automobile on the way in which to the assembly, that she was going to should curtsy to the queen. The one factor that Meghan apparently questioned was whether or not she knew how, and whether or not she would do it effectively sufficient.

However I used to be all the time taught, whilst a baby, that after the American Revolution, People didn’t curtsy to international royalty. Am I incorrect? Was Meghan required to curtsy to the monarch of one other nation, simply because she was relationship the monarch’s grandson?

Does it should do with what place one holds in the USA? For example, if the president and his spouse go to the queen (or now the king), is the primary woman anticipated to curtsy? Or is it merely that Americans don’t curtsy to royalty, however as an alternative present respect in different methods? In that case, what are they?

What ought to Meghan actually have been anticipated to do?

You’re fairly proper that Americans — and particularly American officers — shouldn’t present obeisance to international potentates, which is what a curtsy (or bow) symbolizes. Nor do British diplomats present this to anybody besides their very own monarch.

Not creating offense is one other diplomatic goal, and never just for skilled diplomats.

Miss Manners can think about that this issue would prevail with somebody who’s about to satisfy her future grandmother-in-law and whose future husband has knowledgeable her of that individual’s expectations.

Pricey Miss Manners: My boss and I’ve the identical diploma in our discipline, which we every acquired at roughly the identical time. When he writes out his title — in his e-mail signature, for instance, and in his biography on the group’s web site — he consists of each the honorific related to the diploma earlier than his title and the letters after it (e.g., Dr. John Smith, PhD).

After I acquired my diploma, I used to be taught that it was incorrect to do that in writing — that one may embrace the honorific (Dr. John Smith) or the letters (John Smith, PhD), however not each.

Possibly that is trivial, however we work in a setting the place model, grammar and custom are of key significance. My first query is: Am I right in my understanding? And second: In that case, might I counsel that he treatment this little error?

New Miss Manners columns are posted Monday by way of Saturday on washingtonpost.com/advice. You’ll be able to ship inquiries to Miss Manners at her web site, missmanners.com. You too can observe her @RealMissManners.

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