Article in ‘De Telegraaf’

Journalist Pieter Klein Beernink wrote on 13 July 2024 a great article in ‘De Telegraaf‘, a Dutch newspaper. He wrote about our Etiquette Dinner at the Stanhope hotel in Brussels on 27 June. The dinner is a tutorial given by William Hanson of The English Manner and is part of our 3-day Protocol Training programme.

The article is written in Dutch. Find below a translation into English.

 

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DE TELEGRAAF

SATURDAY 13 JULY 2024

Napkin not on backrest!

Who would expect that etiquette of all things could become a Dutch export product? With our direct approach, we are not known as the most courteous people. Yet the whole world wants to learn from Protocolbureau what correct manners are. Jean Paul Wijers, founder of the almost 30-year-old Protocolbureau, organised a multi-day training in Brussels, with speakers such as Tom Devleeschauwer, master of ceremonies at the court of King Philippe.

An unlikely international group showed up. Including two Nigerians, Susana Aires, protocol officer of a Portuguese mayor and Rauana Abdigulova from Kazakhstan. “This course is useful for my work at the Dutch Embassy for Central Asia in Astana,” she noted during the closing dinner in the Stanhope Hotel. “We are increasingly using Western protocol. Here I have learned about the seating of people on official occasions and about the ranking of officials: who comes before whom?” Not only important for a table arrangement, but also for a welcome, or for arranging the order of speakers.

“I would like to become an event manager and then this will come in handy,” said American Christine Barton from Missouri. She was sitting at the table with Yuliya Bitner from Ukraine. “I work for the Danish Business Association in Lviv,” she explained. “Then it is good to know Western ways.” She also has other things on her mind at home: “We rarely fight. But we fear that water and power outages will become even more frequent.”

In the neat Brussels hotel something like this seemed unthinkable.Especially during the dinner where the very British etiquette-famous William Hanson lectured on table manners.“ NEVER leave your napkin on the back of your chair when you get up,” he urged the attentive students. A serious matter, it seemed. “Put the napkin on the seat or the back of the chair if you want to indicate that you are coming back. If you put the napkin on the table, you indicate that you will stay away.” Maybe nice to know. “People hide behind protocol,” grumbled chairman Rogier Elshout. “When I lead a discussion, protocol sometimes gets in the way of a good conversation.”

Hanson threw it up took a different tack when he stood again at dessert:”This is dessert,” he said over a plate of ice cream and bavarois. “But in England we call this course pudding, which it is. Then comes dessert with us and at state banquets it is always fruit.” After some talk about eating a banana with a knife and fork, the Brit arrived at the coffee: “Or tea, of course. Don’t hold your pinky finger up when drinking from a cup. Do you know where it comes from? From the French court. Well, the French in Versailles were of course very intimate with each other during the day and at night,” he continued about that special people on the other side of the North Sea. “If you had syphilis, the dreaded venereal disease, you raised a little finger. If someone else did that too, then there you go! You can’t have it twice, right?” One for the students cheerful conclusion to a few very serious days.