I also learned another set of chopsticks manners not posted here. If desert is provided, you still use the same chopsticks, but with (at least) disposable chopsticks, you turn them around when picking up the desert. After observing this at the table, I did the same thing; and boy the school officials noticed and were smiling and talking to each other how cool they thought it was. It was something so simple to learn by observing, and yet they act like I did something complicated.

LOL. It’s a Korean thing. They probably don’t do this so much anymore, but while I was in Korea during the 90s, when Koreans would sit down to eat for the first time with a foreign acquaintance, they would utter the requisite praise, “You use chopsticks very well.” From Korea, I moved to China and lived there for several years. I ate with Chinese from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds from government officials to the village friends of my housekeeper and only ever got praised once.

Another Korean thing is contrasting something Korean with something Japanese or Chinese, in this case, chopsticks. Back in the 90s, the English-language TV broadcaster Arirang featured a program called “Beseto Express,” or something like that, “Beseto” being an amalagram of “Beijing Seoul Tokyo.” The show would contrast clothing, architecture, food, and other representations of traditional culture, and conclude that the Korean XYZ was a little better. I understand very well why Koreans feel the need to distinguish themseles from their larger, better-known neighbors, but the “we’re better” tone that sometimes underlies these contrasts (Hyejin Kim’s posts don’t do this) holds little appeal with foreign audiences.

I don’t think that using chopsticks are difficult and don’t see what the fuss about them are. Using metal chopsticks do not make Koreans special — it just makes their hands cold in winter. Yawn.