Sep 26, 2024
Adept at chopsticks? Tell us how you learned
A vivid memory from my childhood was my NOT Asian parents pushing me to use chopsticks at the dinner table while eating Chinese and Japanese food. They wanted to prep us for restaurant dining and enjoying meals at the homes of Asian-Canadian coworkers and friends who served food with chopsticks. How did you learn? When?
Best Answer
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on Oct 7
I don't even remember! Most likely it was at an Asian restaurant with waribashi, similar to @PDecs experience. I remember that first step too. We also had students from Japan stay with us when I was around 5, so it could have been that early. I do remember watching a friend from Hong Kong eat huge shovels of food with chopsticks and slightly adjusting my hand position more than 15 years ago. There have been no forks at home since moving to Japan.
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on Sep 27
Oh, I relate to this. I couldn't use them at all before living here. I remember a trip I took to Vietnam with my sister when I was in my early 20s, and we had a stopover in Singapore and wanted to grab some food at the airport. They only gave us chopsticks, and it was miserable trying to use them. It was only after we were done "eating" (otherwise known as struggling to eat in this situation) where we saw another group of international patrons asking for forks. Oops. After living here though, I honestly think it was just practice, which might sound like an anticlimactic answer. I would try and use them at home to eat, and eventually worked my way up from being able to pick up larger things to smaller ones. In restaurants if there were only chopsticks, it was very much a sink or swim scenario, and I think sometimes that can be a fast track to learning. With my kids, they picked it up a lot through yochien and those little kids chopsticks that are connected at the end -- then eventually progressed to regular chopsticks.
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on Sep 27
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on Sep 27
@genkidesu I must admit, my first exposure to chopsticks were Chinese, not Japanese. That's because most of my classmates and my parents' coworkers were Chinese-Canadian. But boy, Chinese straight and thick chopsticks are a workout! They're long and slippery. I was glad to get narrower Japanese-style ones. This video looks at the differences between Chinese, Japanese, and Korean chopsticks. https://youtu.be/EpvdetXmRic?si=-xEwJhaJOomB43Io To make it all more exciting, I'm the only left-hander in two generations so I had to mirror the adults around me - parents, parents' friends.
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on Sep 28
@TonetoEdo I've tried the Korean kind on a trip to Seoul and I found them really difficult because they're metal...they just feel so much more slippery! I've only been to Hong Kong for the China side of things, and I don't recall the chopsticks there being much different than the ones here. But the metal ones in Korea absolutely stand out in my memory as being tricky to use!
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on Oct 5
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on Oct 7
@PDecs I like that they had instructions on the packet when you lived in Canada! Definitely wish that had been the case on my very embarrassing Singapore experience years ago!
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on Oct 7
@helloalissa I'm with you! My Japanese friends and colleagues ask how I learned to use chopsticks. It's so long ago, it's just my lifestyle. Me, too, I learned to eat like pragmatic Hong Kongers, and later learned the dainty style from tea ceremony in Japan. I switch it up my chopstick weilding depending on the cuisine and the company!
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on Oct 24
Here in Japan, when I first came, by just utilizing them, forcing myself to opt for the chopsticks rather than the cutlery when eating out or at home! I still can't pick up the last dregs of rice at the bottom of a bowl - you know the small bits that stick to the side! Whereas my kids can leave their bowls spotlessly clean. An Auntie of mine who grew up using chopsticks only until 12 years old, visited Japan when my third child was just two years old and was in awe of her chopstick skills. I never gave her training chopsticks like I had with my older two and like what my Auntie had used as a child, and my 3rd (and subsequently 4th) child actually learned quicker as a result! I wish I had learned younger like you, fair play to your parents.
9 Answers