[quote=“tango42”]Maybe someone from Taiwan can answer, but I know some Taiwanese that were forced as kids to use chopsticks with right hand even though they are left handed and prefer left-handed. One even had the chopsticks rubberbanded to her right hand when she cried. She now does everything with left hand except use chopsticks.
I have no idea on why they do this, but the parents told them left hand was wrong for chopsticks and gave them the impression that people that are deficient in some way use the left hand. Mabye it so everyone at a round table can eat with the same hand and not bump elbows.[/quote]
I think this was the way in many societies not so long ago. As someone already posted the Australians tried it, I know my left handed old man was also forced to write with his right in 1950’s Scotland. The Taiwanese aren’t so very different, maybe just late getting up to speed (as with so many things). But today I doubt there is a stigma attached to it, they do after all sell left handed training chopsticks and my wife assures me they don’t try and change kids these days.
How can sets of chopsticks be right or left handed? What’s that about? Isn’t that like having a left or right handed pencil?
I have a left handed pencil in my drawer, but I can’t figure out how to use it, so it just lies there, except when I cheat and use it with my right hand.
I said Training chopsticks. They’re for kids and have loops on the prongs that face different directions.
Dude, those are crazy! I’ve never seen those. I always thought training chopsticks were basically just little tongs/tweezers.
Also, here’s another question about chopsticks. Is there a correct way to hold and use them? I’ve asked several Taiwanese and no one seems to know. I’ve also noted that, much like holding a pencil, there are many variations (though I thought there was supposedly a correct way to hold a pencil, which is why I wonder about chopsticks).
You can get some in Hola and Carrefour. Great unusual gifts for any kids you may know.
I’ll get them for my mother and give them to her next time we’re at a Chinese restaurant in Australia. She can’t use chopsticks.
Some people here hold chopsticks in some strange ways and not all the same. Almost like they are just shoving them together instead of using fingers to direct them to move together. It is different than what I learned and feel comforable with which I think is a more japanese style.
isn’t that like people not using a knife and fork correctly? Poor teaching by parents.When my wife was a girl she paid to be taught how to use chopsticks correctly. Can’t say I’ve noticed the difference between her style and mine, but I was told by some koreans, many years ago, that I used chopsticks like a child.
Took me awhile to figure it out, but isn’t that picture of the right handed ones?
No, I’m really intrigued about this. There are, for instance, correct ways to use a knife and fork in the West, based upon notions of etiquette. It seems as though there might be with chopsticks also, yet as I wrote, no one I’ve asked seems to know the answer to this.
Yeah I think they are. But you get the idea.
lefthandedness!
ward off the devil.
In India you better eat with your left hand or no one will join you at the table … the right hand is the poop-clean hand … it goes for several other Asian countries where they still eat without utensils …
Methinks you got your hands mixed up there. Eat with right - wipe with left.
And its Arabic countries where the custom is strongest. Although if they are hand-feeding they are also rather lax on booty-wiping hygiene…so its a good rule.
Yea, and the old trick is to sit on your left hand so you don’t accidently use it and upset someone.
Methinks you got your hands mixed up there. Eat with right - wipe with left.
And its Arabic countries where the custom is strongest. Although if they are hand-feeding they are also rather lax on booty-wiping hygiene…so its a good rule.[/quote]
OK, maybe it’s the other left hand … anyways, Brits drive on the wrong side of the road … because they are right handed and had to handle their sword …
No, Brits drive on the left side of the road because they didn’t surrender to Napoleon. :raspberry:
[quote=“joshuaintaiwan”]
Bear with me, because I’m not used to the culture, but I remember hearing somewhere that farting during a meal is NOT a faux pas. Is that really true?[/quote]
No farting is fine, so too is pissing under the table, just be careful not to get hit with any splash back.