Chopstick exams

[craftsman]

High school to check if girls can use chopsticks as part of entrance exams

SASEBO, Nagasaki -- A girl's high school here will check if applicants can properly use chopsticks during its entrance examinations next year, officials said.

Officials of Sasebo Women's High School said that they wound like to see if applicants have acquired the minimum levels of eating manners by checking their use of chopsticks.

The high school plans to accept 40 first-year students in the spring of 2007 after it carries out two sets of entrance examinations. One course involves general tests of mathematics, the Japanese language and other subjects, while another course tries to accept recommended students through compositions and interviews.

Both examination courses involve whether they can use chopsticks properly.

The "chopstick inspections," which include picking up slippery beans, will influence the screening process to a certain degree, officials at the school said.

"We have never heard of such an examination," said an official with the Cabinet Office food education promotion center. (Mainichi)

This gives me something to think about the next time a Japanese person tells me that I'm good at using chopsticks.

Would you pass the test?

 

[DoctorP]

Not entirely different of "upper level" schools in the US using proper manners and etiquette as a rating system for students. It is not called an exam, but rather school orientations or visitation or career days. Similar ways are used to determine between job applicants...they just aren't publicized.

 

[Mrjones]

In India people eat with hands... how good are you with your own hands

 

[misa.j]

In India people eat with hands... how good are you with your own hands

I'm horrible at eating with my hands. I often crush finger foods like tacos, brittos, or fish sandwich by squeezing them too hard. I'm rather good with utensils.

As for the chopstick test, I think I had to do it when I was in kindergarten as a part of fine motor skill test.

 

[Live91]

People eat with their hands in ym country too, it's actually a little more complicated than it looks >.> We have a way to do it you know. I still can't do it right! >.< they told me I ate like a pig! Anyways still practicing!
Chopsticks? Well I had my first try with salmon teriyaki today, It's much easier than I thought! It was fun too .

 

[JTalker]

The issue of poor chopstick use is a serious one. Tens of thousands Japanese youth are not getting the proper amount of nutrition and many are starving because of this problem. Many children are unable to eat anything at all and are forced to look at their meals and chopsticks in confusion unable to take a single bite. A sad situation indeed.

 

[yukio_michael]

Not entirely different of "upper level" schools in the US using proper manners and etiquette as a rating system for students. It is not called an exam, but rather school orientations or visitation or career days. Similar ways are used to determine between job applicants...they just aren't publicized.

I think any school that denies someone an education based on their percieved social status is pretty sad... However, it's part and parcel in how the world works... The rich take power, the rich keep power, the rich never cede power to the poor.

 

[Mrjones]

"The issue of poor chopstick use is a serious one. Tens of thousands Japanese youth are not getting the proper amount of nutrition and many are starving because of this problem. Many children are unable to eat anything at all and are forced to look at their meals and chopsticks in confusion unable to take a single bite. A sad situation indeed." --give me a break

 

[Maciamo]

Who could possibly fail a chopstick test (even for slippery beans), except people with some physical or mental disability ? This is just ridiculous. This shows how low-brow the Japanese education system is.

In India people eat with hands... how good are you with your own hands

This is only common in Southern India (let's say for 1/4 of the country's population). Anywhere else they use cutlery.

 

[leonmarino]

..Just a thought, but isn't this some sneaky way to try and discourage foreigners to enter the school? Wouldn't suprise me a bit!!

Too bad it's in my beloved Nagasaki.. Damn 窶彡ﾅｽﾃ俄?堙?窶堙ｱ! They're just jealous that they can't use cutlery!!

Disclaimer for those lacking a sense of humour: I meant it as a joke.

 

[AsakuraNeo10]

i am a chinese, i use chopstick to eat...but is there really a school to teach people to eat by chopstick?

 

[undrentide]

Hmm... I don't think that being able to use hashi (chopsticks) properly means the child belongs to better social class or anything. Any decent family should be able to teach their children how to use hashi properly, and not only that, but manners in general.

Recently it is becoming an issue that some parents do not teach their children any basics of life, i.e. eating cooked meal regularly, table manners, getting up in the morning and going to bed not too late, etc.

Chopsticks exam sounds a bit funny and I'm not particularly for it or against it, but I think it might be a good indication to see the upbringing the students.

 

[Maciamo]

Hmm... I don't think that being able to use hashi (chopsticks) properly means the child belongs to better social class or anything. Any decent family should be able to teach their children how to use hashi properly, and not only that, but manners in general.
Recently it is becoming an issue that some parents do not teach their children any basics of life, i.e. eating cooked meal regularly, table manners, getting up in the morning and going to bed not too late, etc.
Chopsticks exam sounds a bit funny and I'm not particularly for it or against it, but I think it might be a good indication to see the upbringing the students.

It is indeed the parents' role to teach their children good manners and proper etiquette, not the school's. Here in Belgium, schools are more or less divided by social class, so that people who do not have the right manners and discipline usually get fired from "good schools" pretty quickly. There is no "test" except respecting the school rules, the teachers' demands on discipline and good behaviour, as well as peer pressure. This is as true for the way people dress.

