Team pincers. I don't think I have ever see people using the "scissors method". I would definitely pay more attention to how people are using chopsticks after this.
I was 9 y/o and was living in Hawaii when my father taught me to use chopsticks by picking up peanuts. Later, I graduated to grains of Rice. I am 76 now and will sometimes take a pair with me when I go out to eat. Excellent video!
But there are actually much harder things to grab than small hard stuff. Noodles that are too long and slippery like sweet potato noodles in a hot pot 🍜 or Jiaozi 🥟 when they are a bit overcooked and have a bit of weird shape (like self made but your not good at it)
I was thought the same way with peanuts, I was told 1 hour before dinner by my sisters stepmother (Chinese) I wouldn’t have any dinner if I couldn’t manage to get 1 peanut before dinner.. she did that to us a few times and boom.. ahh childhood memories 😁
My mother is from Yokohama Japan and I remember as a twelve year old kid here in Texas being taught by my grandmother how to use chopsticks and getting Mad and saying "It's Impossible and I would Never be able to learn!!" My grandmother very humorously pointed out the fact that I have a three-year-old-cousin who could use them proficiently and did I not have the same skills as a little three-year-old girl?!? Needless to say I am Exceptionally Proficient with chopsticks today!!! 🤠👍🇯🇵
I used to use scissor, but I broke my arm and was in a cast for a month before surgery, so had to learn to use chopsticks with my left hand. Learned pincer in 2 days and when I went back to my right hand, I had already forgotten how to use scissor, and naturally used pincer lol. so if you use scissor, and are finding it hard to learn pincer, maybe try forcing yourself to learn it with your non-dominant hand
A few months ago I noticed the way I hold chopsticks was different than everywhere I see in media. I thought I was doing it wrong, but can pick up dry rice grains so I ignored it. I sat in a Chinese restaurant and saw the older Chinese patrons held them the way I do, then it hit me. I was taught how to use them somewhere around 5 years old by the Chinese owner of a local restaurant where I grew up because she was very fond of my family and took interest in the little white kid. I inadvertently learned the traditional Chinese method, because we frequented that place so often.
I used to hold chopsticks like scissors when I was a kid but eventually learned the pincer way tho a slightly different grip. Having a collection of Chinese, Japanese and Korean style chopsticks comes in handy for different cuisines rice to spaghetti an even for snacks like chips and cheetos cause its so easy to pick them out of the bag without getting my hands dirty XD
I jokingly used two sandwich toothpicks to eat French fries one day... Ever since then I've grown to love chopsticks for plenty of non-Asian dishes. They are superior to a fork for salads.
When I first arrived in China I could barely use chopsticks. There were lots of Japanese students also learning Chinese in the school I attended. They taught me the more useful method detailed in the video.
OK, so I had a noodle soup this morning. Since I live here, I have been teaching myself to use chopsticks for noodle soup, up to the point it has become automatic. And suddenly I remembered the video, how am I holding my chopsticks? The moving one is hold by thump and index finger, the fixed one is slit in the crook of the thumb and hold by middle finger. I will not try to dry bean challenge, but I guess I would manage to grab an honest number, even if my hold is not the most elegant one. Fried yellow noddles and chicken soup with star anise. Yummy!
I had never tried eating with chopsticks, but this video encouraged me, I plan to visit China So I decided to learn the pinchers pincing method because I think it was more elegant. I want to impress🙄 the Chinese by eating correctly and politely with chopsticks,I’m so excited about the progress🙃🤣 ❤
yep. like Liu, i was chopstick-tapped on the back of my hand to learn the proper way when i was young. made a hell of a difference now. no negative impact nor need for therapy because of a few light taps.
My parents both use the pincer method and I remember the instructions on chopstick wrappers in restaurants showing the pincer method. All this time, I just thought I was holding chopsticks wrong, but now I know it’s the accepted scissor method!
I learned to use chopsticks as a kid from my dad who learned it when his family lived in Vancouver for a while when he was a kid. I didn't know what the method was called, but I use pincer method. There is a modest collection of chopsticks in my cutlery drawer that I use regularly. Mostly I use them for eating, but they are very useful for bringing things out of jars for cooking that I don't want to use my hands for, like kimchi
Every chopstick tutorials I see in RUclips teach the traditional way. But no one I see in person, no one in Chinese TikTok uses that way. I wish someone surveys on how people use it.
Yes. All Asians in NYC (even tiny children) hold chopsticks parallel and right next to each other. Very elegant and efficient. Is that what they're calling the scissor technique? Only clumsy Westerners hold the sticks so they make a triangle. Very frustrating.
Lol wow... The American calling out the Chinese professor is wild.. 😂 This comment is on a level of white appropriation and gate keeping as stealing spirit animals and spirit totems and gatekeeping that as part of your own faith... BTW I'm a classically trained chef an foodie from socal... all I've ever seen everyone eat is with the traditional method at every restaurant...Chinese, Japanese, Tai, Mongolian, whatever.. please stay in your own lane.
@@ProfClaudeBallstbh I’ve seen a lot of Midwest people use parallel grip and not scissor method. Hardly any Asians in my town. So I have no idea what you’re talking about. Even my friends who are non Asian even know how to hold chopsticks correctly. And surprisingly a good amount of western customers use chopsticks when given the choice. And even more surprisingly I end up using a fork lol 😂
after i learned how to use chopstick for at least 20 years, the first method seems strange and hard to use. and i realized i used scissor technique all the time. the problem with lever method is not enough muscle energy to pinch the food and my hand cramps when attemting to do it. on the other hand, scissor technique is easier to use especially to eat noodles as it require less muscle movement.
