It is essential to follow good manners wherever you are. Be it at your home, school or workplace. Practicing good manners makes yourself well presentable before the others. Table manners is a significant aspect here. Following behaviors like eating with spoon and fork, closing your mouth while eating is to carry yourself in a presentable manner and make yourself look pleasant at the table. When a toddler shoves down food with his/her hands, a mess is created. Technology invented spoons and fork so that people get to eat food creating very little mess. Shoving down food with hands may not look very presentable before others. This is just one concept of table manners. There are many more. A table is usually a place where people come together for fellowship meals, and you don’t want others to judge you for bad table manners. Here are some of the tips that you should be following. Each Culture or family may follow a separate standard of rules at the dining table. However, some common manners must be followed at the table.
Rules for using napkins.
If it is an informal family gathering, place your napkin on your lap or pin it to the collar of your shirt. If it is formal dining, wait for the hostess to unfold her napkin first. While leaving your place for a second serving, make sure to leave the napkin on your chair indicating you would come back to take your seat. After you finish dining, place your napkin towards the left side of your plate on the table.
General rules using fork and knives.
Your fork should be held with your left hands. The blades of the fork should face down. This position makes it easy to pin down food items. When handling your knife, hold it with your right hand, extending your pointer finger till the start of the blade of the knife. After eating, the fork should be placed on the left side of your plate. Similarly, the knife should be placed on the right side of your plate. A knife is used if a hard food item has to be cut. Food items like rice require being eaten with a spoon. Your spoon has to be kept to the left side of the place beside the knife.
How to chew food.
Try to eat with your mouth closed to avoid making noise while chewing. This is a presentable practice as you don’t want to disturb the person next to you in any way. There are no rules related to talking while eating food. Even then, do not talk while chewing food, this ensures that food particles does not come out of your mouth. Talking while chewing may cause the food particles to enter into your respiratory tract. Excuse yourself if you cough or make noise while eating food.