IT is always a welcome treat for me to reply to personal e-mails from readers who ask for advice about certain matters on the do’s and don’ts of etiquette. The common request from most of them is not to mention their names in my column, which, of course, I always respect.

I received a letter from a young American guy who recently got together with a girl. He has been invited to have dinner with her family this weekend and is both nervous and excited about it. And he asked me to give him some pointers on how he should conduct himself on D-day.