@@ProfClaudeBallsyes asian kid like me learned to use chopstick during my childhood by myself before youtube and the internet even exist and i just realized over twenty years later from this video that it's called scissor technique. definitely easier to use than the first one.
Lived in China for 5 years, and was taught using peanuts. My workers told me start picking up one peanut, when easy, add another peanut. When I could pickup three peanuts at once, I was proficient. Funny story, on trip to Taiwan wearing white shirt and tie (meeting customer), they took me to noodle restaurant for lunch. White shirt was speckled within minutes! 😂
I'm not Chinese and no one taught me how to hold chopsticks, but surprisingly, I hold it like the etiquette teacher! I can pick up a single grain of rice with it...
I was around 35 and was going to a lot of sushi places and couldn't use chopsticks at all - it was like a slapstick comedy to watch me try to use them. I grabbed a set of disposable ones on the way out and spent a couple weeks just using them to pick stuff up around my home. Next time we went out for sushi it was no longer an issue to use chopsticks. A few months later my wife and I were out with one of her girlfriends, who was from Taiwan, and she commented that I was the only non-Asian she knew that didn't hold them like a peasant with half the chopsticks hanging out over the back of my hand. I could, apparently, pass for upper-class Chinese based on my chopsticks technique. I've since purchased a variety of chopsticks for personal use. My favorites are rather long wood ones with tapered, but not pointed, ends. I've found out that you can score some major respect at dim sum restaurants if you bring your own chopsticks and use them well. Which you almost half to do since the ones they supply are smooth plastic without a textured tip and you can't grip a damned thing with them.
I literally started using it well right away, The pincer way. I realized that if i think about how to use it while eating it always messes up. but when you don't think about it it works perfectly for me
I have the added pleasantness of being left handed. I have somehow learned the '"proper" way to hold them. I will have to get the beans out and give it a go. I can grab one grain of rice and pick it up. Maybe that is too easy though.
My mom hated being taught via the beat-your-hand method. She gave me M&Ms instead. First starting with peanut then graduating to normal ones or Skittles.
I am European American, not Chinese. I taught myself to use chopsticks when I went to Chinese restaurants in America starting at the age of 12. In China, I was declared a chopstick master when I picked up an ice cube from one glass and put it in my glass using only chopsticks. Yes, ice cubes are available in some restaurants in China. Hold one chopstick inside of the thumb pivot fold to across the top of the ring finger nail. Hold the other chopstick in the crook of the index finger to the top of the finger nail of the middle finger. Hold both chopsticks down with the thumb. Then line up the tips of the chopsticks by pointing them down onto a flat surface. To open and close the chopsticks, just move the index and middle fingers in unison. This grip provides maximum control and force to pick up almost any size food. I like to use chopsticks for eating salad, tater tots, and food I don't want to pierce with a fork.
Seeing this reminded me of the time my wife asked me if I could eat yogurt with chopsticks. I told her, "I don't know. Maybe." I proceeded to eat a cup of yogurt in front of her with chopsticks without dropping a drop 🤣
Of the four contestant, Robin (top left) uses Standard Grip. Top right looks like Idling Thumb. Bottom left looks like Scissorhand or Italian Grip. The bottom right appears to be the narrator herself - her grip looks new - maybe a variant of Scissorhand.
When used correctly chopsticks are way more precise than a fork could ever be and they force you to eat at a slower pace naturally, which is healthier.I was taught the pincers method.
Honestly if you didn't grow up with chopsticks and you're new to it then you'd eat slow. People who are natural users will eat fast if not faster then traditional utensil users
@@MrMikeDao I agree that familiarity definitely leads to more dexterity, but my point about speed focused on volume. Forks and spoons allow you to pick up more food at a time. Chopsticks will pick up less and don’t work like shovels for anyone so everyone would have to go at a slower pace which is better. It’s like using a bucket vs a small bowl to move water from one place to another.
@@DanteVelasquezIf you're proficient you absolutely can shovel a whole lot of food in at one go. It wouldn't be polite, but it's not polite to shovel a ton of food in with each forkful either.
Sorry to disappoint you, but eating at a slower pace is not healthier. There's no difference as long as you chew well. Only difference between eating more slowly is that it may take a bit longer for your body to feel that it's full and that it's more easy to eat too much that way, but obviously most of the time you just eat what's on your plate. So unless your fast speed results in you constantly taking seconds or whatever it actually doesn't matter much in practice either. Long story short, there isn't a shred of evidence that eating more slowly is actually healthier. Any health benefits one gets from eating at a slower pace can be attributed to something else that you are more likely to do when you eat slowly (such as chewing more/better per bite).
I had no idea there was two ways to hold chopsticks. I thought the pincer method was the only way. I taught myself to use chopsticks by eating bowls of frozen peas. I was a strange kid!
My favorite utensils are a good spork and chopsticks. Sporks are the best for foods like fried rice, tuna Mac, basically anything scoopable with chunks. Chopsticks are great for nearly everything else. I find that if there’s something I can’t properly and comfortably eat with either of those, then it’s probably not prepared properly or something. People say “what about a steak or something?!” like they got me… you just hold it with the chopsticks and slice it normally.. same as a fork. Pick up your slice of steak and eat it. Or hold it with a spork, cut it… grab a little scoop of mashed potatoes, some veggie and steak.. all in one bite. A spork and chopsticks work for everything. (Obviously a knife doesn’t count… that’s like saying salt and pepper is an ingredient. You include a knife if you need it, like with a steak or something.)
