Chopsticks - ambidextrous?

Yes, I can... not as great with my left hand, but I was told that here in Korea previously parents would try to force their children to use their right hand. There was a reason for this... perhaps Lexico could explain it? So anyway, I avoid trying whilst in company of people I dont know so well.
 
Not only in Korea. Japanese parents do it too, and are pretty strict about it. If one of my sons started using his left hand for something, my husband was right there to grab it and put whatever it was in his right hand.
 
i sometimes do it for my right brain training at home, though it always makes me irritating.
 
werewolf said:
Can anybody use chopsticks with either their right and left hands? I can't.
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This is an interesting question of handedness applied to the use of chpsticks. There should be some kind of study on it; but I don't know of any off hand. Wikipedia on Handedness.
Social stigma and repression of left-handedness

Many European languages (including English) use the same word for "right" (in a directional sense) to mean "correct, proper". Throughout history, being left-handed was considered as negative - the Latin and Italian word sinistra (from which the English 'sinister' was derived) means "left". There are many negative connotations associated with the word "left-handed": clumsy, awkward, unlucky, insincere, sinister, malicious, and so on. French gauche, meaning "left", means "awkward or clumsy" in English, whereas French droit is cognate with English "adroit", meaning dexterous, skillful with the hands. As these are all very old words, they would tend to support theories indicating that the predominance of right-handedness is an extremely old phenomenon.

The Eskimos believed that every lefty was a sorcerer. A Japanese man could divorce his wife if he discovered that she was left-handed. There have been, however, many famous left-handed people, and the associated right brain hemisphere that is said to be more active in left-handed people has been found in some circumstances to be associated with genius and is correlated with artistic and visual skill.

Until very recently in Taiwan, left-handed people were strongly encouraged to switch to being right-handed (or at least, switch to writing with the right hand). It is more difficult to write legible Chinese characters with the left hand than it is to write Latin letters. Remember that "easy" and "difficult" depend on the person using those terms, so your writing may be neater. Because it is supposedly easier to write when moving your hand towards its side of the body, it is easier to write the Roman alphabet with your right hand than with your left. Conversely, Arabic and Hebrew, which go from right to left, would be easier to write with the left hand. Again, "easier" and "harder" are subjective.

Until the latter part of the twentieth century, Roman Catholic nuns in American elementary schools (and possibly elsewhere) would punish children for using their left hand to write, typically by slapping their left hand with a ruler if they attempted to pick up a pen with it. Left-handedness was interpreted as a sign of Satanic influence, and thus prohibited.

It has been hypothesized that some sun worshipers have grown to associate their left sides with evil, since people facing north would see the sun set (disappear) on their left. The evidence for this is very weak, however, as the opposite conclusion can be drawn when one considers a person facing south (the opposite direction). It has been suggested that there may be a preference for northern hemisphere dwellers to face the fixed north star (i.e., north) when making directions judgments.
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Personally I have known myself to be right handed until these two odd facts raised the question; was I forced into using my right hand ?
1) I used to play tennis; just to keep the muscles balanced, I practiced strokes using my left hand. I was amazed to discover that my back-stroke using my left hand (which ends up on my right); I did much better with my left hand. I was equally surprised to find that my left handed forehand stroke (which happens on my left) was pretty good also, this time due to a stronger grip leading to a more stable forehand stroke.
2) In one medical exam in which my hands' grip was measured, my left hand measured higher. The Doc said I might have been born left-handed.

Anyway, coordination wise, my left hand lacks the general training my right hand has received. I have not tried sending it to chopstick school yet. But with some practice, I am sure my left pair of chopsticks can beat my right pari of chopsticks due to the stronger muscles and sinews it was born with.
 
Here's some more general info on Chopsticks.
Many rules of etiquette govern the proper conduct of the chopsticks.

