I hope he can do it the grown-up big-boy way when he's a little older - shall we say six years old
Every culture seems to have a rule.
Dont stab with chop sticks. Dont eat with your left hand. Use your left hand for your fork and your right for your knife.
Sometimes not following the cultural norms is not being polite.
How I am supposed to eat my spaghetti with the left hand? I use the fork on the left side only if I need to cut food (since I am handling the knife with the right side). The fact that I switch according to what I eat means that I am using an American style?
First time I feel not european..
In the past food was placed on the curve of the fork instead of the bowl as it is done now.
When eating spaghetti, I just let the spoon take the place of the knife.
I only put the fork in my right hand if I don't have any other implement.
A habit I've dropped here is pushing the spoon away from you when eating soup, the bowls here just don't allow for it, and they use the wrong spoons.
I was initially confused as to why they supply a fork for the salad, but no knife, I have learned to use bread instead like the natives. I'm sure if I ever return to Blighty, people will think me uncouth.
The Swiss also confuse teaspoons and coffee spoons, using them in the wrong drinks, I have no idea why these things bother me.
The local custom here, on the other hand - shovel your meal down in twenty minutes flat, so that you can dawdle forty minutes over two tablespoons of coffee - strikes me as absurd, unattractive and possibly a bit unhealthy.
And we couldn't possibly go for our coffee once most of us are finished, permitting the slow eaters to linger over their meal, oh no. We must wait in stolid unconverse for everyone to finish eating. Perhaps if we all stare at the slow ones' plates it will encourage them.
I learned to non-switch fairly quickly, just because I was tired of being the center of such attention every day.
When eating civilised food - meat, potatoes and a second veg - the fork is used prong-curve upwards, in the left hand with the left forefinger lying lightly on top of it. Meat, potatoes and firm vegetables are eased onto the point of the prongs before being transferred to the mouth. Peas and other veg are delicately encouraged to take their place on the rounded surface of the prongs of the fork. The fork is never used as a shovel, never held with the tip of the prongs pointing upwards or held vertically to spike pieces of meat and never goes near the right hand, in which is held the knife (in a similar manner with the forefinger along the back of the blade)
If you're are going to eat foreign food, I suppose other rules may apply. But I wouldn't know anything about that.
I think it stems, at least in part, from being a "lefty".
I do eat tines up (as does every American with whom I can recall sharing a meal) but I do not do the switching thing as I'd end up with my food on the floor if I tried to get it from the plate to my mouth in my right hand.
Alas, I believe that would be considered quite rude beyond the age of about 3 in any culture.
But no, that's not how I was taught at all at all. (In fact, I've always been told that I must under no account take a knife and fork to British meat as it is just the right size already.)
Fork left hand, slight downward oblique angle, curve going down ... knife right hand, serrated edge down ... optional: index finger resting along the back of either or both tools in order to apply greater force if required.
Better: chopsticks, and everything chopped up small before cooking so it's easy to handle!
In India I enjoyed eating with my right hand (not sure about other countries, but we were told that in India that was the 'clean' hand, and our observations of locals supported that). Especially when it was a fabulous local curry served up with rice on a fresh banana leaf, papadums & naan on the side ...
BUT in case of Spaghetti, you have the fork in your right hand and a spoon in your left
But I quite forgot to say that for the sweet course similar rules for the use of the fork apply. Stewed rhubarb is the acid test. I once had a tableful of spectators watching me push it up onto the back of the fork (with the spoon!!) - I couldn't think why they had all stopped eating and were watching me!
When you've practiced a bit, I'll check your progress in Rapperswil sometime.
You may have been ill informed about the meat by unkind British subjects who were hoping to have a litle bit of fun at your expense.