Wow. Very long time ago I traveled to Malaysia and was taken to a Japanese restaurant. I didn't know anything and had no idea what was I trying to eat with the chopsticks. It was so embarrassing. First time holding chopsticks. I couldn't pick up anything. After painfully long while someone finally brought me a fork. I am much better with them now. All that chopstick etiquette was very interesting and very impressive ❤
i think i my teacher in like 5th grade taught us how to use them by practicing picking up marshmallows one day. i wasn't particularly good at it but loved going to Asian buffets. I would just make a point to try using chopsticks each time i went and kept trying different ways. this was before i really knew how to use the internet and i ended up developing the pincer method on my own and its the one thats stuck with me.
:3 All four of the Chineseeeee girls had trouble picking up red beans with chopsticks, and I'm not even East Asian, but I can pick up peanuts, small bits of ramen, tofu, broccoli, carrots, chow mein, eggplant, fries, and so forth with them. Lulz. 💀💀💀💀💀
I have small hands, and my Japanese sil used a rubber band around the sticks to help me develop the necessary muscles. It also helped that my hands grew a bit.
Me and some friends learned how to use them (traditional) while watching a movie and eating popcorn, rule being only eat popcorn you manage to pick up. By the end of the movie we could steal popcorn someone else had already picked up withtheir own chopsticks. Good fun way to learn
I started out with the scissor method because that was what everyone I knew used, but never quite got the hand of it. Then one day I tried holding my chopsticks a bit different, more like an extension on my fingers, and everything was easy - turns out I switched to the pincer method.
Im American and prefer to use chopsticks. I recently spent a week making a pair of steel chopsticks by hand. I put some decorative file work near the top. Also put a blue and gold oxide layer on them and made a leather case for them. If you are decent at using chopsticks try using them next time you're eating a bag of chips. It saves your fingers from getting all dirty. Ive had to alter the way i hold chopsticks because i lost about a half inch of my middle finger on my dominant hand. Took a while to re learn how to use them without the tip of my finger. If i can use them then anyone can. Its really not hard.
I use Robin's method. I stopped by here to see if my way was the best and I think it is, I'd have no problem picking up the beans, I can pick up individual grains of rice. What I have noticed is that with the Robin method my hand can get fatigued.
I feel so validated by all of you lol. I've been using the scissor method. My family could never teach me the "correct" way of using chopsticks and so I managed. I grew up eating most of my food with a spoon. I'm awful at using the knife and fork too. I'm just second gen trash I guess.
No one was born a pro at using chopsticks. Everyone has to put in the effort and time to master the skill. I only discovered the proper way as a young adult and I started practicing picking up marbles of different sizes. It's a matter of time you will mastered the skill as long as you keep practicing.
I grew up learning the pincer way using the blunt tip Chinese chopsticks. Lately though I tend to prefer using the thin tip Japanese chopsticks. I feel like they give me more accuracy and precision picking up food.
Tapered Japanese chopsticks work well with Standard Grip (what the channel calls pincer way). But it doesn't work well for the entire family of Lateral chopstick grips. Also... there are at least 30 named and documented grips. It's not pincers vs scissors. This video unfortunately continue to perpetuate the old myth. Sigh.
Japanese chopsticks work well with Japamese food that is not shared,also for picking bones out of fish since Japanese dont take bones out of their mouth For Chinese food Chinese blunt chopsticks work best Korean metal chopsticks are too thin and metal feels unnatural
Can't imagine what the fuss of for accuracy and precision in picking food from a plate to the mouth??? Do u need the ensure the accuracy in the weight of the food?
@@huangzb8060 Indeed it is of utmost importance; to ensure the food arrived safely at the intended destination inside the mouth rather than on the table or worse, on one's shirt or lap.
@@kavorkaa I use all three interchangeably depending on what I am eating. I love the Korean chopsticks as they stay on the bowl instead of rolling off.
My chopstick skills were horrible... then I was in northern Thailand, and watched some Karen doing something where it looked like they were rolling one of the round chopsticks to open and close the distance. I tried to emulate what I thought I saw - and the rolling method works really well for me. However, I have to use round chopsticks, as I cannot roll the square ones.
3:00 As a 🇩🇪 I'd have come 2nd place on the challenge easily 😅 I use a derivative of the parallel method, while the lower stick usually rests on my middle finger not on the ring finger and the pinching looks a bit different 😅
I learned that to learn how to use chopsticks properly, you hold the top stick like a pencil for control, and the lower one in the crook of your thumb as a base (basically, the pincer method) and try to pick up a single grain of rice. I did it, so, it is possible. Now, actually eating a bowl of rice with chopsticks is a different technique (shoveling the rice into your mouth from the bowl with both sticks)... Of course, when frustration sets in, there is always the stabbing method... ;-P
Chopsticks are not my preferred utensil, I was raised with spoons and forks. I'm stunned that people would even think that the scissor method was workable.
It's like watching someone try to write, but with chopsticks. Number 2 was when I was a kid still learning coordination and HATING chopsticks when I was a kid.
One thing to be said about Korean chopsticks is that, after you're used to them, you can't use anything else. Using blunt Chinese chopsticks feels as if your fingers became twice thicker and using Japanese ones feel too thin when you're eating steamed rice. However, Korean ones are noticeably heavier than any others, so there's that.
@@hewhodoes8073 Unless your hand is covered in oil, no, they are not slippery at all. However, as I mentioned in the original comment, the biggest drawback with metal chopsticks is the weight. I use brass chopsticks and during the first couple weeks of using them, sometimes my hand hurt by the end of meal. By the way, at 6:18 they guy said the reason why Korean chopsticks are flat is to save material, but that is not true. They are made flat and thin because they would be too heavy otherwise.
