I boasted recently that I am a pro at handling chopsticks *ahem!* and that I can manipulate peanuts and fishballs quite easily. I didn’t quite say that I was holding it the right way 😉 However, reader Bugs asked to see how I hold my chopsticks, so here it is.
Such a random little post isn’t it? 😀
This is how I hold my chopsticks. The lower piece does not move and its the top piece that does all the work. I believe this is what’s known as “the right way to hold a chopstick”.
Am I doing it right? I’d like to think so 😀
Paris B
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Yes, good girl! That’s the correct way 🙂
Yay! Hard work paid off hehe…
i can’t manipulate the chopsticks quite well, esp this plastic kind. but, i can hold the korean chopsticks very steadily 😉 we have been using korean chopsticks at home for quite some years hence i guess i am used to it already
Do you mean the metal round chopsticks or the flat Korean chopsticks? I handle them all the same way but the flat metal ones at Korean restaurants can be a bit of a challenge
I just can’t hold chopsticks that way. My mom tried to teach it to me but it just doesn’t feel natural. I hold the chopsticks crossed and both of them move when I pick up food. Since everyone I know holds their chopsticks like you Paris, I get some confused stares.
I find chopsticks very elegant so I tried hard to make sure I did it right. I started out the crossed way too and it wasn’t easy but you get used to it and it comes naturally after a while. Never too late! 😉
I’m not the best at chopsticks, but I think I’m pretty good for an Aussie. I can pick up small stuff reasonably well most of the time.
Is it incorrect to use chopsticks left handed? I was told it was offensive by an English woman while I was in Japan. There’s no way I can handle chopsticks right handed!
I know some traditionalists think that chopsticks shouldn’t be used in the left hand. I personally think its worth doing whatever one can to get food into the mouth lol! Oh and not to poke or clash with the person sitting on your left 😉
i hold em like that too! 😀
Yay! Looks like we’re on the right track 😉
I used to hold my chopsticks crossed and get smacked by my gran cos she said it brought bad luck (or something to that effect – can’t remember anymore!), then managed to switch over to the way you hold it sometime during my teen years.
I have a tiny bit of a problem when it comes to the slim metal chopsticks you typically see at Korean restaurants (Xin, I’m jealous!) but otherwise, bring on the peanut challenge! 😀 *brandishes bamboo and plastic chopsticks*
The flat metal chopsticks are a bother, I find. Hurts my hands when used for too long. But yeah! Chopstick ninjas! 😀
Good girl! That’s absolutely the right way. And that’s how I hold my chopsticks too. 🙂
Yay for doing it right 😀
I believe that *is* the right way to hold a pair of chopsticks. They’re never supposed to be crossed but of course, I break the rules ;P
Haha it’s one thing knowing the theory and another to put it in practice right? Hehe
I hold my chopsticks like how I hold my pen.. #embarassing
Hmm I can’t quite imagine that. One stick is held like a pencil too, in my case. The other one is the one that moves to pick things up 😉
Thnx PB for the photo… wow, so fast !! …and YEAH ! i’m proud of myself.
Even though the cross chopsticks way of holding is undoubtedly “wrong”, I’ve seen many with 2 straight chopsticks but the fingers or the hand is so “cross” that I’m curious how they “invent” that way of holding…. hahaaha
You’re welcome, Bugs 🙂 I’ve seen lots of different variations of how people hold their chopsticks too!
i can hold like that but the minute i use it, it goes all haywire! give up already 😛 the only person at home who can do it right is my dad.
Lol practice makes perfect m’dear!
I have problems with plastic chopsticks… somehow or rather they just couldn’t ‘coorporate’ with me!!!
Not a good thing because the plastics ones are the one we are offered outside!! somewhat embarrassing when eating especially with elder people.
i am good with wooden and stainless steel ones though…
weird.
Maybe it’s the thickness and the heft. I find chopsticks that are a little heavier easier to handle than very light ones 🙂
I’ve heard it somewhere that you hold the top part like a chinese brush and the bottom like you would with a pencil.
I like Japanese chopstick shape the best. Tapered at the end and it feel just nice at the top.
That’s interesting. You got me looking to see if I hold it like a Chinese brush hehe… I do know the bottom is held like a pencil, cos I remember my mom telling me so 🙂 a tapered end makes it much easier to pick small food pieces up, that’s for sure!
When I was a kid, I could manipulate my chopsticks as any proper chopstick holder could, except that I crossed them together. However, after many, many tantrums and fights with me mom, she managed to get me to hold them correctly but I needed time to pick up my peanuts and fishballs.
Eating pasta with chopsticks as part of the training regime at home was ultimately traumatic.
Lol! My parents never quite forced me to use it the right way, but I learnt it up because I thought it looked more elegant 🙂
You are right!!! Till now I can’t really hold it in a correct way..
Practice? 😉
Yes. you are holding it the correct way. I know it but I cannot change my wrong way due to habit.
Hey, never too late to give it a shot! 😉
yep! I remember that when I taught myself tot use chopsticks, I did it the wrong way. But I already knew what the right way is, and I forced myself very hard to change it to this way. haha.
That’s what happened with me too 🙂 I started out the crossed way, but made an effort to learn the proper way. Was torturous initially but it gets easier as we go along
Started holding my chopsticks like that after I got tegur-ed by my ice skating coach. I still remember what he said. ” Haiyo, why does yr chopsticks cross one? Look at your cousin (ang moh btw). She can hold better than you”
So all thanks to him, I started holding my chopsticks the right way 😀
Haha that was a cute anecdote and shaming us into doing it right, when someone of a different culture can do it better is a great incentive eh? 😉 btw Ice skating! What fun! I was terrible at it 😛
I don’t hold chopsticks right…I cross them, and that’s wrong. But as long as I get the food, haha, who cares. :p
I think that’s the common consensus 🙂
I was used to hold my chopsticks crossed, and after almost few months of practice, i am holding it correctly! yay!
Yay! See, practice does make perfect! 😀