OK, not Linguistics, but have the Brits changed kissing

[cftranslate]

I mean their greeting habits. It dit not fit in the title. In Spain we just kiss around to greet people, though some people feel just as embarrassed as any Briton with so much kissing.

I've just seen on Sky News Prince Charles kissing a woman twice to greet her at a reception with Mrs Parker-Bowles. And it is not the first time.

I usually tell my students that akward situations are likely to occur if they go to Britain or the US unaware of their way to greet people.

In Spain, for example, any woman being introduced to a friend by her husband will probably be kissed twice by the friend.

We also find too distant (Puritan?) the fact that grown-up sons rarely kiss their fathers in the US. In Spain/France/Italy we rarely shake hands with our fathers and we don't even hug them without a kiss.

Has Prince Charles always done this?. I remember him just shaking hands with women or kissing them once, and his mother, the Queen is particularly distant in this respect. In fact all British people are known here for their affective distance.

Can anybody from England and the US tell me if things are changing in this respect.

[fluffyhamster]

You've maybe heard of "Randy Andy" - now it's simply Charles's turn to be Randy. It may all have something to do with ageing and/or having been a repressed Englishman for so long...I'll need to ask Larry or Stephen Jones (respectively), and get back to you later on this.