I remember finding chopsticks hard trying to do it the way someone told me. I eventually tried chopsticks again many years later and just decided to hold them my own way and it was easy, whoever told me I’m supposed to put a finger in between the chopsticks why are you the way you are.
I don't care how many tutorials I watch. How many different ways to hold them, I cannot get the hang of them. I wonder if it has to do with the shape of my hands. They are a little wide, and the fingers a bit fatter, but I just can't get a good grip on anything except maybe noodles. I really wish it would become second nature to me since I love Chinese, and Japanese foods. I keep a set on my desk to practice with all the time. I just can't seem to get the hang of them. The bottom stick won't stay on my nail no matter what. It helps to put my finger on the outside of the stick and push in for leverage, but not a lot.
Food halls are one of the only “third spaces” in my area. Too bad it’s a long drive away. I agree with entirely. It think food halls CAN be good for a community. But they need to be OWNED by that community for it to work.
His way is harder for me to do. When i use just my index and thumb and have it between my index and middle finger it's way easy for me to pick up peas.
Don't forget that chopsticks also have a huge economic advantage - saving an expensive raw material such as metal or copper - instead they use a cheap and available raw material bamboo Thus the cost is part of the convenience
I prefer my chopsticks to taper to a fine point. I've hand sanded sets before lol, oddly enough the set of chop sticks included in the kungfu panda collectors edition game for world of Warcraft is the perfect taper lol.
A question to Europeans: how often do Europeans choke while eating? Here in Japan recently a first-grader child died from choking when trying to eat a quail boiled egg. It makes me wonder if the habit of eating with chopsticks has anything to do with it. Chopsticks don't cut the food, they are simply used to bring the food to the mouth. You need to cut the food with own your teeth. But children and old people usually don't have perfect teeth, so it may be difficult for them to cut or chew the food properly, and consequently may end up choking. But Europeans eat with knife and fork. So theoretically it is possible to eat with knife and fork even without having any teeth. So theoretically there are less cases of choking in Europe than Japan???
I'd so kick his butt in the beans challenge by using them completely unconventionally. Just hold them parallel and then scoop up a line of beans :P Yeah it's not proper, but it's definitely the fastest for this particular challenge.
I just can't stabilize my fingers enough to use chopsticks. With the pincer grip, the bottom stick slides off a lot and the pincer fingers are not strong enough to move smoothly and grip.
I have adapted the design too. They are now metal and one has 5 prongs and the other has a cutting edge and a flat surface for spreading soft food items
Lol, I do use either method. I've tried, but it just won't work, so I kinda just taught myself how to use them. I know refuse to eat certain foods without my chopsticks, especially noodles, they just taste better when using chopsticks
Increadible, , still eating with primative wooden sticks when they can get table cutlery!🤩 try the 3 peanut challenge, I can pick up 3 in a line ( sometimes)
How do you hold your chopsticks🥢? Team pincers or scissors?
OMFG, who taught these girls how to use chopsticks?! Burn their Asian cards! 😆
What if I don't hold chopsticks either way? What about the Beetle Mandibles chopstick grip?
Team pincers. I don't think I have ever see people using the "scissors method". I would definitely pay more attention to how people are using chopsticks after this.
@@TheLeolee89 - I think the Beetle Mandibles grip deserves the label pincers more than Standard Grip does. But it could be just me :)
pincers
I was 9 y/o and was living in Hawaii when my father taught me to use chopsticks by picking up peanuts. Later, I graduated to grains of Rice. I am 76 now and will sometimes take a pair with me when I go out to eat. Excellent video!
I was hoping you gonna say that you leveled up and now you can move grains of sand with them :D
@@JoATTech Maybe I can. Will have to try that and then move on to kosher salt crystals.
But there are actually much harder things to grab than small hard stuff. Noodles that are too long and slippery like sweet potato noodles in a hot pot 🍜 or Jiaozi 🥟 when they are a bit overcooked and have a bit of weird shape (like self made but your not good at it)
Fried, greasy peanuts with skin
I was thought the same way with peanuts, I was told 1 hour before dinner by my sisters stepmother (Chinese) I wouldn’t have any dinner if I couldn’t manage to get 1 peanut before dinner.. she did that to us a few times and boom.. ahh childhood memories 😁
My mother is from Yokohama Japan and I remember as a twelve year old kid here in Texas being taught by my grandmother how to use chopsticks and getting Mad and saying "It's Impossible and I would Never be able to learn!!" My grandmother very humorously pointed out the fact that I have a three-year-old-cousin who could use them proficiently and did I not have the same skills as a little three-year-old girl?!? Needless to say I am Exceptionally Proficient with chopsticks today!!! 🤠👍🇯🇵
I used to use scissor, but I broke my arm and was in a cast for a month before surgery, so had to learn to use chopsticks with my left hand. Learned pincer in 2 days and when I went back to my right hand, I had already forgotten how to use scissor, and naturally used pincer lol. so if you use scissor, and are finding it hard to learn pincer, maybe try forcing yourself to learn it with your non-dominant hand
A few months ago I noticed the way I hold chopsticks was different than everywhere I see in media. I thought I was doing it wrong, but can pick up dry rice grains so I ignored it. I sat in a Chinese restaurant and saw the older Chinese patrons held them the way I do, then it hit me. I was taught how to use them somewhere around 5 years old by the Chinese owner of a local restaurant where I grew up because she was very fond of my family and took interest in the little white kid. I inadvertently learned the traditional Chinese method, because we frequented that place so often.
