I am unable to recall a time in my life after I did not know find out how to use chopsticks. I am Chinese language, and for so long as I can keep in mind, they have been my go-to utensil for cooking, consuming, and serving. As I’ve grown older, I’ve observed that folks have a tendency to carry their chopsticks otherwise, with many uncertain of find out how to use the utensil successfully. Some attempt to use them like a fork and knife to separate giant items of meals, others stab their meals with their chopsticks, and a few even hook their fingers round every chopstick.

However is there a proper or unsuitable technique to maintain chopsticks? The reply is not as easy as you assume it might be. When you’ve ever felt self-conscious about your chopstick abilities, you are not alone—and you have come to the precise place. Learn on for the right etiquette and recommendations on find out how to maintain chopsticks so you are not dropping meals left, proper, and middle.

The “Proper Method” to Maintain Chopsticks

Many individuals contemplate the “commonplace grip” essentially the most correct technique to maintain chopsticks: You retain one chopstick between your pointer and center finger, then prop up the opposite chopstick together with your ring finger. The underside chopstick stays stationary, and you progress the chopstick on high to grip meals. This technique presents you essentially the most management, permitting you to select up small or slippery meals simply. It is also essentially the most ergonomic technique to maintain chopsticks, because it reduces pressure in your fingers and wrist, making it essentially the most snug technique to decide up meals.

Though the usual grip is commonly really useful as one of the best ways to carry chopsticks, most individuals maintain chopsticks the way in which their dad and mom taught them, and there is a number of variation amongst individuals from chopstick-wielding cultures. Although my dad and I each use the usual grip, my mother and my sisters use what many Chinese language individuals name the “lazy technique,” which includes gripping the chopsticks like a pencil, inflicting them to criss-cross like scissors. Whereas this technique works for many individuals and there are many of us who swear by it, it may possibly make it tougher to select up small morsels of meals, together with grains of rice. 

I spoke to a number of of my colleagues in our Individuals Inc. Asian American Pacific Islander affinity group about whether or not there was a proper or unsuitable technique to maintain chopsticks. Most individuals mentioned no—they felt it was extra a query of non-public choice and what works finest for the person to eat with out dropping meals. “I wish to assume that the ‘proper’ manner of holding chopsticks gives a safer and cleaner manner of consuming,” says Chris Yong, a senior knowledge engineer. “When you maintain the chopsticks too low, you would possibly get your hand soiled. When you maintain them too excessive, you would possibly pressure your hand. When you cross the chopsticks, it would trigger an ungainly grip, and meals would possibly slip out.” 

There’s actually no proper or unsuitable technique to grip your chopsticks, and the way in which many individuals accomplish that comes down to non-public choice and the way their households taught them. The place individuals typically go unsuitable is in chopstick etiquette: the way you prepare your chopsticks or use them.

It Comes Right down to a Query of Etiquette

Though they mentioned there wasn’t a unsuitable technique to maintain chopsticks, each Yong and Jackie Napalan, a senior supervisor in product assist operations, agree that etiquette issues. “I believe the identical guidelines ought to apply for Japanese tradition as for Western tradition,” Napalan says. Westerners have guidelines round find out how to maintain a fork or set a desk correctly, so why should not the Easterners?” Our affiliate editor, Jess Eng, agrees. “No matter manner somebody picks up their meals is ok with me,” she says. “I solely get squeamish when individuals put chopsticks into rice straight up.”

In the end, most individuals I polled agreed that it was necessary to be aware of how you employ chopsticks and to keep away from frequent fake pas, equivalent to sticking them upright in a bowl of rice—which resembles the burning incense offered as an providing to the deceased throughout Chinese language funerals and the chopsticks which can be introduced to Korean households throughout cremation ceremonies for choosing out the bones from ashes. Pointing with chopsticks and passing meals with them are additionally no-nos. And, as tempting because it may be, attempt to not fake to be a walrus by sticking chopsticks within the sides of your mouth to make “tusks.”

The Backside Line

There could also be a “commonplace” and “lazy” technique to maintain chopsticks—there are additionally many hybrid approaches. Nonetheless, so long as you possibly can comfortably and successfully grip the meals and are respectful of cultural traditions and others round you, there’s nothing unsuitable with holding the utensil nonetheless you favor. Do what works for you—so long as you accomplish that politely.

September, 2025