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Always interesting to see the analogs of island vs continental culture when comparing UK <-> America and Japan <-> China. Seems like islanders, due to their rel
by wagwang 7mo ago
Always interesting to see the analogs of island vs continental culture when comparing UK <-> America and Japan <-> China. Seems like islanders, due to their reliance on trade, naturally get specialized and autistic about their craft so they can have a comparative advantage, and their obsessions carry over into stuffy traditional practices.
- dugidugout 7mo agoWould you mind sharing your insight? I'd be interested to hear!
- 0x3f 7mo agoI counter with the American swap-the-fork-hand-after-you-cut thing. Diabolical.
- dgxyz 7mo agoThat’s just mental. Does my head in when I see it.
- mlhpdx 7mo agoAmerican raised by a Brit here, and I was literally just doing this during lunch out. I consider the upside down fork just plain torture.
- kibwen 7mo agoAs an American, I don't think I have ever seen anyone do this.
- jnwatson 7mo agoReally? You don't know any Naval Academy graduates then.
- gavmor 7mo agoReally? You hold the fork with your dominant hand, and cut with your non-dominant hand?
- kibwen 7mo agoYes. For the record, Americans also don't wear their shoes indoors, except for maybe some people in extremely dry climates.
- bigstrat2003 7mo agoPlenty of Americans wear their shoes indoors.
- kibwen 7mo agoSure, and plenty of Britons live in Gibraltar.
- tad_tough_anne 7mo agoDon't all younger Americans do this? Cutting food and pushing it onto the fork requires less dexterity than conveying it to one's mouth. I know Boomers who put down their knives after each cut (never using them to push) and swap their fork around before using it tines-down, and I think it's more comically affected than the tea–pinky thing.
- 0x3f 7mo agoYou're not supposed to use the fork like a shovel, is the thing. The tines are to skewer the food, which is why tines-down makes sense. Otherwise, why not a spoon? Also, the at-distance interaction between two tools requires much more dexterity than making your hand meet your mouth. The latter you should be able to do with your eyes closed.
- manarth 7mo agoIf I were eating a stereotypical British meal – say: meat, potatoes, and peas – I would use the fork as a "shovel" for the peas: guide the peas onto the fork with a knife, then raise and eat from the fork. I wouldn't switch from a fork to a spoon to eat the peas. Other vegetables are available. I'm not judging.
- gnabgib 7mo agoIt's like you've never met someone who's left handed
- zephen 7mo agoAs another American, I submit you really haven't been paying attention.
- bot403 7mo agoIt's considered polite in American culture.
- Sprotch 7mo agoWhat stuffy traditional practices does the UK have?
- fsckboy 7mo ago>Always interesting to see the analogs of island vs continental culture when comparing UK <-> America and Japan <-> China. when America was settled/founded by Britains, etiquette had not been standardized in GB either so the differences are due to parallel development, not island vs continent. That probably holds even more for differences between Japan and China.