Chopsticks, Korean style [EXPERIMENT] – Day 5

Most frustrating day yet.

I feel like I’m not learning the correct technique. That really puts a damper on my spirits. I mean, why practice if I’m just practicing the wrong way? I might be learning bad habits, habits that might make it harder to learn the right way instead of moving me in the right direction.

Right now, I feel like my fingers, especially the index and middle fingers, aren’t extended enough. They seem too curled to me. Trouble is, I can’t tell the difference between hands that might require slightly different styles and just plain wrong. Like many people use pencils slightly differently, but a few use them in a way I’d say is just plain wrong, at least by traditional American writing standards (whatever that means).

I think this happens fairly frequently when we’re learning things. If we’re not familiar enough with whatever we’re trying to learn, we get discouraged because we don’t even know what progress is. We have no reference point.

That’s probably the scariest part of doing things for the first time. And it’s even worse when there actually is a right and wrong way, unlike when you’re creating something for the first time, when you’re the trailblazer.

It’s like trying to copy someone else without ever seeing them do it. Flying blind, or aiming for a target you can’t see. That’s tough. Annoying, even.