How to Eat With Chopsticks

Eating with chopsticks may seem intimidating at first, especially when you’ve been raised to use spoons and forks at the dinner table. But 5-Minute Crafts found the simplest way to use chopsticks by holding it correctly and following some basic etiquette. Read on to learn more.

How to hold chopsticks

1. Look at the palm of your right hand (or your left hand if you’re a left-handed person).

2. Pinch the first chopstick like a pen. It should be held somewhere around three-fifths of the way up from the narrower end.

3. Now insert the second chopstick between the gap formed by the base of your thumb and index finger.

4. Keep sliding the second chopstick up until it aligns with the upper tip of the higher chopstick. Support it with your middle finger.

• To make the chopsticks even, tap the edges on the table.

5. The final result may look like this.

How to eat with chopsticks

• The upper chopstick should be the one doing all the work. The lower chopstick is more like an anchor, it must not move.
• Practice opening and closing the upper chopstick as shown in the image above. It should not make an “X,” which is considered disrespectful — plus, doing this makes it difficult to pick up food.

• Never place your chopsticks vertically on the food bowl, as it’s considered a bad omen. Instead, place your chopsticks horizontally on the food bowl, as is shown in the image.

• Also, it’s wrong to pick up food vertically from the bowl. Instead, you can simply lift up the food as you do with a fork, by rotating your wrist in a similar fashion.

• According to Chinese etiquette, one must always lift their rice bowl up close to the mouth with one hand and use chopsticks with the other. But in Korea, this is considered bad-mannered. Because f this, you should be wary of the people you’re eating with and get acquainted with the proper etiquette.

• Never tap your chopsticks on the edge of a bowl — this is what beggars do to grab attention. If your chopsticks aren’t in use, keep them on a chopstick rest.

Never try to pick up, push around, or take bites from one of the chopsticks. Always use both the chopsticks at the same time.