By continuing you agree to eChinacities's Privacy Policy .
Sign up with Google
Sign up with Facebook
Q: Why is it so surprising that a westerner can use chopsticks?
Wow, you can use chopsticks so well!!
Well, of course I can, it is not rocket science
I can't stand when some Chinese people are so surprised because I can use chopsticks and the moment after they are asking me why I don't speak mandarin after a few months in china.
Chinese is very easy, they say. So... learning 2000 characters is very easy but using chopsticks is a Nobel prize winning achievement, yeah?
I seriously don't get it
What's the deal with using chopsticks?
Meh, it isn't a big deal. They're just being friendly. 
I suppose it can be annoying if it starts to sound like a broken record, though. I hated meeting new people for that reason. Same exact questions every time.
Same here. One of my colleagues has seen me eating tons of times and yet he's still amazed, and not afraid to tell, me every time I use chopsticks.....
They just know most foreigners don't use chopsticks back home (at least not often). So I can understand why they are impressed. And lets be honest, if you never used chopsticks before it can be hard at first and maybe they have seen other foreigners struggle.
How about this one though. I am left handed, apparently it's very weird to use your left hand for chopsticks in China. All the time people try to tell me I should use my right hand and when I explain that I am LEFT HANDED they just give me a blank stare haha.
It is because of the stereotypical claptrap they are continuous told (being the master race and all that). Foreigners can't learn Chinese because we are inferior. Hence the shock when a westerner mutters a simple phrase in Chinese. Foreigners can't use chopsticks (hence the shock when we actually master this quite simple process). Told long and hard enough, even the most resolute of Chinese start believing their own rhetoric.
Best chopstick parlor trick to impress people at a dinner: Use your chopsticks to pick up a peanut, toss it in the air and then catch it again with your chopsticks. Then sit back and enjoy the show as everyone at the table will try to do it over and over. It requires a lot of practice, but it is a fun dinner trick.
It's just like seeing a Chinese person trying to use fork and knife at a steak-restaurant, oh wait they haven't mastered it.
I think in the main, it's not genuine surprise just paying a compliment, a way of giving face.
When it does annoy me is when a waiter gives me a fork or spoon as they assume I can't use chopsticks, Then I get annoyed.
point the thicker end at the food. that always gets them into a state of consternation (Word of the Day).
ummmm,, I really want a pair of the Ivory Chopsticks one finds for sale at the weird old Chinese antique / Ivory shoppes scattered randomly around Mongkok. I guess I'm a total ass for desiring? but gotta admit they are cool looking, and good looking,,, and provide me with much needed 'Face' at dinner parties. 'Face' is useful for getting into 'Pants'.
One can get a nice pair for maybe 500hkd after bargaining. I guess I have crossed into SZ from HK about 50 times and never had anyone even begin to look in my rucksack. Of course if I have a piece of Ivory, then obviously Murphy would be watching and so on and such as (thk u Ms. Teen South Carolina). Do u think the Border Guards would blow a fuse, or what ?
Hehe. Everyone pitched a fit of amazement in Hubei, and kept saying that I'm Chinese, or very much like them. In Hunan, they all laughed excitedly. In Guangdong, nobody seemed to give a crap - much like Xiamen. In Jiangsu, they were moderately amused. I guess it depends on the person, and maybe where you are.
Teaching my wife to use a knife and fork was an uphill battle. Teaching my little sister to use chopsticks is an exercise in futility. Heck, I'm the only one who can use chopsticks in my back-home family, and it wasn't so easy to learn. I started at nine, though...
Anyway, most foreigners that I run into can't use chopsticks, so there's that.
