> I think I need to learn how to eat with chopsticks first, though.
>
> Sosi"the instructions on Things People Said don't help at all!"qui

There are actually like a bazillion ways you can hold chopsticks, if you're interested to know.

The one shown on the back of most wrappers, where you tuck the first one under your thumb and then hold the second one like a pencil, is, in my opinion, one of the hardest, and you have to support the first one with your ring finger in order to provide a counter-force. In a variation of that, you can support the first stick with your middle finger and move the second one with your thumb and index fingers. This seems a bit easier, but it's still pretty hard.

The easiest way for me is to hold them *both* like one pencil, and then slide the second one over the first one at an angle, pushing it with your index finger. This is easier than the other methods, but the downside is that it's harder to pick up slices of things, as they'll rotate and sometimes fall out.

There's also an odd method that some people use, where you sort of form a lever with the second chopstick, using your middle finger as a fulcrum. I don't quite understand this myself, but it looks very hard and very horrible. Try this one if you want, but I never use it.

Then, of course, there's the good-old hold-one-stick-in-each-hand trick. Of course, that's the easiest for beginners, but, as one can imagine, that's not really a widely used or an acceptable way of using chopsticks in China, and, I would imagine, it wouldn't in Japan, either.

knivetsil