- Chopsticks, chopsticks, chopsticks.
How to hold and use chopsticks, the Chinese way.
(spiritual music)
I remember, when I was a little kid,
my mom and my dad would teach me how to use chopsticks
and my dad would actually slap my hand
every time I do it wrong, so even now
I don't do it 100% perfect, but today I'm gonna show
you the different ways of doing it.
I have some guests joining me.
Now, Victoria, has a story you want to share
regarding of chopsticks.
- Yeah, it's interesting and interesting for you to share
that your parents actually were very
strict on you holding it the proper way
because I guess my parents were more, progressive.
They were more, open minded with us,
whether we hold chopsticks properly or not.
So, when I was young I actually couldn't hold them at all.
So what my dad ended up doing is,
he found these chopsticks with very pointy ends.
- Ah, so you can stick them in the food?
- And I would just stab my food.
- [Dan] Using it like a fork.
- [Victoria] Pretty much use it like a pseudo
Asian Chinese style fork.
- Yes
- And then eventually I did learn,
but I actually never quite learned the proper way.
= Interesting.
- So I used the most common, incorrect way.
- Okay
- Yeah
- So what's the most common, incorrect way?
- So, the most common, incorrect way
It's what Chinese people call the cross.
So then now, the chopsticks are not supposed
to overlap each other right.
They're not supposed to do that.
But, you know what, as my dad says
if you can pick up the food and put it in your mouth
they you'll survive.
- Yes and so a lot of Caucasians do that, to stick it in
or they kinda like clamp it together, right?
- Yes
- So kinda like this and you are leaving space here
and you just kinda clamp it, so I go like that
and I just used the power from here to grab it like that.
So, it works, right there you can see.
And that works fine, and that works fine.
Like that.
But that's not the proper way of doing it
because you can see that gap between is not very big
so the proper way, the Chinese way, of holding a chopstick
is actually like this, let me show it to you.
So imagine just like that,
you should just practice with one finger.
Now you don't want to hold it too low,
you don't want to hold it too high.
Somewhere in the middle and just these two.
So you're holding it like this, just try that.
Thumb pointing up that you can see.
So you should be able to make a victory, like a V.
You can see that right, a V.
And from there, just like that
and add the second piece,
the second piece is this particular piece.
So hold it, right there, the second piece.
Not too high, not too low.
You can see, you know you're doing it correctly
because you can make the gap much bigger.
Right, you can see.
You can see it like that.
Right?
So that's how you pick up the food.
So this bottom part is stationary,
the top part, that's where you make the motions.
So you're actually using this and you'll do it like that.
Klaus is gonna give it a try.
- Yes
- So like that. Right.
Yeah and then just use this part of it,
yeah just use that part of it like that.
- It's not easy, I can't even do the proper way.
- Yeah, so you should be able to clamp at this right.
Right? Takes a little practice, it does.
Now Jason, you do it well.
Jason's left handed, right?
You can see that. Yeah.
So just practice with this and practice with that.
And you'll see with practice, you can hold
heavier and heavier objects just like that.
You can hold something like something this big.
A bun. You can grab it no problem.
Now when you do it the most common, incorrect way
it's only this much.
Otherwise you'll be like that right?
That doesn't look so good.
So that's how you hold and use chopsticks the Chinese way.
Now obviously you can also turn this
into a self-defense weapon if someone attacks you.
But that's how you do it.
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and here we go, just eat.
Like that.