Ok, here’s the deal: I learned to use chopsticks before I learned to use a fork, so I don’t know who taught me for sure. I have an odd form compared to what I have seen on websites and other stuff that shows you how to eat with chopsticks. Instead of resting the bottom stick on my ring finger and using my fore - and middle fingers to guide the top one, I rest the bottom stick on my middle finger and have complete control of the top stick with my thumb and forefinger. What style is this? Wikipedia shows the former method with a nod to the latter (mine) as being “traditional” but doesn’t say traditional for which culture. I have heard that Vietnamese chopstick form is different from Japanese, etc, but I don’t know how. So, what’s the dope? Am i just an oddball or is my style considered normal somewhere?
Also, how do you hold your chopsticks (and who taught you)? If Asian, what is your particular culture?
This way. My parents taught me, and I’m second generation Japanese American. For some reason, my dad used to bag on my technique, but I can pick up almost anything.
You see all sorts of styles over here in Japan. I’ve seen many people do the way described in the OP as well as the more traditional resting on the ring finger.
I chopstick the same way you do. I can’t see how the other way would work at all, or why anyone would neglect to use Nature’s Gift of the opposable thumb. But then I’m a European and I think I learned my technique off a disposable chopstick wrapper many many years ago. Works well though.
I use the form depicted in the top picture in the page linked by Darryl Lict. I’ve been using that form ever since I could remember and surely before I moved to Japan. I’ve been complimented on my chopstick handling skills more than a few times. And by the way, I can use them with either hand.
Went to a Japanese steak house with the in-laws and their two young un’s.
The kids were given training chop sticks that had paper rolled up (I think it was the wrapper that the sticks come in) and then the back, non-working end was wrapped with a rubber band. The whole unit worked more like a pair of tweezers and the kids ate it up -the food and being able to eat like the big folks.
I’m Asian, have used chopsticks all my life and I still hold it wrongly. Instead of letting the bottom stick sit firmly on my ring finger I just let it flop about. I’ve had friends comment on it but I just shrug it off. Apparently my parents didn’t care enough to rap me on the knuckles when I held it wrong, so I’ve just continued doing it. Never seen the technique you describe it but I’m trying it and it seems really hard. Oh and I’m Singaporean Chinese by the way.
I’m half (Hong Kong/Cantonese) Chinese and half Irish. I hold my chop sticks the same way as the OP, with the bottom stick resting near the last knuckle of my middle finger. I can’t specifically remember my father or any of my other asian relatives teaching me.
I think I do it the same way as most of you - only one stick really moves.
Just one thing that hasn’t been mentioned yet. If you’re left-handed, as I am, have another leftie on your left or sit on the left end of the table - unless you like fencing.
Thanks for the feedback. I never realised that the difference in how you hold your chopsticks was cultural until recently. When I’d heard that there were cultural differences, I started noticing how others hold their sticks and realised that I do it differently than most. I stayed with a Vietnamese friend once in NY and other than being quite impressed with my ability to use chopsticks, he never said anything about the style.
The thing is, I don’t ever remember not knowing how to use chopsticks, so who knows how I learned? My daughter recently became aware of metal chopsticks (her biological father, with whom she recently visited, has a pair) and so now she is needling me to get her a pair. I haven’t seen them at World Market, so I don’t know where we will get some. The ones we have at the house are all very nice enameled ones, but metal would be so much easier to clean!
Just thought I’d post a picture of how I do it, so you can compare.
This is how I hold mine. I was taught by a friend many years ago to hold them that way. I taught my husband to hold them the same way. Works well for us.
Is it fair to say that Vietnamese/Chinese chopstick custom is more relaxed than say, that of Japan? I ask because recently I read something about dos and don’ts (such as “NEVER stab food with a chopstick”), and this is far from my Vietnamese/Chinese-based experience. Having grown up as a child of older parents in a household with almost Victorian table manners regarding cutlery, I found the lack of rules with chopsticks amongst my Vietnamese friends to be very refreshing. You can basically do anything with the things and it’s acceptable: stab stuff with one chopstick, use two held apart as a forklift for slimy things like buttom mushrooms, take one chopstick in each fist to rend big stuff apart…
I find the squared-off ones awkward, but I always had nice enameled ones growing up (my dad was stationed in the Orient more than anywhere else as well as having done his time in Vietnam, so I have some magnificent Asian glassware, too (including this amazing Dragonware sake set that sings when you pour the sake)). One pair I had until they literally fell apart had mother-of-pearl and jade inlays.
I am trying to do a little research on Japanese customs for my daughter. She is hoping to go there next year as part of an exchange student program for a couple weeks. Interestingly enough, one thing I was taught to do (by a Japanese friend) is listed as taboo on one of the sites I went to – rubbing your disposable chopsticks together to get rid of splinters. The site (I forget which one) said that is considered rude in Japan. Anyone want to weigh in on that one?
My mother started teaching me when I was about 7-8. She been taught in high school by her best friend and best friend’s family, who were Chinese from Hong Kong.
(I’m not Asian, BTW… but I figured I’d pipe up because I can accurately track back my form to someone who is)
Having had many broken fingers and hands over the years, I jusr realized I have no idea how I naturally hold chopsticks anymore. The Website way, feels everybit as confortable as the OP way. It even feels okay putting the bottom one on my pinky, and then moving the top with my either index or middle finger. I guess I just grab them and use them however they land these days.
Left-handed though only the OP way really feels good. I don’t have much pinching power Left-handed the Web-site way
Definitely not Korean.
