Chobukubashi would make being left-handed decidedly annoying.
On the other hand (so to speak), European style (fork stays in left hand) is great for left-handers.
No? Because you use the knife in your dominant hand.
A Japanese glossary of chopsticks faux pas (2022)
371–380 of 408 posts
Re: A Japanese glossary of chopsticks faux pas (2022)
#372Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ctrOZIJni8Q This explains the difference. The European method seems the most optimal.
I thought this would simply be about the knife and the fork switching hands, but holding the fork tines up or down (spearing vs scooping) is new to me. On the other hand, I don't think Americans ever pick up food with their fork and switch the loaded fork to the other hand, especially if the food is scooped, not speared. A lot of food would be dropped in the process. As a non-conformist, I taught myself to use my kni…
I typically just forgo the knife and cut food with the side of the fork. Unless it's a particularly thick slab of meat, it works just fine.
Re: A Japanese glossary of chopsticks faux pas (2022)
#373Earlier quoted context omitted.
You say “needs to be learned” but that’s no more so than any other accent. We just grow up with it because it’s how our parents and the parents of our friends speak. If you want to change your accent you can, of course, get elocution lessons but most Brits do not. We just have a large variety of accents of which RP is one.
Not sure why this is controversial. RP is just an accent like any other now. I didn’t have lessons for it and I don’t know anyone else that did. It’s just how we speak.
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Re: A Japanese glossary of chopsticks faux pas (2022)
#374Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nonsense. If you can cut with your non dominant hand, then you can also spear and scoop with it.
Spear and scoop requires dexterity, hence the use of the dominant hand. Cutting is an extremely simple task with no special requirements.
Do you always get fish served deboned? Cutting it with non-dominant hand sucks, especially more bony ones like trout. For me doing almost anything with my non dominant part sucks, my left hand is 20x less useful.
Re: A Japanese glossary of chopsticks faux pas (2022)
#375Earlier quoted context omitted.
I feel like there was a brief period when middle class came to existence and started mimicking customs of the upper class, which were very complicated because the upper class was mostly bored and had invented this shit to kill the time. Then two things happened: 1. Upper class stopped being formal because formality stopped being a signal of upper class. 2. Middle class stopped having social gatherings in general. So,…
> invented this shit to kill the time This is unnecessarily flippant, trivializing, and reductive. The upper classes had the time and position to refine manners. I think one mistake people make is to think manners are arbitrary nonsense. But manners, when fitting, honor the self and others with conduct that suits the dignity of the human person and functions as a sign of that dignity. You cannot tell me that a man hu…
> You cannot tell me that a man hunched over a table cramming food down his throat gaping at a television is no different than one who eats according to the above custom of etiquette.
Cramming is the only real problem there because it implies not experiencing the food. Seating position does not actually affect dignity or honor, and "gaping at a tv" can be worse or better than the alternative depending on the purpose and mood of the gathering.
And the rules applied to utensils in particular are a waste of thought.
Re: A Japanese glossary of chopsticks faux pas (2022)
#376Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think if you were to do an Osaka version of this, the list would be limited to maybe 4 of these (licking, chopsticks upright in rice, passing between chopsticks, and pointing esp. toward a senior would be taboo). Whereas when I had a date with a girl from Kyoto, one of the first things that happened when we went to eat was she had to stop me from picking up my chopsticks impolitely and show me the proper way of doi…
I wonder what Ms. Kyoto would tell me to do to properly pick up my chopsticks, given that I’m left-handed, and yet it is apparently a faux pas to lay down the chopsticks pointing to the right.
It's probably a faux pas to be left handed
Re: A Japanese glossary of chopsticks faux pas (2022)
#377Earlier quoted context omitted.
Spear and scoop requires dexterity, hence the use of the dominant hand. Cutting is an extremely simple task with no special requirements.
Do you always get fish served deboned? Cutting it with non-dominant hand sucks, especially more bony ones like trout. For me doing almost anything with my non dominant part sucks, my left hand is 20x less useful.
Fish are gross and smell gross. I don't get them served at all.
Re: A Japanese glossary of chopsticks faux pas (2022)
#378Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nonsense. If you can cut with your non dominant hand, then you can also spear and scoop with it.
Spear and scoop requires dexterity, hence the use of the dominant hand. Cutting is an extremely simple task with no special requirements.
You obviously haven’t done it both ways and are assuming that spearing requires more dexterity than cutting. Hilarious that you could just try it for yourself and figure out that knife in the dominant hand works well but choose instead to bore everyone with your ignorance and stunning closemindedness
Re: A Japanese glossary of chopsticks faux pas (2022)
#379Earlier quoted context omitted.
I thought this would simply be about the knife and the fork switching hands, but holding the fork tines up or down (spearing vs scooping) is new to me. On the other hand, I don't think Americans ever pick up food with their fork and switch the loaded fork to the other hand, especially if the food is scooped, not speared. A lot of food would be dropped in the process. As a non-conformist, I taught myself to use my kni…
I typically just forgo the knife and cut food with the side of the fork. Unless it's a particularly thick slab of meat, it works just fine.
Pretty much. I do the same thing with a spoon.
Re: A Japanese glossary of chopsticks faux pas (2022)
#380Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some of them of course are invented whole cloth. British Received Pronunciation was invented and needs to be learned and is the standard of the upper class. It's neither right nor wrong but it's there to differentiate.
"Received Pronunciation was invented" How so?
It's not the natural evolution of a regional dialect coming to prominence but rather the conscious consensus of a geographically distributed social stratum.
Interestingly, the sociolinguistic literature shows that such a consensus is strongest among an aspirationally upward-mobile social group rather than the already social elite. In other words: The aspirational middle class make a big effort to speak how they think the upper class speak in hopes of joining them one day.