2006-10-11 20:58:54 · 15 answers · asked by B G 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Etiquette
For the same reason as Europeans drive on the left of the street and Americans drive on the right.
2006-10-11 23:28:19 · answer #1 · answered by curious 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Americans will cut holding the fork in their left hand, then swap it over to the right hand to eat. Europeans will just hang onto the fork in their left hand.
As to why...perhaps it was Americans, over-eager to prove themselves just as proper as the Old World, who created new and more obscure rules of etiquette. Or perhaps since the majority of people are right handed, you stand less chance of winding up with a lap full of dinner bits if you use your dominant hand to get the food to your mouth.
Americans also tend to think it rude to keep your left hand on the table and usually keep it in their lap when eating - so they cut up the food then put the left hand out of sight before eating with the dominant right hand.
Whereas Europeans kind of wonder what the hell you're doing with that other hand down there, and find it less rude to keep it up on the table - ready for eating action.
2006-10-11 21:08:20 · answer #2 · answered by Koko Nut 5 · 3⤊ 0⤋
When I was young (1950's) most Americans ate with the fork in their right hand. I noticed that as the US has become slightly more cosmopolitan fewer people do so.
I was taught in elementary school that the reason we, Americans, eat with the fork in the right hand even having to switch it from the left after cutting is to Honor the memory of the revolutionary fighters who used this method to identify each other in taverns and such. This is because all the British loyalists ate with the fork in their left hand.
2015-12-19 08:04:43 · answer #3 · answered by James K J 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
More left handed Europeans
2006-10-11 21:00:27 · answer #4 · answered by John Scary 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I wouldn't have a clue but I am left handed and hold a fork in my left hand.
2006-10-11 21:03:00 · answer #5 · answered by theradicalwomen 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
For me, it has nothing to do with where I am. I am very right hand dominant so... if I have to eat something I am cutting, I have the knife in my right and my fork in the left. If I don't need to cut, I have the fork in my right.
2006-10-12 01:29:24 · answer #6 · answered by Brian D 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't know! I always hold my fork in my left hand (even though I'm right-handed) to avoid having to switch utensils with every bite.
2006-10-11 22:06:15 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I didn't know they do that!?!!
Proper etiquette implies that everyone (wether right handed ro not) should hold his/her knife on the right hand and the fork on the left. Recently, though, it has been accepted that left-handed ppl use their knives on their left hand.
If you want to follow proper etiquette I suggest you (if you're dextral) use your knife on your right hand and fork on your left.
2006-10-11 23:10:27 · answer #8 · answered by Dahv Inchi 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because Americans are too stupid to tell left from right?
:P
NB
BTW, most left-handed people in Europe eat your way, fork in right hand. Its not a left-hand, right-hand thing
2006-10-11 21:04:52 · answer #9 · answered by thomas p 5 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Not all americans hold their forks in their right hand. we hold it in whichever hand is comfortable.
2006-10-11 22:35:59 · answer #10 · answered by ApRiL 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