Chopsticks etiquette

[clara]

If you're dying of hunger and the only thing to use is chopstick(not even your hands) I'll bet you can learn it.

[alice.b.toklas]

I'll bet you're right clara.

It's just that for me, I feel like I'm the person at the front of the room with something I don't know how to use, and have this expectation that I should know how to use. So I get a fork. It's the stigma about it. I was taught to eat with a knive, fork, and spoon, and the chopsticks are foreign to me. I'd like to learn to eat using them, but don't think the right way to do that is to eat in public with no instruction.

[cinnamon]

I always feel like a fool in the Asian restaurant if chopsticks are the utencils. The intructions on the little package the chopsticks came out of is of no use for the beginner.

[pinkperson]

But I've seen Asian people eat rice with chopsticks. This is the first time I've ever heard of it being a sign of impoliteness.

I use chopsticks for other purposes too. One time I had my nephew play with it as a drum stick .

Also when I feel like I have to diet, I use chopsticks because it's really difficult to eat with it. In the end you'll be frustrated and you'd only be able to eat little.

[lcsamano]

When we go eat sushi, I have noticed that people just lay there chopsticks on the plate when they are not eating their rice. I have never heard about the vertical placing of chopsticks but every culture has their way of eating. I am not an expert on using chopsticks but I will use them when eating Sushi.

[pinkperson]

Let's just use chopsticks however we want to and at the same time be as polite as our cultural knowledge allows us. There are a lot of ways to get information out there and it's fun to learn other people's culture.