Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jacl]

Koreans don't use chopsticks very well. Maybe it's the influence of the fork. Maybe it's because... well, I don't know. I just think they suck at it.

There is no wrong way to use chopsticks. Although some Chinese may disagree, some have told me that there is no way. Anyway, I just find that Koreans use forks too much.

Any opinions?

[RACETRAITOR]

[capebretoncanadian]

They use them better than me...and I daresay better than you....so I ask from what chopstick using highground did you get the authority to make such a statement?

[Gorgias]

I was guided in chopstick use by the Secret Society of Surviving Yanban, and also at the Institute of Asian Cusine. That was rounded off by a phd thesis writen on chopstick use in the mountainous regions of the Jeolla provinces, so I feel qualified to comment.

Some Koreans do use chopsticks like quads. However it seems funny to say that Koreans don't know how to use chopsticks. After all....

As for causality, my research on the influnce of the fork has as yet been inconclusive, however I think a better explanation might just be pickyness and manners. I don't know about you, but I've always been taught to hold a fork like a pencil, ditto for the top chopstick. Some people use the "farmer's grip," some people hold a pencil like a dagger.

That's just my 45,000 dollars.

[jacl]

[tacon101]

[RACETRAITOR]

I knew a Filipina girl back in Canada (you're allowed to point out that they don't usually use chopsticks in the Philippines) who would make fun of me whenever she saw me using chopsticks. She said it's a common white people thing to use chopsticks when another utensil, such as a spoon, would do the job better.

[noguri]

ARen't chinese chopsticks long and made of wood or plastic? But the Korean ones are made of metal and they're smaller and thinner.

I find it harder to use those metal ones the Koreans use. WHenever I grab a piece of kimchi or some other panchan, before I get it over to my mouth, it falls into another panchan or a bowl of duenjanggook. Inspiring looks of disgust from others at the table.

Am I just a retarded slob by destiny? Or are those little metal korean chopsticks just hard to use?

[crazylemongirl]

Good chopstick use:

Food gets from the table to the mouth.

Who the hell cares what else you can do with it.

[laogaiguk]

I've used them in Japan, China and here in Korea. I find the metal ones took the longest to get used to (not that long though, I am pretty good with them) except for one kind of wooden chopstick in China I found harder to use. Still though, with practice you'll get it. Try not to copy your Korean friends though, as all my Korean friends tell me, they use them improperly and in a way where you can't use them with as much strength.

[Swiss James]

Americans don't use forks properly. They'll cut up meat with the fork in the left hand, then transfer it to the right hand to spear the lumps of flesh like some kind of animal.

Also when using a spoon to eat soup, one should move the utensil away from the body, never towards.

[jacl]

[Hyeon Een]

When going out with my mixed age adult students the older ajjumas have jokingly told off some of the younger girls for not holding their chopsticks correctly. Apparantely I use them correctly, but as I was self-taught that was just through luck rather than deliberate effort on my part.

I was told by an older student that young people aren't taught to use chopsticks properly by their parents now, as the children are too busy going to kindergartens then school and hagwans. I suspect that communal family meals have declined greatly in Korea, like in the West over the last generation or two.

Anyway there is a 'correct' way to use chopsticks in Korea (which is different to the chinese method I believe), and a lot of younger people simply don't follow this 'correct' way. Just like in the west some people don't have proper knife and fork technique (which also varies from country to country) some Koreans don't have proper chopstick technique.

I expect that knife and fork wielding skill has declined greatly in Britain in the last twenty years as family's spend less time eating together and correct manners are not enforced by parents. A similar thing is happening in Korea with chopsticks.

[gypsyfish]

Absolutely disagree!

Everyone knows that the reason Koreans are tops in stem cell research is that they are expert chopstick users.

"The secret to the Koreans' success may not be cash, but the drive and manual skill of their scientists. Hwang Woo-suk said he received relatively little money for their breakthrough study, which led to tailor-made stem cells derived from embryonic clones of patients. He also said he and his colleagues, being Korean, are handy with metal chopsticks, and hence uniquely skilled at the delicate work of cloning human embryos. "

http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,67599,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_3

[eamo]

Being proud of using chopsticks is like being proud of riding a bike. Just takes a little practice. No biggie.