I guess it’ll just be me and Lionel who don’t know how to use chopsticks. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a pair of them close up. I can’t think of when I’ve ever eaten anything that required them, been anywhere I needed them, or when I ever will. I can play the song on the piano, though!
I can eat rice with chopsticks, but I’d rather not. I went through a period when I was younger of eating with a pair in each hand (only when I was at home), just to see if I could do it.
I have just discovered, reading this tread, that I’m doing it wrong.
My dad lived in Korea for a while when he was younger, and so taught his kids how to do it. I can eat fairly well, almost as fast as a fork with sticky rice, but, and this may be because I am left-handed, I hold the bottom stick braced between the side of the tip of my middle finger and the two legs of my hand-crotch, and the top one braced along the two end-knuckles of my index finger, pivoting on my thumb-tip.
It doesn’t even touch my ring finger. Am I being horribly inauthentic?
I love love love eating with chopsticks. Half the time it’s the reason I order Chinese or Malaysian food. Part of the whole overall experience.
A few years ago, I was on a flight to Hong Kong, and at one point the passengers were served styrofoam ramen cups, with western cutlery available by request. I decided to give it a shot, and imitated the chinese passengers across the aisle. By the time I finished the noodles, I had gotten the gist of it. Now I use them whenever I eat chinese take-out or instant noodles. I don’t know if I’m using the proper technique, but I have no trouble eating rice or peas or whatnot.
I’m pretty good with 'em. I don’t always use them ‘right’ but it works and doesn’tmake much of a mess
I lived in Japan for ages but I’d already learned to use them as a kid - my mum thought it would be fun. May I recommend you try learning with the wood, throw away type that you have to split before using. I can use Japanese, Chinese and Korean style chopsticks however, I think the Japanese throw away ones are by far the easiest - they aren’t slippery and they aren’t too pointy or square at the end.
yes. picking up two shelled peanuts with plastic chopsticks is the dexterity test. eating a chicken leg is the dexterity test.
i’ve never seen anyone catch a fly or mosquito. I is mentioned in musashi, book of 5 rings. ultimate epic tale of the japanese swordsman.
if anyone compliments me on chopstick skills I return the favor and tell 'em how well they use a spoon.
Maybe he meant holding them in the middle, which is considered “low-class.” My dad taught me as a boy. In college, my roommate (Chinese-Malay) often challenged me to contests picking up ball bearings with chopsticks.
I’m going to second this, in that I can’t understand for the life of me why you wouldn’t want chopsticks to end in a point. There was a chinese restaurant in Montreal (downtown on Maisonneuve) that would give you these really long plastic ones that didn’t taper at all, just ended bluntly. Used to drive me crazy-- the last few noodles would be challenging.
For people having trouble with rice, my girlfriend showed me a trick where you strategically place something (a leaf, vegetable, whatever is in the rest of the dish) broad over a clump of rice. When you go to pick it up, you lay your 'sticks parallel to the plate so that one is touching each end of the leaf. When you close them, it curls the leaf into a (sort of) cylinder with the rice trapped in the center of it. Strategic eating… I never would have thought about it.
I’d also like to (register a complaint) express a wish that more restaurants used the really nice round disposables that are attached just a bit on top and taper at the tip. I hate eating with those square ones-- they always break incorrectly, and they feel terrible both on the fingers and the lips.
BTW, I had a friend tell me that the disposables had some sort of bleach in them and were generally not as healthy to use. Anyone heard anything like this?
Yes, I can.
Heh. I can use chopsticks, but it’s not a pretty sight. I function just fine-- I can pick up single grains of rice, face-down sliced almonds, chicken legs, whatever. But my form sucks.
I’m Japanese and grew up surrounded by Asians wielding chopsticks, so I have no excuse for my poor chopstick form. I don’t really care, though, as long as the food gets where it needs to go and I don’t make a mess.
i can use chopsticks with either hand. picking rice gingerly from a plate are for the japanese(?). when eating with rice nothing beats the feel of a bowl in your hands, or the heft of it as you shovel food into your mouth like a barbarian. 
and splinters! omg the splinters! /breaks into ritual of filing the chopsticks.
I learned how to use chopsticks as a child. I was out to lunch in Little Saigon with some coworkers. One of them, who was born in Vietnam, commented that I used chopsticks very well. I thought for a moment and told her, ‘Heh. I was using chopsticks before you were born!’ 
Yes. I taught myself while living in Oregon a couple years ago and use them whenever presented with the opportunity just for the novelty of it. No idea how well I actually use them, though.
Especially when you’re being polite and taking from the communal plate with the back of the chopsticks!
I heard a rumor that the filing away of the splinters was considered impolite. Can anyone speak to this?
Wiki says ‘It is rude to rub wooden chopsticks together after breaking them apart, as this communicates to the host that the user thinks the chopsticks are cheap.’
There are good disposable chopsticks and non-so-good ones. Most of the time even the cheap ones don’t really need to be de-splintered. If they do, I try to remove the splinters discretely (which is stupid, because anypace using the cheap ones probably doesn’t care). I like the ones that are ‘finished’ and only joined at the big end. Those are the ones offered by sit-down restaurants when I get food to go. Of course plastic chopsticks don’t need to be rubbed together at all. I do wipe the plastic ones with a napkin. This may or may not be considered rude, but I observed that it’s common practice in Vietnamese restaurants.
Yes, though my form is not very elegant. I recently taught myself to use chopsticks right-handed (even lss elegantly) because I’ve started making business trips to Asia and I don’t want to give offense. It’s not a big deal in cities, but in rural areas it seems polite not to put one’s toilet hand on the table.
I can use chopsticks like a pro. The true test is if you can pick up a single peanut with a pair.
Ir surprises many that chopsticks are NEVER used by Thais for rice dishes, only for noodles and other foods. Only the ethnic Chinese in Thailand use chopsticks with rice.
I was taught by the waiter of the Japanese restaraunt my dad and I went to when I was a kid.