Whether you’re abroad, or going out to a foreign restaurant locally, you need to be sensitive to the dining etiquette of the culture. This chart gives you a broad overview of table manners around the world.
Even if it’s just one night at a friend’s house, they will appreciate your sensitivity to the right manners. The chart has a list of “dos” and “don’ts for some European and Asian countries.
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One response to “Learn Proper Global Dining Etiquette With This Chart”
What? No, the bit about China is almost completely incorrect. No one belches at the table, that’s moderately bad manners, though not as much of a deal as in western culture, it’s not something that would signify complements to the chef. Being on time is good, but being late is not a major faux pas, but offer a reason (even if it’s a lie). It’s probably worse manners to leave food on your plate (or more commonly bowl as chopsticks don’t work with a plate well) as it signifies that the food is so unpalatable you couldn’t finish it. The chopsticks bit is as equally important in Japan as in China (don’t cross and never sticking out of a bowl of ANYTHING, rice or otherwise, vertically or even at an angle, don’t leave chopsticks in food, end of story. It resembles a pair of burning incense sticks which is something that’s done at an ancestor shrine or a grave, something you don’t want to reminisce about while eating) and don’t take food from the communal dish unless you’re with family (or people who regard you as family) use the communal serving cutlery (spoon/chopsticks).
The leaving cutlery in food (as opposed to next to it) can extend to spoons/forks etc for some nitpicky people, to be safe, don’t do it while in China.
Source: Personal experience, born and raised in China, returned back numerous times.