It is very vulgar to talk about one's business. Only people like stockbrokers do that, and then merely at dinner parties.
Speake not of a dead man at the table.
I'm a gentleman and I was always taught it's rude, to talk about a woman's age or weight unless you are breaking up with her.
As an American married to an Englishman and living in France, I've spent much of my adult life trying to decode the rules of conversation in three countries. Paradoxically, these rules are almost always unspoken.
Speakers who have grown up in the American community unconsciously know its rules about taking turns in conversations-in the same way that they know the rules of grammar and the rules about appropriate speech in various situations.
Out of respect, a man must veil his words when talking with a woman, but with a man he can frankly say whatever's on his mind.
Do not speak of repulsive matters at table.
There is one topic peremptorily forbidden to all well-bred, to all rational mortals, namely, their distempers.
British conversation is like a game of cricket or a boxing match; personal allusions are forbidden like hitting below the belt, and anyone who loses his temper is disqualified.