I used to hold chopsticks like scissors when I was a kid but eventually learned the pincer way tho a slightly different grip. Having a collection of Chinese, Japanese and Korean style chopsticks comes in handy for different cuisines rice to spaghetti an even for snacks like chips and cheetos cause its so easy to pick them out of the bag without getting my hands dirty XD
Exactly! I find it very useful for snacks too! Chopsticks are great invention
I jokingly used two sandwich toothpicks to eat French fries one day... Ever since then I've grown to love chopsticks for plenty of non-Asian dishes. They are superior to a fork for salads.
Ooo, gonna have to try eating crisps with them now 😯
When I first arrived in China I could barely use chopsticks. There were lots of Japanese students also learning Chinese in the school I attended. They taught me the more useful method detailed in the video.
OK, so I had a noodle soup this morning. Since I live here, I have been teaching myself to use chopsticks for noodle soup, up to the point it has become automatic. And suddenly I remembered the video, how am I holding my chopsticks? The moving one is hold by thump and index finger, the fixed one is slit in the crook of the thumb and hold by middle finger.
I will not try to dry bean challenge, but I guess I would manage to grab an honest number, even if my hold is not the most elegant one.
Fried yellow noddles and chicken soup with star anise. Yummy!
I had never tried eating with chopsticks, but this video encouraged me, I plan to visit China So I decided to learn the pinchers pincing method because I think it was more elegant. I want to impress🙄 the Chinese by eating correctly and politely with chopsticks,I’m so excited about the progress🙃🤣 ❤
yep. like Liu, i was chopstick-tapped on the back of my hand to learn the proper way when i was young. made a hell of a difference now. no negative impact nor need for therapy because of a few light taps.
My parents both use the pincer method and I remember the instructions on chopstick wrappers in restaurants showing the pincer method. All this time, I just thought I was holding chopsticks wrong, but now I know it’s the accepted scissor method!
SCISOR SUX
I learned to use chopsticks as a kid from my dad who learned it when his family lived in Vancouver for a while when he was a kid. I didn't know what the method was called, but I use pincer method. There is a modest collection of chopsticks in my cutlery drawer that I use regularly. Mostly I use them for eating, but they are very useful for bringing things out of jars for cooking that I don't want to use my hands for, like kimchi
I’m italian and i found chopsticks very useful when cooking. Then i got my citizenship revoked.
Every chopstick tutorials I see in RUclips teach the traditional way. But no one I see in person, no one in Chinese TikTok uses that way. I wish someone surveys on how people use it.
Yes. All Asians in NYC (even tiny children) hold chopsticks parallel and right next to each other. Very elegant and efficient. Is that what they're calling the scissor technique? Only clumsy Westerners hold the sticks so they make a triangle. Very frustrating.
Lol wow... The American calling out the Chinese professor is wild.. 😂 This comment is on a level of white appropriation and gate keeping as stealing spirit animals and spirit totems and gatekeeping that as part of your own faith...
BTW I'm a classically trained chef an foodie from socal... all I've ever seen everyone eat is with the traditional method at every restaurant...Chinese, Japanese, Tai, Mongolian, whatever.. please stay in your own lane.
@@ProfClaudeBallstbh I’ve seen a lot of Midwest people use parallel grip and not scissor method. Hardly any Asians in my town. So I have no idea what you’re talking about. Even my friends who are non Asian even know how to hold chopsticks correctly. And surprisingly a good amount of western customers use chopsticks when given the choice. And even more surprisingly I end up using a fork lol 😂
after i learned how to use chopstick for at least 20 years, the first method seems strange and hard to use. and i realized i used scissor technique all the time. the problem with lever method is not enough muscle energy to pinch the food and my hand cramps when attemting to do it. on the other hand, scissor technique is easier to use especially to eat noodles as it require less muscle movement.
@@ProfClaudeBallsyes asian kid like me learned to use chopstick during my childhood by myself before youtube and the internet even exist and i just realized over twenty years later from this video that it's called scissor technique. definitely easier to use than the first one.
Lived in China for 5 years, and was taught using peanuts. My workers told me start picking up one peanut, when easy, add another peanut. When I could pickup three peanuts at once, I was proficient.
Funny story, on trip to Taiwan wearing white shirt and tie (meeting customer), they took me to noodle restaurant for lunch. White shirt was speckled within minutes! 😂
I'm not Chinese and no one taught me how to hold chopsticks, but surprisingly, I hold it like the etiquette teacher! I can pick up a single grain of rice with it...
I love this series so much!!!!
I was around 35 and was going to a lot of sushi places and couldn't use chopsticks at all - it was like a slapstick comedy to watch me try to use them. I grabbed a set of disposable ones on the way out and spent a couple weeks just using them to pick stuff up around my home. Next time we went out for sushi it was no longer an issue to use chopsticks. A few months later my wife and I were out with one of her girlfriends, who was from Taiwan, and she commented that I was the only non-Asian she knew that didn't hold them like a peasant with half the chopsticks hanging out over the back of my hand. I could, apparently, pass for upper-class Chinese based on my chopsticks technique.
I've since purchased a variety of chopsticks for personal use. My favorites are rather long wood ones with tapered, but not pointed, ends. I've found out that you can score some major respect at dim sum restaurants if you bring your own chopsticks and use them well. Which you almost half to do since the ones they supply are smooth plastic without a textured tip and you can't grip a damned thing with them.
I literally started using it well right away, The pincer way. I realized that if i think about how to use it while eating it always messes up. but when you don't think about it it works perfectly for me
a friend of mine is able to deshell a shrimp with just one pair of chopsticks on one hand. she wasn't even showing off but i was amazed.
I have the added pleasantness of being left handed. I have somehow learned the '"proper" way to hold them. I will have to get the beans out and give it a go. I can grab one grain of rice and pick it up. Maybe that is too easy though.
can u create a video in your channel to show the left handed?
