Emigrating has generally been a very, very complicated and difficult task, but by far the hardest aspect has been relearning how to use a knife and fork.
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I thought everyone knew this but ....
Neurodivergent story time!In the era of French aristocracy, American culture was just starting to get posh. And Americans (colonists then citizens) at the time decided great high class table manners meant copying high French fashion. So they adopted this weird "zig zag" method of eating where we only eat with the fork in our right hands facing up like you'd scoop food, but also only use the knife in our right hands. So every time you cut something you set the fork down and switch hands, then switch back. We can't eat with a fork in our left hand (if we were raised with strict table manners that don't care about handedness).
America did that big revolution and our big freedom thing and never switched back. The rest of the world moved on to knife in the right hand, fork in the left turned downward whilst cutting stuff.
You can always tell an American while eating by how we use the knife and fork. It's how they caught spies in WWII. Turns out it is incredibly hard to relearn XD
@hacks4pancakes I spent 15 years in China and definitely prefer using chopsticks whenever possible, which means I usually eat with chopsticks at home.
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I thought everyone knew this but ....
Neurodivergent story time!In the era of French aristocracy, American culture was just starting to get posh. And Americans (colonists then citizens) at the time decided great high class table manners meant copying high French fashion. So they adopted this weird "zig zag" method of eating where we only eat with the fork in our right hands facing up like you'd scoop food, but also only use the knife in our right hands. So every time you cut something you set the fork down and switch hands, then switch back. We can't eat with a fork in our left hand (if we were raised with strict table manners that don't care about handedness).
America did that big revolution and our big freedom thing and never switched back. The rest of the world moved on to knife in the right hand, fork in the left turned downward whilst cutting stuff.
You can always tell an American while eating by how we use the knife and fork. It's how they caught spies in WWII. Turns out it is incredibly hard to relearn XD
@hacks4pancakes Aggressively stabbing the food with the fork, and holding it with the fist during cutting has never even hinted at "posh" to me. I would never have guessed that it came from anything other than a peasant practice!
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@hacks4pancakes I spent a lot of time in the US as a European and never noticed this. Fascinating!
The only cutlery related thing I can remember is some lady eating spaghetti by twirling them around her fork with her free hand but I doubt that’s a common thing.About the spaghetti:
That's the way every German I know eats them. We usually place the tips of the fork in a spoon to twirl the spaghetti, whereas Italians don't use a spoon.I only realized that some people don't eat spaghetti this way when my American host family watched me eating my spaghetti.
They would cut them, which seems barbaric to me. (We would always buy extra long spaghetti
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Emigrating has generally been a very, very complicated and difficult task, but by far the hardest aspect has been relearning how to use a knife and fork. It's way harder than accents or driving on the other side of the road.
@hacks4pancakes and then there are the things you learn unconsciously. I worked in southern turkey for two years and when I came back to Belgium I found out I had unlearned to make eye contact in public.
Harder to learn was greeting the French colleagues. In Belgium being we kiss family or very close friends or French speaking colleagues 1 or 3 times, starting on the left cheek. The French do 2 or 4 times, starting on the right cheek. You can imagine how that worked out. -
@hacks4pancakes If it helps, I can tell you that although I was raised in Europe, with a strict fork-in-left-hand rule, I never obeyed by it, because I felt fork in the right had was more convenient (i.e. knife in left hand).
I still do it to this day, and having eaten at both plain and fancy occasions in many places the world, I've survived.
But, on a similar topic, I have noticed that Americans very often tend to use a fork only, and then use the fork to cut things. I don't know if it stands out, but I notice it.
(perhaps people notice my holding the fork wrong and they're just too polite to mention it?)
Edit: One more thing: The only time my knife-in-left-hand gives me trouble is when I go to a fancy restaurant and they have those special fish knives. Those are difficult to use with the left hand.
@loke @hacks4pancakes I was told in France that Americans are easy to spot because we eat with one hand, with only a fork, instead of using a knife or piece of bread in the other hand to push against. Fortunately I wasn't a spy.
