Interesting Table Manners

Do you know that there are more than 190 countries all over the world? Each country has its own culture and that’s why traveling and experiencing different cultures is so exciting. The time when I can easily experience different cultures is the moment I eat local food at local restaurants. The food itself, of course, is the interesting thing to experience, but there is another thing which I really really like to experience: table manners.
Each country has its own food culture and table manners or rules. Sometimes we get surprised by unique and unbelievable table manners of different food culture. That is so interesting! Taking this opportunity, I would like to introduce some interesting table manners of Japan, China and Korea by comparing other countries’ table manners.

1. Japan
We, Japanese people, usually use chopsticks. Foreigners who live in the countries where people don’t use chopsticks get struggled with using them, and they tend to think that Japanese people are clever to use such difficult sticks. In fact, Japanese people can use it but most of them can not use them perfectly or properly, and they do not know all the rules of using chopsticks. There are more than 30 things which we must not do with chopsticks. Let me tell you 4 of them this time. 1, Mayoi-bashi; don’t point one’s chopsticks at different morels on a serving plate before deciding which to take. 2, Neburi-bashi; Don’t lick one’s chopsticks while eating. 3, Kuwae-bashi; Don’t hold one’s chopsticks in one’s mouth while using the hands to do something else. 4, Seseri-bashi; Don’t poke around in a dish with one’s chopsticks. Can you say that you definitely do not do these above? Umm... I think I do some of them. So I should be careful!
When Japanese people eat noodles, we should better make sounds by slurping. By doing so, we can enjoy not only the taste but also the sound and the smell. This is Japanese unique manner because in most European countries people must not slurp when eating something such as soup.

2. Hong Kong / China
In many countries, tablecloth at restaurants should be kept clean, but in Hong Kong and China, people who eat make it dirty and messy by making stain. In Japan, doing so is regarded as a bad manner. In china, however, it is kind of good manner. In addition, Chinese people and Hong Konger do not eat everything they order and leave some amount of food on purpose. The idea is that if the plate still has food, it means they got great treatment and service so they are full with the service and can’t eat all. If they eat all and the plate has no food, it means they couldn’t get good service to make them full and satisfied. That is quite a shocking manner, isn’t it?

3. Korea
In Korea, people must not hold a bowl to eat rice. The bowl should be on the table. In Japan, sometimes we eat rice by holding a bowl in our hands, so Japanese people need to be careful about that manner in Korea. In addition, when Korean people drink, younger people should turn his body to the opposite direction to older people, and then younger people can drink. It is in order to show respect to older people from younger people by not showing the action that they drink directly to or in front of the older people. Korean people are really strict about vertical relationships, and that culture affects the table manners. It is said that Japan is also strict about vertical relationships and we should be polite especially to older people, but that idea does not have a big influence on table manners in Japan.

As you know, there are more rules of table manner in these countries, but I just introduced some of them. We should know a country’s table manner before we actually go to the country and eat, and we should know our country’s table manner a well. I will research more about table manner all around the world and I hope I can introduce more interesting manners soon!