Adopted Koreans love their chopsticks.
The relationship starts out shakily, though. Being raised in small towns by hotdish-eating Lutherans meant that there was no one who could teach us to use them without the aide of rubber bands.
It's likely that our first concerted attempt took place in our college years or adulthood with an accomplished white boyfriend or girlfriend who had traveled the Orient and mastered the art of the sticks.
Or maybe a fellow AK taught another one, providing a safe, not-too-judgmental space for learning. The teacher feels a minor smugness in being "more Korean" than the student, and the student is grateful to indulge an aspect of his birth culture without his white parents hovering nervously nearby.
The final test is learning to use the Korean metal chopsticks. Their slipperiness requires another level of skill, but once mastered, AKs stop using the sticks as hair ornaments and start stockpiling them in their silverware drawers.
For the initiated AK, no Asian meal is complete without chopsticks.
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