Eating Japanese food
 

I have been trying to learn how to use chopsticks I even had my Japanese exchange student try to teach me my ......I am not coordinated enough or fingers just are not meant to hold chopsticks to eat. My question is will they give you a fork to eat with in Japan when eating Japanese food? I am running out of time to practise eating with chopsticks.... I will be sure to have a mess if I try. Is this frowned upon?

They give a fork and spoon.Children don't always use chopsticks too.
They hope you don't dirty table with using chopsticks.

I only learnt to use chopsticks just weeks before I left for Japan. I don't use the convential way and my brother has a really odd way of using them which raised some eyebrows with the people we met but ment that he could eat. Just keep at it, teach yourself and I'm sure you'll get it soon. :)

Honestly, it just takes a little bit of practice. But they do cater to people by offering forks etc at many places... some foods though.. you really need chopsticks to eat with.. such as ramen and other long noodles.

Generally not being able to use chopsticks is fine, but it kind of makes you a stereotypical poster child for Westerners, at least in the older generation's eyes.

So for the sake of all the Westerners here who have gotten the chopsticks question about a million times.. please do your best to learn how to use them. :)

Though intellectually I can't accept that anyone, with practice, cannot learn to use chopsticks. But I know someone who has tried often and on for years and still cannot manage them. First problem is that you have to learn to relax your hand and fingers. I think initimidation is the biggest obstacle to clear. You're nervous, so you become tense, then the hands tighten and ruin everything.

Try playing with them for a while (in private). Pick up whatever is laying around and place it somewhere else. Start with larger items with a texture you can grip and work down until you can managed small, slippery/smooth objects.

So true. Especially for me since I commited to carrying my own instead of wasting more bamboo on the disposables. Those questions and comments can be - shall we say - interesting. :cool:

I picked up the skill when I was a kid, and ever since then, people have always told me "How do you do that? I'm not coordinated enough to use those!". I've noticed that everyone who says that, are usually doing it wrong - either holding them wrong, or moving them wrong. Just remember it's like holding a pencil ;)

Maybe you should Google "how to use chopsticks". A step-by-step picture guide might be easier to follow then an actual person.

i'd just say learn and practice.

they do have children chop sticks and spoons and forks =P

But even children learn how to use chopsticks at a early age.

I was using them at 3, just keep practicing

The best trick I ever heard about chopsticks is to not focus on picking things up but instead to focus on bringing the tips together. If you do that then the food inevitably gets caught between the ends and it's suddenly easy.

I don't know how or when I learnt to use them though; we always ate chinese food when I was a kid. Just seemed to me like something everyone knew how to do!

I, too, learned how to use chopsticks as a child. I greet surprise that I can use chopsticks with surprise that anyone would think I can't. Not many Japanese ask me chopstick related questions anymore. After all, I don't go around asking Japanese people if they can use a knife and fork, or condescendingly tell them how skilled they are when they do. It's a habit that irks me to no end, and I'm glad it doesn't happen anymore, because it requires me to pay careful attention to my response when it does.

Use both hands :D

But seriously, I too learned at a young age. When I think about it, it kinda makes sense but I still find it curious my sister and I were taught that by our parents.