Chopstick Etiquette

   When you are living in a foreign country where you eat 3 meals a day with chopsticks, you become extremely aware of of importance behind chopstick etiquette. As a foreigner, you already stick out-- no need to stick out further  due to bad table manners....

   Chopstick etiquette is very important, and something I think we (rightfully) review every year in Japanese class. Do the wrong thing with your chopsticks, and you could accidentally be creating an offering to the dead ((such as by stabbing your rice with the chopsticks)). So here are just a few rules I've learned over the years that I finally get to live by! First and foremost, you never want to stab your rice, or any food for that matter, with your chopsticks....It is very rude. In school, we also talked about never passing food directly between pairs of chopsticks. When moving food from another plate to your own, flip the chopsticks around, and move the from the serving plate to your own-- You don't want to touch all of the food with the side of the chopsticks your mouth touched. ewwie(: haha It is also very rude to lick your chopsticks, also to stab your food with your chopstick. chopsticks are not forks, so do your best to pick up the food without attempting to stab it...

   I was fortunate enough to have learned these rules before coming to Japan, but some people on this trip had never taken Japanese class before...Thank goodness we learned these rules right before at orientation!
That touches on some of the more important rules to using chopsticks, but there are many more. I found this video explaining chopstick etiquette-- It even has some points that I didn't know about! check it out~
Chopstick Etiquette

   The reason I am blogging about this randomly is because my host family has created confusion in my head....Everything I know is a lie...! haha no not really... My host family picks up there food with the same ends of their chopsticks ((the end they eat from)) and they also stab foods like dumplings and meat....I always learned these were HUGE no-nos haha, but I guess within the family it is fine!

~Jane Claire   ☆＾▽＾☆