I know this post will be more interesting for users who speak Spanish, but I will try to explain these pictures in English as well, which are pages of a children's book I found today.
I laughed so much at some quotes! Some of them don't make sense to me, while others are quite important and accurate, but actually, this is a topic that can be interesting for all of us to ask ourselves where are our good manners? Did our parents teach us good manners? Are we educating our children to be polite and kind, or is that a bit neglected nowadays? Also, we can talk about good manners in certain countries and whether there are differences in cultures and traditions.
But first, let me tell you how I came to this book today. My son found his old books today for an event he will have at school. They can take to school the books that they will no longer use or that they want to give away, and in return, they can take other books that their colleagues have brought for exchange. I was very pleasantly surprised that this initiative is taking place in his school because I know that many young people no longer read books. Unfortunately.
Among the books we took out from one of the shelves, we found this old, very worn-out book of good manners.
He will not take this one to the book exchange activity as it is not in good shape.
The subtitle is 201 Rules of Civility. The authors are Ana Serna Vara and Margarita Menéndez and the year of publication is... I don't see it anymore, I think that page is missing... I don't even know where we got this book from. The girl in the library gave us some books when my son was little, because we spent a lot of time there, reading and learning the language. From time to time they took out the books they were no longer going to lend because of the condition (old books or those with thorn pages etc...) and gave them away to those who wanted to take them.
Maybe this book is from there, but I don't see any library stamps and there are also some marks in the book that make me think it was someone else's book. Perhaps it was a child who put an ❌ at some quotes she/he thought that were not important or that she/he didn't want to accept. And a ✅ sign where she/he already knew them or found these rules useful. In any case, I have laughed a lot reading these pages and that's why I decided to share my impressions about them.
Let's see. The book is divided into a few sections: Good Manners in Personal Hygiene, At Home, At the Table, At School, At Parties, Games and Sports, and Good Manners In Public Places. These are all good manners that children should know, according to the authors of the book.
Some of them are difficult to happen these days... Who uses a landline phone nowadays? Still, the drawings and descriptions were so funny.
ES: Si tienes que telefonear pide permiso a tus papás y además fíjate bien que no sea la hora de comer, dormir o cenar.
EN: If you have to phone, ask your parents for permission and also make sure it is not time to eat, sleep or have dinner.
How good it would be if the children nowadays asked their parents if they could use their smartphones, and at what time... I think it is not happening anymore.
Have you noticed the mark in the book?
It seems that the first owner of the book agreed with this! ✅
ES: El pelo debes llevar siempre limpio y bien peinado. Da igual que lo tengas rubio, moreano, liso o rizado.
EN: Your hair should always be clean and well-combed. It doesn't matter if you have blonde, brunette, straight or curly hair.
The mark in the book shows a negative sign. 😂
Clearly, the suggestion was not accepted by the book owner!
ES: Hay visita en casa, no debes molestar; saluda cuando llegues y pórtate normal.
EN: There is a visitor at home, you should not disturb. Say hello when you arrive and behave normally.
The word normally made me think that for every child it probably has a different meaning. What is "normal" for one, maybe is not for someone else. I do agree with the request of the parents, however, this "rule" could be explained better. Maybe it should state something like "stay relaxed but respect the visitors and don't try to be in the spotlight" or else...
Here are some good manners that cover the topic of eating and behaving on the table. There were many, among them how children should use the cutlery and the norm that they should wait for everyone to finish the meal before leaving the table. This one made me laugh because of the comparison.
ES: Vamos, siéntate bien, no tuerzas la espalda si no quieres parecer una serpiente doblada.
EN: Come on, sit tight, don't twist your back if you don't want to look like a bent snake.
Seriously... like a bent snake? 😂
I should use this when I see my students don't sit tight!!
ES: Con cuchillo y tenedor la fruta debes tomar. Aunque te fastidie un montón, no la puedes mordisquear.
EN: With a knife and fork you must take the fruit. Even if it annoys you a lot, you can't chew on it.
Well, there are fruits that you have to chew on and eat without a knife or fork. Why should I use cutlery for a tangerine or blackberries? Tell me that I have bad manners but I just ate these fruits with my hands. 😁
ES: "Esto no me gusta. No quiero más." Si quieres crecer recuerda que de todo has de comer.
EN: "I do not like this. I do not want more." If you want to grow, remember that you have to eat everything.
A never-ending fight between parents and children when they don't want to eat something... The opinions are divided on this, as there are people who would force their children to eat everything even if they don't want it for whatever reason, and others will just let their children eat whatever they want. Some balance should be found with understanding and good encouragement.
I know that sometimes I used not-so-good methods to encourage my son to eat certain foods... I used to tell him that I would phone the nutritionist doctor (we had a book with a photo of an old, serious-looking nutritionist doctor lady he was afraid of) if he didn't eat... Poor my son, and shame on me! 😔 Recently we talked about that... if we could go back in time I would never repeat this technique to get him to eat something. Lessons to learn I guess.
ES: A mí me gustan los conciertos de ópera y de rock, pero no en la mesa, guapito. !Menos ruido, por favor!
EN: I like opera and rock concerts, but not at the table, handsome. Less noise, please!
Ok, this one definitely talks about me when I was small!! 🤣
Not just because of the piano and the little pianist but also because I liked to hum and sign even if I were on the table. My family used to tell me that the wife of my husband would be crazy. 😬
Were they right?
How are you doing dear readers?
I see that we are at 1260 words of this post but I still have many norms from this book to comment on, but let's not take it too long. Probably there would be a norm not to take too much time from the audience when you perform or write something, so the next four photos go just in the form of a collage.
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The funniest photo here is the one with the ghost. It says: What a fright you've given me! You are going to hurt your throat. Please don't shout anymore because you will scare even a ghost.
Two pages with several good suggestions... I will spotlight the one with the father holding a fish bowl:
ES: Siempre has de decir la verdad; es feísimo mentir: al final se enterarán y no se fiarán más de ti.
EN: You must always tell the truth; It is very ugly to lie: in the end, they will find out and will not trust you anymore.
Unfortunately, so many adults still haven't learned this universal norm. But in the end, a person who lies does the most harm to himself.
We are arriving at the end of this book of good manners... Oops. There I saw two thorn pages. Maybe this didn't happen on purpose as it would be sad if after reading the whole book about being well-educated and polite, the little owner of the book made such a move.
Well, I will believe it happened just as an accident! :))
The book finishes with page 113 and the teaching of how should we behave in a library.
ES: Cuando vayas a una biblioteca muy bajito debes hablar, devuelve puntualmente los libros y procura no molestar.
EN: When you go to a library you should speak very quietly, return the books punctually and try not to disturb.
Did you find these norms and suggestions to children about good manners useful, and funny, are they well presented and interesting to the little ones?
Obviously, this is an old book and some things don't really apply anymore to children (like the landline phone) but in general we do agree that good manners come from the family in the first hand, then from the school and society. For a healthy relationship of any kind, we do have to respect each other, have honest intentions and be polite as much as we can. Some general norms can be applied in every country, though there can be some differences.
Do some of these norms differ from those that are accepted in your country or tradition?
