This is what I was watching earlier today that made me just stop and question everything
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Iām a lifelong daily journaler and I bring the same sort of thinking to writing my thoughts about the art I consume as I do about my daily journaling, which is that some days flow really quickly and easily if I felt moved or a lot happensāand itās the same with some games or movies or whatever; it becomes a process of like, transcribing my feelings as they come out of my head because there are so many
But sometimes I didnāt feel very strongly about the art but I still want to write anyway, and the journaling strategy that I use when I have a very vanilla day and not much to say about it I focus hyper specifically on one little thing and focus my brain on that to bootstrap some sort of thought flow
Also fwiw I only ever really tend to write about my own feelings and emotional response when I write my thoughts about artāwhen it comes to video games for me, I donāt care very much about mechanics as long as they donāt get in the way of my time with it. I mostly play retro games and I cheat as often as I can so I donāt encounter any friction and am just along for the vibes and to feel a certain way, so itās incredibly rare that Iām moved to talk about the button pressing part of a game unless it felt uniquely cool or bad
Just my process! Iām sure others do things differently
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Every time the gif repeats it looks a little weirder than before! Iāve never noticed this until now but Iāll look out for it in the future.
In somewhat related news: The number of times Iāve been praised for my excellent cutlery handling technique in an honestly impressed voice has risen to two recently. Both times the person praising my mastery of fork and knife has been a Japanese woman[1]. The first time I was able to impress with the way I cleanly and evenly applied margarine to a slice of bread and the second time was when eating scrambled egg with a bunch of different ingredients, nudging food into place with the knife and then getting the food filled fork into my mouth without losing any munchable matter on the way.
Iām not saying this to brag about my table manners because I deem them average at best but because both times I was a little stumped as to how to respond. Itās kind of like being praised for how well you can walk. Even though it comes from a place of honesty the gut reaction is to feel mocked! Both times I opted for the āWell, I look much less impressive using chopsticks, haha!ā but the fact that this has happened twice now made me wonder if there are better responses to use in the future.
The first time it was a language exchange partner I visited in DĆ¼sseldorf, whose husband dunked on how his wife canāt properly use a fork and knife immediately after our innocuous exchange ended. The second time it was my now-girlfriend who immediately after my response added that she doesnāt have proper chopstick technique either. This is a conversational minefield everybody! ā©ļø
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It depends on the situation but I do swap sometimes, so I voted for that option. When you have a dish that requires knife and fork, letās say an omelet, and something on the side like long pasta (letās pretend) which requires fine-tuned fork manipulation, do you switch when eating the pasta, or eat both with the fork in the non-dominant hand due to the knife-and-fork configuration? (assuming right-handedness)
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Right-handed: I cut with the knife in my left while pinning with the fork in my right and Iāve always done it this way.
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Why would the knife ever be in the dominant hand?
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Could it just be a blocking thing? Like just trying to keep the plate of food as visible as possible for the video.
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I think when eating something runny like an egg, you gotta get the right leverage underneath the liquid part, so I can imagine that person was trying to get the wider part of the fork under the yolk so it didnāt roll forward when they lifted their left hand.
I always use the knife in the dominant hand because itās more important to keep the knife stable and get the right angle on things. All a fork has to do is poke and twist.
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I have to hold the knife in my dominant hand because of motor skill issues. If I didnāt Iād be a danger to myself and everyone around me every time I have a steak.
Iām a knife in dominant hand non switching American, but switching is in my experience more common here. I even remember a friend commenting that I eat like Iām British
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The more I think about it, the more I think Iām a swapper. With a pasta, Iāll go fork in right hand, especially if Iām wearing something risking a pasta sauce stain. Eating a soup Iāll go with spoon in the right hand, unless itās a Ramen or Pho in which case Iāll go spoon in left hand, chopsticks in right.
Thereās a whole wikipedia article on fork etiquette and the American style is called the zig-zag method
I also donāt care about table manners - elbows on the table is fine!
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American: I was definitely taught to use a fork and knife by swapping. I know the home ec (essentially cooking and dining) elective I took in high school emphasized doing that, and I still do so for formal situations.
If Iām by myself, I just keep the knife in my left hand and the fork in my right for both cutting and eating.
True. When I do rapier and dagger, I tend to use the rapier in my dominant hand, not the dagger.
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a lot of people are showing their privilage here. You switch the knife to your dominant hand if you grew up in an environment where you have to fight to survive. You need to be ready to defend yourself at all times, even when youāre eating an omelet, for example. What people are seeing in the clip rej posted is someone who was born on the wrong side of the tracks
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I was thinking maybe the act of filming a video was using more brain power and he switched hands because of that but I like Yesoās idea more.
The more I think about it, the more I realize Iām a bit of an outlier. I donāt have a truly dominant hand. I use my left to write, draw and shove food in my mouth, but I use my right for throwing, bowling, golfing, etc. I donāt need left handed gear. Iām not ambidextrous though.
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Me too! I do everything right-handed except eat. Was always called cack-handed because I did it like that but works for me. However when carving any kind of meat I always use the knife in my right hand, as itās my dominant hand. And in case I need to shank someone in an emergency. Gotta protect my food!
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Iām a rightie American whose maternal grandparents were stuffy starched collar old timey hardos and what they taught my sister and I was: cut with right hand knife with left hand fork holding it down, set down knife and switch to right hand fork to eat
That part of table manners was mandatory at their dinner table 
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I had to be taught to use the non-dominant hand for the knife which didnāt make much sense to me at the time, much like how it didnāt make sense to use the same foot for both the gas and break pedal in a car. I play by polite societyās rules now but deep down I yearn for freedom.
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Iām a right-handed, red-blooded, 5ā11", brunette, brown-eyed American and I hold the knife with my left.
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I also use chopsticks with my left and ride goofy
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