Dear Queenie,
Some friends of mine have awful table manners. They take huge bites of food and don’t keep their mouths closed when they chew the food. They put their elbows on the table to lean on them and keep their faces close to their plates.
They have lunch with people they work with who I think must have noticed their terrible table manners. I would think their bosses would have noticed and customers will have seen it too if they eat with them.
They are basically very nice people, but their awful table manners might be keeping other people from wanting to get to know them and could be keeping them from getting ahead in their jobs or could even keep them from getting a job if they happen to eat something where a prospective employer could see it.
Queenie, is there anything I could do to help them learn better?—Disgusted friend
Dear Friend,
This is a very sensitive matter, because your friends will probably be offended if you try to correct their manners.
Perhaps you and several other friends could get together, with the offenders present, and talk in general about what you were taught about table manners, without specifically pointing a finger at anyone.
Also, I have often thought that it is so easy these days to record something that offends you and show it to the offender so that they can see for themself how they look to other people, but that is a rather drastic action to take.