If school start teaching about manners and behaviours, it will become more difficult to differentiate people's social class. The class divide will still exist, but at a deeper level (values, mindset, tastes...), which will potentially cause people to marry the wrong person more easily if they do not take heed.

 

[leonmarino]

I just got off the phone with my informant in Nagasaki and she told me that I might be right in the assessment that it is to "tease" the foreigners. Apparently there is an American base in Sasebo, that not all inhabitants are happy with.. But it is just a theory.

On the other hand, it might be just a way to teach the childeren to properly eat with chopsticks. I get compliments often on my chopstick-dexterity in Japan, and I'm better at it than many Japanese people.. One could say that I really am good at eating with chopsticks, or that the others just suck at it.

 

[Mycernius]

I remember when I was about 7 or 8 I saw someone using chopsticks on TV and I was fasinated by it, so much so that I hassled my parents to buy me some. My father can use them, but with a little difficulty and my mother is hopeless with them, so I was self taught how to use them and got fairly good with them. I now have Chinese and Japanese style chopsticks in the house and find them useful for cooking utensils as well as eating, plus they are easier to clean than normal cutlery. Great for getting pickled onions out of a jar

 

[yukio_michael]

..Just a thought, but isn't this some sneaky way to try and discourage foreigners to enter the school? Wouldn't suprise me a bit!!

I was going to say that, but I try to keep my exclusion-conspiracies to a minimum lately... It's better for my enthusiasm to study that way.

What real opportunities in education are there available to foreign students outside of scholarships, however... It seems to me that education in Japan for foreigners has to be under very strict, special circumstances?

 

[JTalker]

I remember eating at Chinese and Japanese restaurants in the states. I remember it was so fun to use the chopsticks. Many of the paper wrapping that covered the chopsticks had little pictures describing how to use them. 'Chopstick Use for Dummies'. Maybe this is what is needed in Japan.?

 

[Maciamo]

I remember eating at Chinese and Japanese restaurants in the states. I remember it was so fun to use the chopsticks. Many of the paper wrapping that covered the chopsticks had little pictures describing how to use them. 'Chopstick Use for Dummies'. Maybe this is what is needed in Japan.?

If you are one of the dummies, yes. I think Western countries should have "Fork & Knife Use for Dummies" for the non-Western tourists. Maybe we should teach them how to drink in Western glasses too.

 

[retrodisease]

i taught myself to eat with chopsticks when i was quite young. i had this idea in my head that if i went to chinese resturant, then i was suppose to eat the way the people do from that country. can't say i am excellent because i have grown accustomed to rushing through my meals (which leaves me with no room to enjoy my food) so i got kinda sloppy with it.
ah heres to traditional values

 

[taehyun]

This reminds me about the huges amonts of wood used for wooden chopsticks. I can use chopsticks, but prefer something that can be at least recycled after that-like plastic fork or spoon.
In Korea people use metal chopsticks-little bit heavier, but much more ecological, than the wooden ones.

 

[leonmarino]

This reminds me about the huges amonts of wood used for wooden chopsticks.

Wasn't there a issue a while ago at the combini's in Japan "deciding" not to give away free chopsticks anymore because of the massive deforestations in China? I never noticed a thing about it in Japan though.. Well, now I come to think of it, they do ask me first sometimes before giving me chopsticks, or is this just my imagination?

 

[craftsman]

Wasn't there a issue a while ago at the combini's in Japan "deciding" not to give away free chopsticks anymore because of the massive deforestations in China? I never noticed a thing about it in Japan though.. Well, now I come to think of it, they do ask me first sometimes before giving me chopsticks, or is this just my imagination?

I guess it depends if there's a mini-mart near you.

In a landmark step Mini Mart, a chain of convenience stores, has begun asking customers to pay four US cents for a pair of Japanese-made waribashi - the first company to do so in the highly competitive trade.

"The customers are given the choice of choosing free Chinese-made waribashi or paying for Japanese ones. On a good day we have about 20 people paying five yen [four US cents] for a pair at a store, which is less than 5% of the total number of customers," he explained.

Tellingly, other convenience stores have not followed suit.

The article was in the Asia Times 2 weeks ago. here

 

[JTalker]

I have an idea: Plant more trees!

 

[leonmarino]

I have an idea: Plant more trees!

That's what happening in China at the moment. During the Great Leap Forward (a horrible period of natural resource plundering in China) China was turned almost into a desert within a few years. To fight further deterioration giant reforesting programs have been set up.

Many Japanese companies and NGO's are helping too I heard, also partly because the desert sands from mainland China are often blown to Japan, which causes discomfort among Japanese citizens.

 

[taehyun]

About the overexploatation of the Chinese forests I can give another example:
Last year one journalist from Yomiuri was whinning "What will happen with our yakitori and all the meals we prepare on wood", because China desided to tighten their forest protection program, and to decrease the illegal forest fires, which aim is mainly export of such kind of wood to Japan.
I found this extremely egoistic!