Eating With the Wrong Hand

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Using a Fork and Knife: More Complicated Than I Thought

How do you set a table? Do you put the fork on the right hand side and the knife on the left? And what hand do you use your knife with? And I have realized that along with many other cultural differences, Americans eat differently than Europeans do. At first I didn't notice the difference, I just kept wondering why when the table was set, I had to keep switching up the placement of the fork and knife. Then I caught on, I've been using the wrong hand. Well damn!


So here's the difference, most Europeans cut with their right hand and eat with their left. Us Americans will either switch hands or just cut with our left. I personally never switch hands, I always use my right hand for my fork and left for the knife. But after my realization I have tried to cut with my right to use the proper table manners, and lets just call that a disaster. My right hand is useless with a knife. And I was raised to have very good table manners (though I've gotten lazy throughout the years) so it was important to me to try and have the best table manners for my french family and the people that I meet. But I've quickly given up on that front in realizing that food could go flying when I wield a knife in my right hand. I've even talked to some English people and they couldn't believe that I would even think to use a knife with my non-dominant hand. Then they witnessed the my inability to conform to the European ways and quickly understood why. I guess I'll forever be American, oh well!