OR WAS I
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@weezmgk @osma @hacks4pancakes
counter point: eating pizza or fish and chips with a knife and fork is bonkers@EndlessMason @weezmgk @osma @hacks4pancakes my boys are trying to educate my husband on that point. For hamburger it is now 50/50, but for pizza he always needs a knife and fork, and eats it like a moon, starting on one side and cutting an ever bigger area from that side.
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I thought everyone knew this but ....
Neurodivergent story time!In the era of French aristocracy, American culture was just starting to get posh. And Americans (colonists then citizens) at the time decided great high class table manners meant copying high French fashion. So they adopted this weird "zig zag" method of eating where we only eat with the fork in our right hands facing up like you'd scoop food, but also only use the knife in our right hands. So every time you cut something you set the fork down and switch hands, then switch back. We can't eat with a fork in our left hand (if we were raised with strict table manners that don't care about handedness).
America did that big revolution and our big freedom thing and never switched back. The rest of the world moved on to knife in the right hand, fork in the left turned downward whilst cutting stuff.
You can always tell an American while eating by how we use the knife and fork. It's how they caught spies in WWII. Turns out it is incredibly hard to relearn XD
@hacks4pancakes well I’ve learnt something today! Having lived & worked in the US years ago I was accustomed to the strange looks when using a fork in the left hand but never knew the history behind it all… I spent long enough there that I’m now ambiforkstrous
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@EndlessMason @weezmgk @osma @hacks4pancakes my boys are trying to educate my husband on that point. For hamburger it is now 50/50, but for pizza he always needs a knife and fork, and eats it like a moon, starting on one side and cutting an ever bigger area from that side.
️@Klara @weezmgk @osma @hacks4pancakes
If somebody said I "eat like a moon" I'd definitely put that on my linkedin page. -
I thought everyone knew this but ....
Neurodivergent story time!In the era of French aristocracy, American culture was just starting to get posh. And Americans (colonists then citizens) at the time decided great high class table manners meant copying high French fashion. So they adopted this weird "zig zag" method of eating where we only eat with the fork in our right hands facing up like you'd scoop food, but also only use the knife in our right hands. So every time you cut something you set the fork down and switch hands, then switch back. We can't eat with a fork in our left hand (if we were raised with strict table manners that don't care about handedness).
America did that big revolution and our big freedom thing and never switched back. The rest of the world moved on to knife in the right hand, fork in the left turned downward whilst cutting stuff.
You can always tell an American while eating by how we use the knife and fork. It's how they caught spies in WWII. Turns out it is incredibly hard to relearn XD
@hacks4pancakes
I completely forgot about that zig-zag method.
I'm left-handed and grew up, in the US, with a german father.
He might have taught us the european style, but i remember observing the zig-zag and thinking I don't do that because I hold the fork in my dominant hand.Been living over in Europe for 20+ years, so I kinda forgot zig-zag existis.
thanks for the awkward reminder.
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@Klara @weezmgk @osma @hacks4pancakes
If somebody said I "eat like a moon" I'd definitely put that on my linkedin page.@EndlessMason @weezmgk @osma @hacks4pancakes I meant literally the pizza in the shapes of the moon
, not a misspelling of moron 
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@EndlessMason @weezmgk @osma @hacks4pancakes I meant literally the pizza in the shapes of the moon
, not a misspelling of moron @Klara @weezmgk @osma @hacks4pancakes
No, it was super clear what you meant. -
Emigrating has generally been a very, very complicated and difficult task, but by far the hardest aspect has been relearning how to use a knife and fork. It's way harder than accents or driving on the other side of the road.
@hacks4pancakes My wife gives me sideeye every time I switch fork to right side and knife to left, bit eating should be fun, so I persist.
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I thought everyone knew this but ....
Neurodivergent story time!In the era of French aristocracy, American culture was just starting to get posh. And Americans (colonists then citizens) at the time decided great high class table manners meant copying high French fashion. So they adopted this weird "zig zag" method of eating where we only eat with the fork in our right hands facing up like you'd scoop food, but also only use the knife in our right hands. So every time you cut something you set the fork down and switch hands, then switch back. We can't eat with a fork in our left hand (if we were raised with strict table manners that don't care about handedness).