@@fannyalbi9040 I am left handed. The way the professional guy does it has always worked best for me.
Same. I'm lefty and use them like the guy does.
I can do rice and I just tried the dry beans, they're slippery!! But I was able to do it... Slowly but surely!!
My mom hated being taught via the beat-your-hand method. She gave me M&Ms instead. First starting with peanut then graduating to normal ones or Skittles.
Your mom's really loving and creative ❤ Making your pick candies must've made the learning process extra fun 😊
I am European American, not Chinese. I taught myself to use chopsticks when I went to Chinese restaurants in America starting at the age of 12. In China, I was declared a chopstick master when I picked up an ice cube from one glass and put it in my glass using only chopsticks. Yes, ice cubes are available in some restaurants in China.
Hold one chopstick inside of the thumb pivot fold to across the top of the ring finger nail. Hold the other chopstick in the crook of the index finger to the top of the finger nail of the middle finger. Hold both chopsticks down with the thumb. Then line up the tips of the chopsticks by pointing them down onto a flat surface. To open and close the chopsticks, just move the index and middle fingers in unison. This grip provides maximum control and force to pick up almost any size food.
I like to use chopsticks for eating salad, tater tots, and food I don't want to pierce with a fork.
Seeing this reminded me of the time my wife asked me if I could eat yogurt with chopsticks. I told her, "I don't know. Maybe." I proceeded to eat a cup of yogurt in front of her with chopsticks without dropping a drop 🤣
I used to hate them until I got older, now I love using them!
I literally bought my first pair chopsticks i literally learned watching this video 😂😂
wait.... literally?!
Instinctively used pincer, never would’ve guessed it was actually right.😂
Of the four contestant, Robin (top left) uses Standard Grip. Top right looks like Idling Thumb. Bottom left looks like Scissorhand or Italian Grip. The bottom right appears to be the narrator herself - her grip looks new - maybe a variant of Scissorhand.
Edward Scissorhands! 😁
@@lawrencelow949 - yeah, you got it :)
When used correctly chopsticks are way more precise than a fork could ever be and they force you to eat at a slower pace naturally, which is healthier.I was taught the pincers method.
Honestly if you didn't grow up with chopsticks and you're new to it then you'd eat slow. People who are natural users will eat fast if not faster then traditional utensil users
@@MrMikeDao I agree that familiarity definitely leads to more dexterity, but my point about speed focused on volume. Forks and spoons allow you to pick up more food at a time. Chopsticks will pick up less and don’t work like shovels for anyone so everyone would have to go at a slower pace which is better. It’s like using a bucket vs a small bowl to move water from one place to another.
@@DanteVelasquezIf you're proficient you absolutely can shovel a whole lot of food in at one go. It wouldn't be polite, but it's not polite to shovel a ton of food in with each forkful either.
@@KEBrightbill LOL indeed
Sorry to disappoint you, but eating at a slower pace is not healthier. There's no difference as long as you chew well. Only difference between eating more slowly is that it may take a bit longer for your body to feel that it's full and that it's more easy to eat too much that way, but obviously most of the time you just eat what's on your plate. So unless your fast speed results in you constantly taking seconds or whatever it actually doesn't matter much in practice either.
Long story short, there isn't a shred of evidence that eating more slowly is actually healthier. Any health benefits one gets from eating at a slower pace can be attributed to something else that you are more likely to do when you eat slowly (such as chewing more/better per bite).
I had no idea there was two ways to hold chopsticks. I thought the pincer method was the only way. I taught myself to use chopsticks by eating bowls of frozen peas. I was a strange kid!
My favorite utensils are a good spork and chopsticks.
Sporks are the best for foods like fried rice, tuna Mac, basically anything scoopable with chunks. Chopsticks are great for nearly everything else.
I find that if there’s something I can’t properly and comfortably eat with either of those, then it’s probably not prepared properly or something.
People say “what about a steak or something?!” like they got me… you just hold it with the chopsticks and slice it normally.. same as a fork. Pick up your slice of steak and eat it. Or hold it with a spork, cut it… grab a little scoop of mashed potatoes, some veggie and steak.. all in one bite.
A spork and chopsticks work for everything. (Obviously a knife doesn’t count… that’s like saying salt and pepper is an ingredient. You include a knife if you need it, like with a steak or something.)
Wow. Very long time ago I traveled to Malaysia and was taken to a Japanese restaurant. I didn't know anything and had no idea what was I trying to eat with the chopsticks. It was so embarrassing. First time holding chopsticks. I couldn't pick up anything. After painfully long while someone finally brought me a fork. I am much better with them now. All that chopstick etiquette was very interesting and very impressive ❤
Spork enters the room: Kneel, peasants!
spork cannot pick up food from a boiling cauldron of hotpot. epic fail
@@---iv5gj Sounds like a skill issue. Cope and seethe.
@@leventhumps3861 I agree, it's doable, but chopsticks, like tongs, would definitely be superior for that particular application.
I was taught as a kid to practice with grains of rice and crushed pieces ice. This was back in the early 80's
i think i my teacher in like 5th grade taught us how to use them by practicing picking up marshmallows one day. i wasn't particularly good at it but loved going to Asian buffets. I would just make a point to try using chopsticks each time i went and kept trying different ways. this was before i really knew how to use the internet and i ended up developing the pincer method on my own and its the one thats stuck with me.
:3 All four of the Chineseeeee girls had trouble picking up red beans with chopsticks, and I'm not even East Asian, but I can pick up peanuts, small bits of ramen, tofu, broccoli, carrots, chow mein, eggplant, fries, and so forth with them. Lulz. 💀💀💀💀💀
I always use parallel. It’s great.
