Information

If you are invited to "dinner", expect a three-course meal. If you are invited for "little supper", expect something lighter. 7 for 7.30, means drinks at 7 and meal at 7.30.

Arriving

• Hello. Nice to see you. Come on in.

• Hello. How are you? you a small present a some chocolates.

• That's very kind of you. You shouldn't have bothered (It is not normal to reply to this last remark).

Starting the meal

• Would you like to come through/to the table now? I think everything's ready.

• Thank you. Oh, this looks lovely.

During the meal (It is polite to make a comment while you are eating)

• This is lovely/ very nice/ absolutely delicious.

• Thank you. I'm glad you like it. Would you like some more?

• Oh,- thank you. Just a little then, please.

• No, it really is lovely,-but I don't think I could manage any more, thank you.

Coffee

• Coffee?

• Black, please.

• White for me, please.

Розмовний етикет під час обіду

Dinner at home

It is difficult to give rules about the evening meal in a British home. It varies from family to family. One family will call it dinner and eat around 7 pm. An other may call it tea and eat around 6pm. Dinner may consist of a three-course meal. Tea may consist of a cooked main course or salad, plus a dessert.

W hen you are offered food or drink

• Would you like some...?

• Yes, please.

• No, thank you.

• No, thank you, I'm fine.

• No, thank you, I really couldn’t manage any more.

Refusing something

• Help yourself to the chocolate cake.

• No, thank you. I'm afraid I'm not very keen on chocolate.

• No, thank you. I'm afraid chocolate doesn’t agree with me. (Avoid saying direct to your host "I don't like".)

• Asking for more

• I wonder if I could have another (piece of bread) please. Some more (milk), etc.

Saying you don't want much

• Well, yes please. But only a small piece. But only a little.

When you do not want a large meal

• Could I just have something light, please?

Getting something yon cannot reach

• Could you pass the (bread), please?

Passing something

If you pass something to someone else, it is normal and perfectly polite to say nothing.

1. Napkin

2. P late

3. Bread and butter plate

4. Water glass

5. Wine glasses

6. Cup and saucer

7. Fork and knife for the fish

8. Fork and knife for the main (meat) course

9. Butter knife

10. Fork for dessert

11. Spoon for dessert

12. Spoon for soup

You Have Good Table Manners?

Table Manners

1. An attractive table is a sign of the cook's the host's pride and respect for you.

2. Be punctual or the meal may be spoilt.

3. Wash your hands before coming to table.

4. At home, or when you are with friends, offer to help lay or clear the table.

5. Wait for the host or hostess to tell you where to sit.

6. In America, they invite others at the table to "Enjoy". In France, they say, "Bon Appetit". Germans say, "Guten Appetit", and Italians, "Buon Appetite".

7. The British say nothing. Offer others before you help your­self.

8. Whenever you are asked, pass things as quickly and as kindly as possible.

9. Sit up straight and do not put your elbows on the table while you are eating.

10. Never talk with your mouth full.

10. When you are drinking with a straw, do not make a loud noise when you each the end of your drink.

11. Only talk about nice things at the dinner table.

12. Finally, don't forget to thank the person who was kind enough to prepare your food.

13. If you are visiting a family, offer to help, for example cleaning the ta­ble and washing up the dishes after a meal.

More facts

1. A cup of tea settles your stomach,

2. Eating cheese at night makes you dream.

3. Meat helps you have a strong and healthy body by providing protein,

4. Drinking coffee keeps you from sleeping.

5. Eating carrots is good for the eyes.

6. Bread gives you energy protein, iron, and several В vitamins

7. Fish is good for the brain.

8. Fats and sugars— fast sources of ener

TABLE MANNERS FOR CHILDREN

These suggestions below are good manners to practise at home.

Wash your hands before sitting down to eat.

Leave toys, books, and pets behind.

When you sit down, place the napkin in your lap.

Sit up straight and don't slouch.

Ask politely for dishes to be passed. Never reach across the table.

Wait until everyone is seated and served before start­ing to eat.

If grace is said, wait to eat until it is completed. Don't giggle during grace.

K eep your elbows off the table.

Never chew with your mouth open.

Never talk with your mouth full of food.

Never wave or throw utensils.

Keep your knife out of your mouth.

Never play with your food.

Never grab food from other people's plates.

Ask politely for seconds if you want them.

Ask to be excused from the table.

Clear your plate from the table and take it into the kitchen.

Materials for the additional reading

_{BRITISH TABLE MANNERS}

TABLEWARE HISTORY

Everyone knows the 'trio': a spoon, fork and knife, but not all of us are familiar to the history of this tableware.

SPOON

This is the most ancient tableware. Ancient people used bent objects which nature could give them to eat liquid food. At the same time people needed to work on these items to increase their convexity or concavity. Such spoons were made of horns, wood and bones. Ro­mans used table spoons and scoops though spoons were rare until the Middle Ages.

