At the international restaurant, I sat with a student named Maddi. She was nice and she tried her best to follow etiquette and manners. I was also trying my best to follow etiquettes however I was so hungry, I started eating some bread in a basket in our table and I hand up using the wrong knife to put the butter in the bread. Maddi laugh and told me I was using the wrong knife.
After all that, Maddi and I order salads, I didn’t know which knife to use at first because I never follow any etiquettes at a dinner table before and then I remember that utensils are used from the outside and then inside. “With numerous forks, knives, and spoons on a table someone may feel panic attack when trying to know which one to use, the only solution is to start from the outside and work your way in” (Corish, 2016). “Therefore utensils on the outside of a dinner table are the ones that use first, and the preceding course will be the pair of utensils nearby to your plate” (Corish, 2016). I order a beef sandwich and French fries while Maddi order a hamburger and fries as well. I was trying the used the cutlery to cut my sandwich but the bread was too hard so I hand up holding the bread with my hands and eat. Maddi at the other hands holding and using cutlery style, where her hands handle the cutlery at the palm of her hand, while her index finger stabilizes the top of the utensil.
Maddi also used the American style after cutting, by placing her knife at the top of the plate with the knife-edge facing the middle of the serving dish. She then swapped the fork to her leading hand and turned with the tines up, to help assigning the food to her mouth. Even though Maddi and I tried to have etiquettes and manner at the table, we were also chatting about school work, last year summer vacation and more. One thing I realized about me was that I was constantly looking at my phone and texting my friend who was nearby which I admit was rude. Maddi looked at her phone sometimes but me I was mostly on my phone looking to see whose texting.
One friend was texting me a lot and I did not stop texting her when she texted. According to the Emily Post Institute (2019), at a dinner table, everyone should keep their phone absent from the table and fixed to mute or vibrate and no one should be answered to calls and texts until everyone are finished and gone from the table. I believe the reason I used my phone so often at the dinner table, it was because Maddi and I are not friends and we were just happened to sit at the table together, so when my close friend was texting me I just text back which was not nice in my part. Next time I will make sure to give anyone at a table with me my undivided attention and make sure I silent my phone.
Reference
Corish, E. (2016, June 04). What Your Cutlery Says About You. Retrieved January 31, 2019, from https://eatdrinkplay.com/what-your-cutlery-says-about-you/
Emily Post Institute - Top Ten Table Manners. (2019). Retrieved January 31, 2019, from http://emilypost.com/advice/top-ten-table-manners/