I have small hands, and my Japanese sil used a rubber band around the sticks to help me develop the necessary muscles. It also helped that my hands grew a bit.
Me and some friends learned how to use them (traditional) while watching a movie and eating popcorn, rule being only eat popcorn you manage to pick up.
By the end of the movie we could steal popcorn someone else had already picked up withtheir own chopsticks.
Good fun way to learn
I started out with the scissor method because that was what everyone I knew used, but never quite got the hand of it. Then one day I tried holding my chopsticks a bit different, more like an extension on my fingers, and everything was easy - turns out I switched to the pincer method.
I used the scissor method when I was really young, then my dad trained me to do the pincer method.
Im American and prefer to use chopsticks. I recently spent a week making a pair of steel chopsticks by hand. I put some decorative file work near the top. Also put a blue and gold oxide layer on them and made a leather case for them.
If you are decent at using chopsticks try using them next time you're eating a bag of chips. It saves your fingers from getting all dirty.
Ive had to alter the way i hold chopsticks because i lost about a half inch of my middle finger on my dominant hand. Took a while to re learn how to use them without the tip of my finger. If i can use them then anyone can. Its really not hard.
Those sound awesome!! ❤ My brother makes Damascus steel knives, guess I have to ask him to make me chopsticks next!!
@@christanice a pair Damascus steel chopsticks would be awesome. If I had the facilities to make some I would.
i use chopsticks to eat popcorn for the same reason ,and good practice too .
Please show how to wrap noodles around the chopsticks
I use Robin's method. I stopped by here to see if my way was the best and I think it is, I'd have no problem picking up the beans, I can pick up individual grains of rice. What I have noticed is that with the Robin method my hand can get fatigued.
I’ve tried the pincer method many times and the lower chopstick always slides along the inside of my right finger when I lift the top stick .
in germany they had a spoon bind to them as personal food item and i adore that
I feel so validated by all of you lol. I've been using the scissor method. My family could never teach me the "correct" way of using chopsticks and so I managed. I grew up eating most of my food with a spoon. I'm awful at using the knife and fork too. I'm just second gen trash I guess.
No one was born a pro at using chopsticks. Everyone has to put in the effort and time to master the skill. I only discovered the proper way as a young adult and I started practicing picking up marbles of different sizes. It's a matter of time you will mastered the skill as long as you keep practicing.
Put it this way,if i go on a sate with someone and uses that childish scissors method i would suppose she cant even wipe her bum correctly either
@@kavorkaaif you comment things like this, I suppose you aren't that good of a person.
I grew up learning the pincer way using the blunt tip Chinese chopsticks. Lately though I tend to prefer using the thin tip Japanese chopsticks. I feel like they give me more accuracy and precision picking up food.
Tapered Japanese chopsticks work well with Standard Grip (what the channel calls pincer way). But it doesn't work well for the entire family of Lateral chopstick grips. Also... there are at least 30 named and documented grips. It's not pincers vs scissors. This video unfortunately continue to perpetuate the old myth. Sigh.
Japanese chopsticks work well with Japamese food that is not shared,also for picking bones out of fish since Japanese dont take bones out of their mouth
For Chinese food Chinese blunt chopsticks work best
Korean metal chopsticks are too thin and metal feels unnatural
Can't imagine what the fuss of for accuracy and precision in picking food from a plate to the mouth??? Do u need the ensure the accuracy in the weight of the food?
@@huangzb8060 Indeed it is of utmost importance; to ensure the food arrived safely at the intended destination inside the mouth rather than on the table or worse, on one's shirt or lap.
@@kavorkaa I use all three interchangeably depending on what I am eating. I love the Korean chopsticks as they stay on the bowl instead of rolling off.
My chopstick skills were horrible... then I was in northern Thailand, and watched some Karen doing something where it looked like they were rolling one of the round chopsticks to open and close the distance. I tried to emulate what I thought I saw - and the rolling method works really well for me. However, I have to use round chopsticks, as I cannot roll the square ones.
It was great
3:00 As a 🇩🇪 I'd have come 2nd place on the challenge easily 😅
I use a derivative of the parallel method, while the lower stick usually rests on my middle finger not on the ring finger and the pinching looks a bit different 😅
I'm curious to learn how to use the chopsticks, I'm just starting 🥰 👍 💯 👍 🙏 ... 🎉
I learned that to learn how to use chopsticks properly, you hold the top stick like a pencil for control, and the lower one in the crook of your thumb as a base (basically, the pincer method) and try to pick up a single grain of rice. I did it, so, it is possible. Now, actually eating a bowl of rice with chopsticks is a different technique (shoveling the rice into your mouth from the bowl with both sticks)...
Of course, when frustration sets in, there is always the stabbing method... ;-P
Chopsticks are convenient and have a natural feel, (refer to wood or bamboo).
metal not natural?
Team pincer - was trained by my parents by picking up M&ms, always have a pair of Chopsticks with me
Many people in Mauritius like to eat noodles with stir fry but uses fork and spoon, as much more practical !
I never heard of the scissor method
So interesting
Cut your steak with chopsticks! 😂
Chopsticks are not my preferred utensil, I was raised with spoons and forks. I'm stunned that people would even think that the scissor method was workable.
remember kids, pencil technique!
in hindsight, never knew just how much of a god i am, always complimented by granny, so sweet
I eat everything with chopsticks including potatoes chips 😜
Especially popcorns!
CS with potato chips and popcorn, I can do it blindfolded.
@@henryng9406 🤓👍
That guy will be Chinese Kingsman
Now that you pointed it out, I can't unsee it.
