There are many ways to begin a conversation about good manners. You could discuss who should hold the door open, whether older people deserve special treatment, or why some people believe ladies should always go first. By Rosii in Sao Paulo, Monica in Adelaide, Janita in South Africa and The Mayor in the luggage hold…
North Hesse has apple wine, difficult hills, dangerous levels of friendliness and its own ideas about coffee. But once the jokes about regional character are exhausted, a simpler rule begins to emerge: perhaps politeness belongs less to places than to people. By The Swimming Club, Manfred and Martin, both in Northern Hessen. (You have been…
An imagined visit between Bangalore and Campo Grande begins with questions about etiquette and ends somewhere simpler: notice the people, make them comfortable, and adapt. By Ismar, Campo Grande, Brazil and Ritesh, Bangalore, India. The plan was deliberately dangerous. Ismar and Amélia would travel from Brazil to visit Ritesh and his wife in Bangalore. Then…
When should a guest leave? At Lunch, the answer involved old-fashioned etiquette, disappearing hosts, bed bugs, flying furniture and a rather worrying dinner invitation. By Rosii in Sao Paulo, Monica in Adelaide, down under, the Mayor in Indian Summery Cleebourg and hosted by Fruitloop in sizzling South Africa. What could go wrong? It started with…
At a door, in a meeting or beside a plate of office doughnuts, the unwritten rules are everywhere. Most of them work — until we start thinking too hard about them. By Martin & Manfred, (floating in the Swimming Club), somewhere in Germany. Two people reach a door at almost exactly the same moment. It…
From opening doors to challenging a manager, the smallest gestures can reveal the invisible rules that shape relationships, workplaces and entire cultures. By Ismar, Campo Grande, Brazil and Ritesh, Bangalore, India. There is a moment at the entrance to Ismar’s dance class when an apparently simple question has already been answered before anybody says a…
The Swimming Club Anti-Handbook for guests who need help recognising when a perfectly pleasant evening is definitely over. By Manfred & Martin, from the Swimming Club. There are many complicated questions in life. When should a guest leave somebody’s house should not be one of them. Unfortunately, it is. The Swimming Club therefore decided to…
By The Swimming Club, aka Martin & Manfred, both in Germany. Music, caravans and the invisible machinery underneath an ordinary good day. Martin likes to listen to music properly. Not as something floating around in the background while he does three other things. He sits on the couch and listens. Sometimes he streams a concert…
By Ismar in Campo Grande, Brazil and Ritesh, Bengaluru, India. Between a kitchen cabinet in Bangalore, a sparse apartment in Campo Grande and three old phones that nobody quite knows what to do with, a conversation about clutter became a story about repair, necessity and lives lived in transition. Every home seems to have a…
By Rosii in Sao Paulo, Janita (Fruitloop) in South Africa, and Frank (The Mayor) in Cleebourg which is in France. Monika was in the vineyards somewhere along the Mosel River in Germany. We started with harmless habits, wandering curtains and unfinished bottle lids. Then Rosii chose one very particular English word, and suddenly the table…
