After getting laughed at by colleagues the other day and told just what a strange American I am, my mind began to wonder at the complexity of such things.
What hand do people do it with? And in what direction?
Imagine: in the process of making a cuppa for everyone, spoon in one hand, poured the milk, added the sugar and began stirring… then the quizzical looks and giggles…
It seems I stir my tea strangely.
How odd is this: usually I stir counter-clockwise, then clockwise - just to make sure the milk and sugar are sufficiently mixed as there is nothing worse than getting to the bottom of the cup and getting a gob full of sugar - yuk! Also, being ambidextrous, stirring is done equally well left or right-handed in both directions. This just made them howl with laughter all the more.
So, just out of curiosity:
Are you normally left or right-handed?
What hand do you use to stir your drinks?
In what direction do you stir?
For the record, I may be strange but that’s another thread altogether
Well, I don’t drink tea, but when I do need to stir something I’m going to drink, I stir clockwise- as Scotticher noted, it doesn’t feel right to try to stir counter clockwise. I use my left hand to stir, probably because I’m left handed. Oddly enough I usually hold the glass in my right hand when I’m taking a sip, though.
I’m right handed. I stir with my right hand. I really don’t know what direction I stir in, I’ve never paid attention. I’ll let you know tomorrow morning after I make my coffee.
I’m primarily right-handed, but according to my parents I was ambidextrous in my youth. I find myself eating, applying make-up, etc. with my left hand, but I can no longer write left-handed.
If I’m not doing something else at the time, normally my right hand.
3. In what direction do you stir?
I don’t stir around the cup. I go back and forth across the cup. It seems to mix everything up faster rather then just spin it around at the bottom of the cup.
Most of the drinks I drink that need to be stirred, I drink out of tall paper or plastic cups rather than mugs, so I stir them by picking them up by the top and swinging the bottom in a tight circle – usually either counterclockwise with the left or clockwise with the right. Since my job also involves making many many many of these drinks, most of them get mixed like that.
When I do stir something the normal way, it’s usually clockwise, but that’s out of mildly superstitious habit.
Just for you, Washte, this morning I tried to stir my tea left handed and counter-clockwise, instead of using my right hand. I apparently switch directions when I’m stirring too, but using my left hand felt down right unnatural! For the record, I’m right handed, mostly.
What confused me is the first time I visited a friend’s house and the served me tea without cream and sugar. I was a teenager at the time, and had lived in the US for over a decade, but I honestly had no idea you could get tea without those two. Mutters to self, “Hen na gaijin.” [Wierd foreigners]