Before cancer, I used to be able to pick up three peanuts at once. Stacked mind you, with the middle peanut touching only the other two.
I have been using chopsticks for 35 years. Chopsticks are difficult to pick up hard and slippery foods, such as taro and irregular potato cubes.
I'm trying to hold them the proper way. But I've held them another way for years. Time to retrain my fingers.😅
It's like watching someone try to write, but with chopsticks. Number 2 was when I was a kid still learning coordination and HATING chopsticks when I was a kid.
Fulcrum come in. Yaaaaah Yodie GANG you feel me
Pincer method is the correct method.
i only know how to use 1st one taught by my friend when i was at asian restaurant, i got it immediately lol didnt expect that
Until I had a stroke I was vertical good with chopsticks 🎉
Nice
One thing to be said about Korean chopsticks is that, after you're used to them, you can't use anything else. Using blunt Chinese chopsticks feels as if your fingers became twice thicker and using Japanese ones feel too thin when you're eating steamed rice. However, Korean ones are noticeably heavier than any others, so there's that.
Are they not slippery?
@@hewhodoes8073 Unless your hand is covered in oil, no, they are not slippery at all. However, as I mentioned in the original comment, the biggest drawback with metal chopsticks is the weight. I use brass chopsticks and during the first couple weeks of using them, sometimes my hand hurt by the end of meal. By the way, at 6:18 they guy said the reason why Korean chopsticks are flat is to save material, but that is not true. They are made flat and thin because they would be too heavy otherwise.
I was practicing using metal round chopsticks with grains of rice, then i moved on with wood chopsticks and tried it with grains of rice again.
i just want to say the competition was not due to superior chopstick anatomy but because he had better quality chopsticks for picking up beans
The trick is to do it with the hand relaxed.
I just love Chinese spoons.
I have about 4 or 5 of them.
The only Way to Go.
I know the Triad hold. :)
You mean the tripod hold of Standard Grip?
I remember finding chopsticks hard trying to do it the way someone told me. I eventually tried chopsticks again many years later and just decided to hold them my own way and it was easy, whoever told me I’m supposed to put a finger in between the chopsticks why are you the way you are.
I don't care how many tutorials I watch. How many different ways to hold them, I cannot get the hang of them. I wonder if it has to do with the shape of my hands. They are a little wide, and the fingers a bit fatter, but I just can't get a good grip on anything except maybe noodles. I really wish it would become second nature to me since I love Chinese, and Japanese foods. I keep a set on my desk to practice with all the time. I just can't seem to get the hang of them. The bottom stick won't stay on my nail no matter what. It helps to put my finger on the outside of the stick and push in for leverage, but not a lot.
Food halls are one of the only “third spaces” in my area. Too bad it’s a long drive away. I agree with entirely. It think food halls CAN be good for a community. But they need to be OWNED by that community for it to work.
I just learning to use chopsticks.. but idk if I have for 3 months, 😅
His way is harder for me to do. When i use just my index and thumb and have it between my index and middle finger it's way easy for me to pick up peas.
Don't forget that chopsticks also have a huge economic advantage - saving an expensive raw material such as metal or copper - instead they use a cheap and available raw material bamboo
Thus the cost is part of the convenience
My thumb is double-jointed at the knuckle so I hold chopsticks the way people hold pencils, yet my pencil grip is completely different lol
or you holdl both chopsticks together and use them like a spoon to scoop up stuff.
I prefer my chopsticks to taper to a fine point. I've hand sanded sets before lol, oddly enough the set of chop sticks included in the kungfu panda collectors edition game for world of Warcraft is the perfect taper lol.
A question to Europeans: how often do Europeans choke while eating?
Here in Japan recently a first-grader child died from choking when trying to eat a quail boiled egg.
It makes me wonder if the habit of eating with chopsticks has anything to do with it.
Chopsticks don't cut the food, they are simply used to bring the food to the mouth.
You need to cut the food with own your teeth.
But children and old people usually don't have perfect teeth, so it may be difficult for them to cut or chew the food properly, and consequently may end up choking.
But Europeans eat with knife and fork. So theoretically it is possible to eat with knife and fork even without having any teeth.
So theoretically there are less cases of choking in Europe than Japan???
That’s cool!!! Thanks for the info.❤️
I'd so kick his butt in the beans challenge by using them completely unconventionally.
Just hold them parallel and then scoop up a line of beans :P
Yeah it's not proper, but it's definitely the fastest for this particular challenge.
I just can't stabilize my fingers enough to use chopsticks. With the pincer grip, the bottom stick slides off a lot and the pincer fingers are not strong enough to move smoothly and grip.
See a neurologist, that sounds like a possible medical issue. Otherwise train grip strength.
@@ravecsucks6192It's not a medical issue.
PINCER for the win!!
I have adapted the design too.
They are now metal and one has 5 prongs and the other has a cutting edge and a flat surface for spreading soft food items
Whenever I see people holding chopsticks close to the “eating end” I feel the same way I feel when someone holds a hammer in the middle 🙅🏼♀️
I always struggle when eating Vietnamese Pho noodles with chop sticks. It's like I got it; I got it! Then I don't got it.
3:48
Do whatever works. The goal is to transport food into your mouth. Etiquette is always a divider and not in a positive way.
I have often wondered what the Chinese word for chopsticks is? I can’t imagine it is chopsticks. 🤔
Lol, I do use either method. I've tried, but it just won't work, so I kinda just taught myself how to use them. I know refuse to eat certain foods without my chopsticks, especially noodles, they just taste better when using chopsticks
Increadible, , still eating with primative wooden sticks when they can get table cutlery!🤩 try the 3 peanut challenge, I can pick up 3 in a line ( sometimes)