How come Americans and Europeans eat differently? 🤔

Many Americans 🇺🇸 use the “cut and switch” or “zig zag” method while Europeans typically keep the knife in their right hand the entire time.

#eating #culturaldifference #Germany #USA

[ObservingAllThereIs]

Is this really an American cultural thing, or is Ben just a little... special? 😅

[hansmeier]

US spies in WWII were known for what was named "kindergarden eating style".

[Jessi-catholique]

The way he reaches to the food is also very American. Europeans are usually taught from a young age to bring the food to their mouth and not their mouth to the plate.

[YodasTinyLightsaber]

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and I will now be watching everyone's forks like a hawk.

[Cantetinza]

I eat both ways. A lot of my family members were wondering why and all I had was, "As long as the food is getting in the mouth, what difference does it make?"

[amanimaniac]

I'm American, and I never understood why people use that zig zag method.

[d_dave]

The other thing to mention is that the knife is used for more than cutting -- it's used for positioning food on the fork. Americans have learned how to get even awkward food onto their fork using one hand, which I find quite difficult. I've never had to -- you control the food with both implements.

[fruzsimih]

We (Central European family) visited the US in the late 1990s. My mom was completely shocked that Americans ate only with the fork. This is something little children would do in Europe.

[LilyPLil]

Nevermind the switching, I've never seen a person hold a fork like that.

[jpack]

Did you notice that Ben wore his baseball cap at the dining table? ;-)

[wendyford]

Americans don’t use a knife once they cut up their food. It’s annoying to me but I still love my American friends. In the U.K. we are more concerned with good manners and professionalism than my American friends are, they wear jeans in almost all circumstances, we would never be accepted wearing jeans in a professional setting. They say they speak English but they speak American, their spellings are also different. That’s just a few differences I have noticed with my 20 plus years of travelling to the states.

[IzzyIkigai]

I wouldn't call it fancy. It seems really just needlessly ineffecient. Or like someone has an issue with hand-eye coordination.

[onbearfeet]

American here. I learned my table manners from my grandmother, who was from the rural American Midwest but had taught herself fancy manners in the 1940s for professional reasons. She taught me that my left hand was for my fork and my right for my knife or spoon. I listened and learned. Fifteen years later, my mother noticed me using my fork with my non-dominant hand (I was eating a bowl of pasta) and asked, "Have you been ambidextrous this whole time?!" Eventually I discovered my grandmother hadn't taught the fork rule to my brothers, so I just had weird fork manners. About a year later, my best friend asked me why I had "European fork etiquette."

I started switching my fork to my right hand in public to avoid commentary, but I still fork left-handed a lot when I'm alone. I don't find either way more convenient or efficient than the other; at least for me, it's a distinction without a difference.

Occasionally I pull out my secret fork skill when I need to impress fancy people, though. Thanks, Grandma!

[poellot]

As a 39 year old mechanic with arthritis and carpal tunel, i use whatever hand hurts less for the knife and the other for the fork.

[josephsimon]

I love this program. My maternal and paternal families are proudly German. Grandparents spoke German- in private- to be discrete. Germany has contributed much to the world!

[frzstat]

We were taught, in much of the US to eat with one hand and keep the other hand under the table. If we needed to use the knife we used both hands, but then ate with one.

[kyrondarkfire]

As a kid, I (German) didn't understand, why I should use the right hand for the spoon and the left for the fork to put food into my mouth. So I decided, as I am right handed to use the right for spoon and fork and the left hand for the knife.

[truthsayers]

during WWII, American spies were often found out because they used the zig-zag method (never heard it called that before) vs the other way. i wasnt taught either way was right; i think my parents both ate both ways at times. my dad mentioned the spy thing when i was probably about 10y old (mid 70s) because i might have swapped from one method to the other...

[Dooder_Noodle]

I like food too much and growing up I would get frustrated with Ben’s way of cutting food. So I trained myself how to cut with my left hand. So much easier!

[dartellomega]

Your Smile and Enthusiasm Steal the Show! ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