America did that big revolution and our big freedom thing and never switched back. The rest of the world moved on to knife in the right hand, fork in the left turned downward whilst cutting stuff.
You can always tell an American while eating by how we use the knife and fork. It's how they caught spies in WWII. Turns out it is incredibly hard to relearn XD
@hacks4pancakes Now catch a left handed American that refuses to follow fork customs and everyone assumes they are of British descent. (I still eat Ethiopian food right handed, because of the implications.)
Side note: My immediate family was left hand dominant. 2 out of 3 kids and one parent, with the other questionable because he got "trained" out of using his left hand by teachers in the 1940's and 50's.
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@EndlessMason American table manners: Cut with a table knife in your right hand. Put down knife. Pick up fork with right hand, spear & place in mouth. UK/Aus: Keep fork in left hand, knife always in right, spear food with fork, left handed, then bite. It's harder than you think. @hacks4pancakes
@weezmgk @EndlessMason @hacks4pancakes Wot?!?
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@Fishd admittedly, my life experience in the US is rather limited, 1962-1996. But it was brought to my attention shortly after emigrating to Australia that I ate like an American. Damned the ex wife wasn't right. I did. You can also spot the Murkan zig-zag eating habit in documentary shows (bear in mind that movie actors are taught how to eat for a role). It's really complicated and inefficient, switching hands all the time. @EndlessMason @hacks4pancakes
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@tanyakaroli @hacks4pancakes I was scolded, as a child, if I didn't do this. by my mother's family, but not my dads. Also scolded for cutting more than one piece at a time before putting down the knife and switching the fork back to my right hand.
@kristinHenry ah, I see that this process slows down eating substantially. That could have good health benefits (whereas I wolf down my food, which apparently is not good for you). Interesting, thanks!
@hacks4pancakes -
I thought everyone knew this but ....
Neurodivergent story time!In the era of French aristocracy, American culture was just starting to get posh. And Americans (colonists then citizens) at the time decided great high class table manners meant copying high French fashion. So they adopted this weird "zig zag" method of eating where we only eat with the fork in our right hands facing up like you'd scoop food, but also only use the knife in our right hands. So every time you cut something you set the fork down and switch hands, then switch back. We can't eat with a fork in our left hand (if we were raised with strict table manners that don't care about handedness).
America did that big revolution and our big freedom thing and never switched back. The rest of the world moved on to knife in the right hand, fork in the left turned downward whilst cutting stuff.
You can always tell an American while eating by how we use the knife and fork. It's how they caught spies in WWII. Turns out it is incredibly hard to relearn XD
@hacks4pancakes German here, I was raised with the switcheroo and I think almost everyone does it here
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@hacks4pancakes German here, I was raised with the switcheroo and I think almost everyone does it here
@shadowwwind how posh!
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@loke @hacks4pancakes I thought that there was a rule that left-handed people can use the opposite hands.
So left-hand knife, right-hand fork.
And Hacks, I vaguely recall a post from ages ago where you mentioned you're left handed?
So you might have an out there? -
I thought everyone knew this but ....
Neurodivergent story time!In the era of French aristocracy, American culture was just starting to get posh. And Americans (colonists then citizens) at the time decided great high class table manners meant copying high French fashion. So they adopted this weird "zig zag" method of eating where we only eat with the fork in our right hands facing up like you'd scoop food, but also only use the knife in our right hands. So every time you cut something you set the fork down and switch hands, then switch back. We can't eat with a fork in our left hand (if we were raised with strict table manners that don't care about handedness).
America did that big revolution and our big freedom thing and never switched back. The rest of the world moved on to knife in the right hand, fork in the left turned downward whilst cutting stuff.
You can always tell an American while eating by how we use the knife and fork. It's how they caught spies in WWII. Turns out it is incredibly hard to relearn XD
Oh, I never knew this. I do remember being told it was the right way to do it, but I thought it also had to do with just being right handed.
Now I realize that I have noticed some Europeans in movies and thought something was odd but couldn't put my finger on it.
