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this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2023
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Cutlery.
Growing up everyone around me could use a knife and fork, whereas chopsticks were something most people couldn't use or only used badly. It never occurred to me that the opposite might be true until I shared a meal with some co-workers from mainland China and saw how clumsily they used our utensils.
It wasn't until that point that I appreciated the amount of dexterity and finesse that goes into using cutlery well, and that I took it for granted because it's something learned in childhood.
Did you know the details on how to eat with knife and fork differ across different countries as well?
Maybe I shouldn't be saying this since it's cultural, but I feel like if it is possible to use cutlery wrong, then I think the American style is definitely one of the wrong ways.
No one does that. In America we eat the burger or pizza with our hands, like GOD intended. Fries too.
Every American dish can be eaten with your hands: burritos, sandwiches, pitas, hot dogs, fried chicken, BBQ, etc. What do you eat with? A fork, like some Euro pansy?
Never before have a I hoped that a Wikipedia article is part of an elaborate joke.
I had no idea that I'd adopted the European method because fuck all that transferring back and forth.
Shots fucking fired.
My family-in-law, all 4 generations, are like 462874th generation American. They use cutlery in their fists like they're cavemen stabbing at the last mammoth chop.
I definitely do not think chopstick experience is their problem.
That's fair. Funnily enough, in the discussion that resulted from the meal I mentioned, my Chinese co-workers did say there are plenty of people who can't use chopsticks well either.
This is definitely a generational, regional, ethnic, and class thing.
As a non-Asian kid on the US West Coast in the '80s, I learned to use chopsticks only slightly after learning to use a fork or spoon, even though we rarely ate food from cultures where chopsticks are standard. Heck, I'm pretty sure I was given chopsticks to eat tortellini at least once!
I was somewhat baffled as an adult when a partner's parents weren't comfortable using chopsticks ... and they (the parents) were from New York City and had grown up eating Chinese takeout regularly.