Before the 15^th-16^th centuries, Europe used items with a short round handle which reminded a bit contemporary spoons.

In the 17^lh century, in France and Italy spoons of dif­ferent forms and functions (for tea, coffee, stewed fruit, pudding, etc.) appeared. In the 18^!h century, they appeared in Germany. By that time the spoon had had its modern form and it was comfortable to hold with thumb, index and middle fingers.

FORK

The forefather of the fork was a spit with two sharp teeth and a short handle. It was used while cooking or serv­ing the food.

Venetian manuscripts of the 11 century mention forks, but still the fork remained a sign of sumptuousness even for noble families. In the 15-16 centuries, the fork got its third tooth and became popular all over Europe.

Since the 17 century, it has had four teeth. Food changed so the form of the fork changed as well. Our modern fork has four teeth and a comfortable handle.

KNIFE

It is obvious that the spoon and the knife appeared at the same time. The ancestors of the knife were sharp­ened pieces of flint, bones or hard wood pieces. Special cases were made for knives. There was also a practice of making blades with a spike, lengthening wooden or horn handles which were abundantly decorated.

Modern table knives are smaller in comparison with their forefathers. As a kitchen utensil the knife appeared in 8-10 thousand years BC. At first the knife was made of stone, later it was made of bronze.

The iron knives appeared only in the first millennium BC and much later they began to differ into table and kitchen knives. Germans were the first to use the knife while eating but certainly it was not the knife we got used to — it was a short sword — gladius.

Long time ago people used shells to serve food, items with a sharpened edge to cut it. These objects were the first tableware. Ancient Germans used 'spoons' made of crusts of bread to scoop grain porridge or fruit pulp.

Ancient Ellins and Romans didn't use any tableware during their meals. They had no problem with eating with their hands, that's why from time to time the guests were carried around by bowls with water to wash their hands. A little later ancient Greeks used special gloves and sort of stone tips for their fingers.

In the Middle Ages, people used spoons and knives more often but meanwhile many of them continued to eat with their hands. Though we should mention that by that time strict etiquette hadn't let people touch food with hands which were not clean enough.

At that time in the middle of the dining table there was a bowl from where everyone took meat slices. The meat was cut with knives brought by the guests and normally guests wore these knives in a leather case in their belts.

When the food was served on the wooden or tin board, the knives were used to cut small pieces from the helping. The fork appeared later. And for a quite long time the guest invited to dinner had to bring his tableware with him.

Different forks and knives lying on the table were used only for serving food to the guests. The handles of this tableware were decorated with wood, metal, nacre, ivory, pearl, precious stones, amber and showed the level of prosperity of the house. In peasant families masters made spoons on their taste and ornamented them with patterns, carving as just as wooden plates and dishes.

The function of this tableware was utilitarian that is why the commodity of using was valued more than anything else.

For example, Russian masters cut a cuckoo bird on the spoon tail. If a girl presented a young man with such a spoon it meant 'no'. People believed that the bird symbolized solitude.

A spoon with a snail was to show to a talkative person that he should give a break to his tongue. And a spoon made of yew-tree was a sign of eternal friendship. Only in the 19^th century people began to decorate spoons and forks with the same patterns.

Thanks to inventing European porcelain the table was embellished by wonderful ware, porcelain was used also for the handles. At the same time flatware sets for 6-12 persons appeared. People used different knives, spoons, forks for dif­ferent dishes (pastry, fruit). In the 20"¹ century, the pomposity in decoration of the table was finally replaced by functionality.

If the knives and the spoons of that time were accepted by the public, the fork was despised by conservative Eu­ropeans. Besides, the Catholic clergy was also against the usage of this tableware. But still in the middle of the 17^th century, tableware managed to enter people's everyday life and they started to get the modern shape.

The fork got three or four teeth, the knife — its rounded form. And in some regions the spoon became flat. Such differ­ences have remained until today—the French spoon is narrow with a pointed edge and the English one is round and wide.

Noble houses at the baroque period paid a lot of atten­tion to tableware. They were made of noble metals by cast­ing and stamping. And abundant decoration of tableware became a characteristic feature of the epoch.

It is the period when tableware sets became fashion­able. It was a luxurious gift and could be given only for the most important dates in a person's life (birth, christening, wedding, etc.).

The most widespread way of decorating tableware was based on opposition knives to forks. Engravers or­namented their handles with images of men and women, Ares and Venus, monks and nuns, other variations were also possible.

We can distinguish the 18^th century by a great variety of tableware. Soup spoons and tea spoons, little sugar and cream spoons appeared as well as dessert forks, knives and shovels for cakes. To help real gourmets to eat oysters and snails masters invented special tridents equipped with little knives.

In 1781, the serial production of tableware began in England. At that time engravers didn't use Olympic patterns anymore in decoration, so simple and strict forms forced out soft feminine ones of the rococo period. As a result - on the tables of the high society there were mas­sive forks and knives deprived of almost all ornaments.

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