Why is something so simple as eating with chopsticks viewed as showing off?

I guess the crucial question would be, if you were eating it alone, would you still have used chopsticks?

My guess (not knowing you) is that it isn’t showing off to you.

And, that the little bit of truth is in the mind of the person making the tease or joke. They feel shame or something and are projecting that feeling on you instead of taking responsibility for it themselves.

@thorninmud: Actually, yes I would have. I’m still getting the hang of it… I take opportunities like that to practice. Plus, I’m eating alone in my cubicle.

Just sounds like harmless goofing to me. My experience: keep doing it, and eventually, one by one, they’ll pick up their own chopsticks. And no, that is not a euphemism.

@poofandmook Then no worries. Some people, though, wouldn’t. They’d want to make sure others see that they know the “correct” way of eating this or that food. It would become a point of pride (even though it might detract from their actual enjoyment of the meal).

@thorninmud: Understandable. My close circle of friends, including my boyfriend, tease me for not being able to use them so well. We go for Vietnamese every Sunday for lunch and I still get a fork… hence, my desire to practice with them.

I guess that makes me a show off too! :-/
I can’t even open a tin of soup at work without it being commented on,, “soup again is it”?
:-/
Some people just have nothing else to occupy their minds! ? :-/

I eat with chopsticks pretty much any time it is appropriate for the cuisine. It’s not a matter of showing off, it’s just a matter of “when in Rome”.

That aside, learning to eat with chopsticks is a useful life skill. It’s a heck of a lot easier to fashion a pair of chopsticks if you find yourself in the woods without cutlery than it is to carve yourself a spoon.

My second grade teacher was Chinese, and insisted we all learn, so I prefer to eat any Asian cuisine (and frankly, some others) that way. It gets commented on occasionally, and I always think it’s a bit silly. Someone will always find something to comment on. Don’t let it bother you, keep on practicing! :-)

If you did that in Japan, you’d eventually get pissed off at the sheer volume of mindless compliments. Chopsticks aren’t difficult to use.

I would, however, question sweet and sour chicken. Eurgh.

Because most of us can’t do it, and won’t learn to do it well. It asks us to use fine motor controls we haven’t built up.

Sounds like something a dullard would do… it’s not even a bad joke… seeing as it’s not even a joke. Maybe a twelve-year-old would laugh along to that kind of comment…

I can’t put myself in the mindset of someone who’d find that funny, so I can’t answer, but I would’ve asked them straight up how using chopsticks to eat East Asian food could be viewed as showing off, any more than using a screwdriver to tighten a screw could be…
Maybe they all use some kind of babyish DIY gimmick power-tool to do it, or even pay someone else to do it for them, but it’s not like using a screwdriver is a fucking feat of dexterity, considering a billion people do it every day.

I mean, if they think using chopsticks to eat is impressive, I can’t imagine they’ve seen much in life…

People come up with the weirdest shit to joke about. Office culture is ridiculous.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir That’s true. Everyone’s just sorta desperate to have a light-hearted conversation during lunch that they say the first half-cocked idea to come into their head.

I eat oriental food with chopsticks myself. If someone in the office started eating with them, I would probably say some “half-cocked” thing just to make conversation. I am guilty, @Simone_De_Beauvoir , I could see myself doing something like that. Small talk doesn’t come natural to me, so in trying to fit in, I often say things that people take the wrong way. (Mental note to myself: don’t tease people for using chopsticks!)

I knew a white American girl who used her chopsticks as a sort of “I know how to use them, but you don’t” sort of thing. She used just about every skill that way. But it most certainly has to do with the person using them!

We applaud anyone who uses chopsticks over here in Hong Kong.
:)

I prefer to eat Asian food with chopsticks, I guess because it seems like the thing to do when you eat Asian food. I even have several pairs of really pretty plastic coated chopsticks that are black, purple and red. Sue me!

I’m still learning. I do amazingly well for the first 15 minutes or so. Then my hands get tired, and my skill goes in the toilet. But I get sooo many compliments in those first 15 minutes! LOL

It’s a good thing that I don’t use them exclusively. I’d starve.

Some people are jealous. I run into this all the time for the ability to do math in my head (nothing too bad, but even calculating a 15% tip to the penny without a calculator seems to unnerve people), the ease with which I can operate and repair things, and, of course, using chopsticks.

To my mind, showing off is when you compare different types of chopsticks. I have a nice set of tapered hardwood ones that offer better grip than plastic (important when eating Phở) and better dexterity and versatility than the blunt-tipped disposable ones most restaurants use. When I point that out though, I usually get accused of showing off along with the same sort of odd looks normally reserved for Trekkies.

I agree with @The_Idler in that anybody over the age of 10 who is actually impressed leads a dull life, and I am actually disappointed that many people not only lack the skill to use chopsticks, but actually see it as some sort of arcane thing in the same league as, say, Nuclear Physics. Come on, people; it’s just two sticks and a pile of food!

ha! I like your idea here a lot @poofandmook. If anyone ever accuses me of showing off in anything, I’ll just tell them I’m practicing to be better. :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tall_poppy_syndrome