Saturday, May 28, 2011

Shaking Hands

This was posted last year, but I'm putting it up again as the subject has recently come up and I think it bears repeating

I'm sure Americans shake hands more than the Brits.  The latter tend to leave this little ceremony more for slightly formal occasions, whereas I've noticed that Americans shake hands with each other all the time.  That includes that strange period we went through where there was all this hand slapping and odd choreography. Fortunately, that seems to have dwindled now to a touching of clenched fists, which is a sort of lesser handshake.



I taught my grandson, Evan, to shake hands when he was about eight.  I still make him practise as this is one of those things that if done well no one will really notice, but if done badly will leave a very poor impression.  A year ago I took him on an assignment and a lady offered her hand to him and then said "Good handshake!"  Both he and I were rather pleased with that.

Now I need some advice here.  Etiquette years ago stated that a man should never offer his hand to a woman; he should wait until she offers her hand to him.  I also note that not too many women shake hands with each other.  I'm out of the business world now so things may have changed there.  But I would like to know the feeling on this man/woman hand shaking thing.  Until then Ladies, it's up to you to make the first move.

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