HOW TO USE CHOPSTICKS – A BEGINNER’S GUIDE

Being an Indian, whenever I go to a Chinese restaurant, I order for a pair of chopsticks as well. Whenever I say the word, “chopsticks”, everybody around me (well mostly my friends) looks at me with amazement. This becomes worse when I start using the sticks to eat. In my defense, who likes someone staring at them when they are having their meals?

To be honest, I was getting tired of explaining everybody how to eat with chopsticks. Anybody who asks me how to use a pair of chopsticks is going to get a link to the blog (Yes, tactics to increase blog traffic).

I’ll be explaining 2 methods. The 1st one is for the patient ones who actually want to practice and master their skills of eating with chopsticks. The other one will require some craft skills but it will make eating with a pair of sticks much easier.

No skill can be learnt in a day, unless you’re Bruce Lee. Jokes apart, the 1st method involves a lot of understanding of the steps. So, for the ease of understanding, I have tried my best to illustrate the steps with a picture. So without further adieu, let’s get to it.

STEP 1: Balance one of the sticks on the tip of your ring finger and the webbing between your index finger and thumb, as shown in the following picture.

1st stick resting on the ring finger and
 the webbing between the thumb and the index finger
STEP 2: Take the 2nd stick and hold it between your middle finger and index finger, just the way you would hold a cigarette.

Holding the 2nd stick like a cigarette
Make sure the bottom part of the 2nd stick should be in close proximity to the bottom part of the 1st stick.

STEP 3: To hold the sticks tightly, apply pressure on both the sticks with the help of your thumb. The base of your thumb should apply pressure on the 1st stick, and the tip of your thumb should apply pressure on the 2nd stick. Check the illustration for further clarification.

Applying pressure on the sticks with the thumb
STEP 4: Now comes the tricky part. Once you've held the chopsticks firmly, you have to move the sticks to grab the food. The following video explains this movement better.



The 1st stick remains stationery/fixed in its position whereas stick 2 does all the movement. 

METHOD 2

This method requires a small initial setup before you can begin using the chopsticks. For this, you will need a rubber band and an eraser. Follow these steps and you’ll be using the sticks effortlessly.

STEP 1: Hold the sticks together and put the rubber band to the back end of both the sticks, as shown in the image below.

STEP 2: From the front, open the sticks and stick the eraser till the preferred width of the open front end of the chopsticks.

You are done.



THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND

1. Round chopsticks might not work for method 2. Square type chopsticks like the ones I've used work the best.

2. Use a small eraser. A big and wide eraser might make the front end of the sticks too wide for ideal use.
I apologize for the long delay in posting an article on the blog. I was busy changing to a new time zone and some personal work. I appreciate all the little support that I get from my amazing readers! Thank you so much.

If you have any difficulties understanding the steps in this post, let me know in the comments and I’ll be glad to help you out.

2 comments :

  1. It's so easy...to watch it. But I find it so hard to handle these things :). I think I have to keep on practicing....

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  2. You can start with method 2 which uses Rubber band and an eraser for extra support. Once you start getting the hang of it, you can switch to method 1 :) And of course, as they say, practice makes a man perfect :)

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