Anthropologically curious...
Koreans eat with a combination of chopsticks and spoons. I've made a habit of watching carefully to see what techniques people use for eating different foods - do they just use chopsticks? Just spoons? A combination of the two? Are they interchangable? And I discovered that most of the Koreans I am acquainted with do not use chopsticks the way that I was taught. Instead of having a top chopstick and a bottom chopstick that only meet at the end, where they pinch food, many Koreans eat with the two chopsticks crossed, in the middle or closer to the hand. However, every single time I have asked about it, of six different people in two different schools, I was told variations on the same theme:
"I am not good with chopsticks. I do it wrong. Other way is right."
Jumi, my coteacher, told me she is bad with chopsticks because she is left-handed. In Korean, the word "right," as in "right hand," has the same double meaning as English "right" - morally correct. So Jumi's grandmother hit her every time she forgot to use her right hand instead of her left. However, Jumi and her crossed chopsticks could kick my ass at any contest you could devise at any time. The people who used crossed chopsticks appear no more or less clumsy or swift than those who eat with uncrossed chopsticks. So it begs the question: why is there a right way and wrong way? Do we have this about forks? Is there a right way and wrong way to use them? With chopsticks, is this something Koreans actually notice about a person, or is it only "right" or "wrong" when it is brought directly to their attention?
Further inquiry: Although it may be simply due to my inadequate sample size, I know 3 people who I am certain use chopsticks the "right" way - they are all men. I know 8 people who I am certain use chopsticks the "wrong" way - they are all women. Is this real trend? I am going to start keeping count.
Also, as a side note, I can no longer use forks - I had to wrestle mightily with spaghetti bolognaise at Kirsten and Gareth's yesterday, too embarrassed to take them up on their offer of chopsticks...Who knew using forks was a skill?
"I am not good with chopsticks. I do it wrong. Other way is right."
Jumi, my coteacher, told me she is bad with chopsticks because she is left-handed. In Korean, the word "right," as in "right hand," has the same double meaning as English "right" - morally correct. So Jumi's grandmother hit her every time she forgot to use her right hand instead of her left. However, Jumi and her crossed chopsticks could kick my ass at any contest you could devise at any time. The people who used crossed chopsticks appear no more or less clumsy or swift than those who eat with uncrossed chopsticks. So it begs the question: why is there a right way and wrong way? Do we have this about forks? Is there a right way and wrong way to use them? With chopsticks, is this something Koreans actually notice about a person, or is it only "right" or "wrong" when it is brought directly to their attention?
Further inquiry: Although it may be simply due to my inadequate sample size, I know 3 people who I am certain use chopsticks the "right" way - they are all men. I know 8 people who I am certain use chopsticks the "wrong" way - they are all women. Is this real trend? I am going to start keeping count.
Also, as a side note, I can no longer use forks - I had to wrestle mightily with spaghetti bolognaise at Kirsten and Gareth's yesterday, too embarrassed to take them up on their offer of chopsticks...Who knew using forks was a skill?