Chopsticks are traditionally held in the right hand only, even by the left-handed. Biases against left-handed eating are becoming less severe. Chopsticks may now be found in either hand, although some still consider left-handed chopstick use as improper etiquette.
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My observation on left-handedness at the table: one lefted-handed member at the table might inconveniece the person to the left of him/her because the left handed chopstick pair with food pinched in between the sticks might bump into that of the person to the left. What confusion and frustration it would be if that happened ! :eek:
But with modern, spacious tables, I don't see how or why that would become a problem. Apart from the practical reasoning behind left-handed use of chpsticks, there might have been a general tendency to weed out congenital deviation by harsh discrimination -- by victimising all non-mainstream variants, they (ancient Asians ?) might have been creating an evolutionary force towards conformity rather than diversity. Now that was a sweeping generalisation of Asian paleo-history-archeology ! 😌
 
For a while, to improve my left-hand dexterity, I switched hands and used chopsticks in my left hand. At first it was awkward, but with the proper motivation (hunger) you can get quite skillful.

I'm sure if you broke your right arm you would get pretty proficient with your left.

-taira
 
Being left-handed, I've never tried using them in my right hand. I remember kids being forced to write right-handed, but I never was.
 
I'm sure if you broke your right arm you would get pretty proficient with your left.

________________________

That's what got me to wondering about this - what would I do if I injured my right hand? I don't know how proficient I would become with chopsticks in my left hand. It feels so totally awkward now. Well, I could always use a spoon and fork, I guess - or eat straight out of the bowl with my muzzle, like a dog!.
 
I've never tried, I'll have to give it a go now.

Lexicos Quote from Wikipedia said:
Until the latter part of the twentieth century, Roman Catholic nuns in American elementary schools (and possibly elsewhere) would punish children for using their left hand to write, typically by slapping their left hand with a ruler if they attempted to pick up a pen with it. Left-handedness was interpreted as a sign of Satanic influence, and thus prohibited.
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This was done in British schools until the reign of George VI when it became less common. The reason was that forcing left handers to write right handed can cause psycological problem such as shyness, stammering. George VI was left handed, but forced to write with his right hand. This left him with a bad stutter. After Edward VIII abdicated George became the next in line, being Edwards brother. Being King meant having to speak in public, something he didn't like doing because of his stutter. When it was realised that the cause of this speech problem was caused by the forcing of right handedness on him, teachers stoppped forcing it on children in their schools. Some teachers did still continue the practice and even 30 years ago some older teachers would still try to do this to children (happened to a friend of mine)
 
lol
i can 😆

it's really funny... i'll be sitting with a bowl of noodles and have chopsticks in both hands... :LOL:

i don't do that so much any more tho.. :unsure:

but actually.. mw doing that's kinda helpped me... because now i use my left hand in my art work too...
like, i was working on this big chalk piece, and i was using both hands... i didn't realise till my friend pointed out 😌

but... my dad would always make us eat with out knives in our left hands.... it would cause huge arguments with him and my sister - she insisted she couldn't fodo that... even though she's right handed....
 
it's really funny... i'll be sitting with a bowl of noodles and have chopsticks in both hands..

_____________


That is amazing! I've never seen that! Does that mean you can eat the noodles twice as fast?
 
I'm a lefty with experience. I have a stronger grip with my left hand when using chop-sticks. I can definately use them in my right hand too, but it is not as a strong of a hold. Give me 30 minutes, and I will switch back to my left hand. My fingers start cramping up! hehehe.
 
lol
yeah, that's kinda the same with me and my left hand (as i'm right handed by nature)... still 30 mins is MORE than enough time to shovel down a bowl of raman - especially if you're using both hands :D:D
 
But seriously, what do people in Japan and China do if they injure their chopstick-hand? I worry about junk like this - like there's not enough to worry about in the world!
 
werewolf said:
But seriously, what do people in Japan and China do if they injure their chopstick-hand? I worry about junk like this - like there's not enough to worry about in the world!
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I guess they have to manage the same way as everyone manages to write when they injure their writing hand - with difficulty, but somehow. 😌

Errr... not all foods in Japan and China are eaten with chopsticks, though... I'm sure there would be a way round the difficulty! 😊

I'd never eaten with chopsticks at all until Furan caused me to. :giggle: I'm right handed, but I can manage pretty ok with either - I draw with both. Guess I'm one of the lucky ones...
 

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