Hi,
in the sentence: “At a Chinese meal, everyone helps themselves from common serving dishes with their chopsticks.”
I could understand this very well. Would you mean that there were big common dishes, and everyone eated from the same common dish, putting food in each others personal plates with the chopsticks?
Yes
how exotic!!!
Yes.
It based on trust .For example, family members know each other well ,they eat together.And we have some “chopstick mannars”,such as don’t suck the ends of your chopsticks,don’t touch the food with your chopsticks if you don’t decide to put it in your own plate.
If you find some people broke the rules in a meal,you can choose not to eat that food he or she touched with his chopsticks.If you don’t like the people ,you can choose not eat with them.
Actually we have noticed this problem .If somebody is ill and nobody ,even himself , knows ,that will be horrible.
This is Chinese tradition. If you can trust some,you can share almost everything with him.Drink water with the same cup,same bottle.
If you don’t like the people,even ourselves will have the feeling just as you have-how exotic!
Ok.Let me give you a metaphore.May be not very proper.
How do you think about kiss? Is that exotic?
in my experience in china, most dishes come with a big spoon to use for moving food from the “common dish” to your plate.
for obvious sanitary reasons, i make sure not to share too closely with everyone at the table. i can share some things, but saliva is not one thing i can share with everyone!
it is a nice bonding experience to eat together in a large group like that though. rather than everyone getting their plate and then spreading out. it keeps everyone circled around the table together.
Hi, leox.
that was provocative!
As LJF said, from a pure sanitary point of view, some kisses can be very dangerous… fortunately to the human race, our hormones seem to be stronger than our considerations on safety rsss…
Ok, despite the jokes, I agree with you, this is a matter of being used to it. In Brazil it’s common to parents to share cups, plates or even forks or spoons with their small children. This can happen between boyfriends or married people too, but it’s not usual among other adults, even if they are parents or close relatives.
Please, don’t feel insulted by my “exotic” comment. It was not meant to be offensive, ok?
Hi,ana-paula.
Please feel free.I like learning English and communicating with everybody here.
I have trouble to expess my feelings in English.I hope I can do better in the future.
And thanks for sharing your experience in Brazil.