Learned American style as a kid, then developed European (ie “civilized”) style as I grew older and travelled more.
What is that weird thing in the middle of the forks? I’ve eaten in some fairly upscale places, including a Michelin-starred restaurant and never seen anything like it.
Good Lord, what an international can of annelids!
My parents, and parents I have been unfortunate to observe, were more concerned with the rug rat closing his or her mouth.
Best $400 I ever spent. 
I believe that’s a crab fork.
Edit: Ninja’d!
Yes, it was definitely discussed. We were told that only savages who were concerned with cramming food into their maws as quickly as possible held silverware in both hands at all times. Given they weren’t raising savages, we better not be noticed doing that ourselves.
I’m left-handed, by the way, and until the last thread never heard that as an excuse for not switching. Everyone I know switches, so that obviously includes my fellow lefties.
I’m not sure why that would be the default. It seems to me that the default would normally be to use one’s dominant hand for whichever task required the most dexterity at any given moment. I have no conscious memory of learning how to use a knife and fork, but I can assure you that the American style seems every bit as natural and right to those of us who grew up with it.
Besides, as other people have pointed out, people typically learn to use a fork years before they learn to use a knife. At what point are European kids taught to use the fork with their non-dominant hand? Is it something they’re taught to do from the time when they’re toddlers, or are they allowed to eat with their dominant hand right up to the point when they learn how to use a knife?
Why do Europeans hold cigarettes differently than Americans?
Do Canadians eat like Europeans?
At least you all had plates and silverware. Luxury.
Canadian here and I eat in the European way. I do flip my fork around if eating things that cannot balance on the back of a fork (peas, non-sticky rice, etc). This is the way I was taught by my parents. Whenever I complained about using proper table manners my dad would regale me with stories of eating a Royal Roads Military College and having to square his corners at meal time (cut one bite, lay down knife, with fork in right hand spear or scoop food as appropriate, bring fork straight up to the level of your mouth, bring food along the horizontal plane until it is in your mouth, reverse actions with fork, place fork down, chew, repeat).
I eat my peas with honey
I’ve done it all my life
It makes the peas taste funny
But it keeps them on the knife
Good grief, I may use my fork “European Style”, but the rest sounds stupid.
Me too. Have you also noticed that the Brits don’t speak English very well?
Sadly, they invented a language they cannot speak.
I eat American-style. No memory whatsoever of actually being taught to do so, but I knew it was the “correct” way. Learned about the European way of eating in my teens or early twenties (probably read about it somewhere), but never saw any reason to change.
After reading the various responses here, I wonder if I’m talking about the same thing as the OP. When eating something that needs to be cut, I hold the knife in my dominant hand and raise the fork to my gaping maw with the other, not put the knife down so I can then respear the meat with the fork with my right(dominant) hand. It sounds like this is what some people are talking about(?). I usually end up switching in the sense that, lets say I’ve just eaten a bit of meat so the fork is to my left. It may or may not actually still be in my hand, but if is and I need to scoop up something tricky, I’ll grab the fork with my right hand. I suppose that does seem kind of foolish if you weren’t raised that way. On the other hand, I cannot see a reasonable explanation for piling the food on the back of a utensil that is clearly created to spear and / or scoop. Why use a fork at all if you aren’t going to take at advantage of it’s forkiness?
Perhaps the tines were originally flat.
But then, these folks are holding a fork like normal people.
Why would you need to respear it? It’s already attached to the fork, so I just switch hands and use my right hand to lift it to my mouth.
Why would you need to switch? It’s already attached to your left hand.
I noticed tonight that I hold the fork in my left hand, knife in my left, eat the meat (how do you think you will get your pudding if you don’t eat your meat? Sorry, I digress) with my left hand, and switch the fork to my right to eat salad or peas.
:dubious:
Definitely; I had thought that we were going for efficiency, not for speed…