Hurrah for Google Video! No upload limit.
My dear chowder, I present to you: How to use chopsticks, the English way, with special guest appearances by Cookie Monster and a bowl of macadamia nuts.
Good Christ I sound posh. I don’t sound like that in my own head.
(BTW to eat noodles, do it leaning over the bowl - it’s how the locals do it.)
Ah. I just read the wiki article in question and that part was under the Japanese section. The way it was originally posted made me assume it was being said about chopstick customs in general. Sorry about that.
Well, at least I learned something new! 
Swoon. Will you marry me?
(That video was adorable. And the kitty is so cute!)
Every morning, I eat my breakfast with chopsticks (somen noodles and scallions in miso soup). So, yes, this white middle-westerner can use chopsticks.
I recently noticed that one of the hardest things to pick up with chopsticks is udon in soup. They are slippery and (relatively) heavy. (Not that I have a problem with it. 
)
One time the crazy Korean cleaning lady in my office building seemed surprised when she saw me eating sushi with chopsticks. (You know, because I’m white.). I was all like, “man, this is NJ; who doesn’t eat their sushi with chopsticks?” But, like I said, she’s crazy.
I use chopsticks nearly daily. Salads in particular, seem easier to eat with chopsticks. Eating sushi, I can easily pick up bulky items and bite off a piece.
For practice, I would suggest eating peas or corn piece by piece. You will either get the hang of it, or drop some weight. It’s a win-win deal!
How on Earth did we survive without the Intertubes?
Oh, and re eating rice, if you’ve ever seen a Chinese person eating a bowl of rice, they don’t do it daintily, clump of grain after clump of grain; they bring the bowl to their mouth, tip it to their lips, and scoop the rice like a crazy person. 
Indeed. I’ve read that it’s because rice is life, and you should approach life with gusto, or some such or the other. Regardless, it’s an attitude I can get behind, though I then have to watch myself in Japanese restaurants. 
Can anyone tell me if there’s a literal translation for what they’re called in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc.?
I’m going to guess “eating sticks”. Maybe “lucky eating sticks” in Chinese.
There’s no translation other than “chopstick”. In Mandarin Chinese, it’s kuài zǐ written: 筷 and 筷子. In Japanese, it’s hashi: 箸. Korean, jeotgarak: 젓가락. See here for more info.
If by “using chopsticks” you mean “creating a hair ornament / death weapon / one of those flippy-swirly-sticks toy with a spare pencil”, sure.
If you mean actually eating food with them, then I’m afraid I can’t help you.
I knew I should have pointed out that it was a Japanese thing, but I didn’t.
The chopsticks I usually get with take-away are the ones that are joined at the big end, but are free (rounded and sanded) for all but that half inch. At home I use my Japanese chopsticks (which are lacquered wood).
Definitely true. I prefer to have a bowl for the rice, and then I can just shovel it all in. Hold bowl in palm, tip up slightly, and stuff face. My uncle commented that I ate like a native Chinese person.
My family’s Indonesian/Indonesian Chinese, for the record. Learned when I was a wee thing.
For pho or similar noodley stuff, just lean over, use chopsticks to pick up a hunk of noodles, and chew away as you slurp up the noodles.
…now I’m really hungry. 
Used to be able to. Haven’t had opportunity in a while, so I don’t know if I still can or not.
I can use them quite well. But frankly, I don’t see the point. Western utensils easier to user and more efficent.
Yup, no problem. Sushi, chicken, chow mein, rice, whatever.
Then again, I’m from coastal California. While the OP probably met his friends from secondary for fish and chips or some such thing, I hung out with my high school friends at the local sushi place.
My last serious girlfriend (from Georgia) was so impressed with my chopstick skills, you’d think I had tied a cherry stem with my tongue. Eh, it’s just one of the basic skills in the neighborhood I come from.
You’re eating the wrong rice, or making it the wrong way.
In Thai, they’re called “takiap,” but there doesn’t seem to be any literal meaning like “eating sticks” or anything like that that I’m aware of.
We have what’s called “sticky rice,” which is glutinous rice that is considered Northeast food and is eaten with other foods from that area, like “som tam” and chicken prepared a certain way. But again, that’s finger food, never eaten with chopsticks. You roll the sticky rice into little balls and dip it into sauce or scoop up a bit of “som tam” or chicken with it. Really good stuff.
As funny as that shit is, what I hate about it is that it is handist. I mean, I’m left handed, and the way you hold the lower chopstick is how I (and many-other lefties) hold a pencil. And, as cool as jimm’s video is, he said the same thing.
I tried looking it up - garak in Korean is used for long, stick-like things, loosely speaking. Spoons, fingers, toes, chopsticks, and hairs are what come to mind. But the Chinese character that we used for the “jeo” part translates into chopsticks, so a literal translation would be - stick-like chopsticks. :dubious:
I had to learn, starvation and looking like an idiot are very strong incentives to do so.
I can pick anything with them now, single rice?, no problem, half a peanut, laying down in slippery sauce?, I´m your man.
The real treat is too pick appart the small pieces of chilli and fling them to one side of the dish in a stealthy manner. Surviving overly spicy food and spontaneous gastric combustion are also strong incentives.