Random Dining Experience

After I finished my tutoring, I got invited by one of my students to have dinner with their family and I was like “Sure! Why not?”.

Normally, I eat with my family or my friends. I am not sure how common this is for other people but I rarely (or never) have an experience like this. Imagine sitting alone and surrounded by people you are not familiar with.

How should I behave and interact? Will it be weird if I do this? I didn’t know what to do lol. I don’t know how to start a conversation with this many people. I am not good at most topics they were talking about e.g. medical, law, business, etc..

All I could do was to go with the conversation flow and focus on my dining etiquette like ตักกับข้าวยังไงให้คนอื่นตักต่อแล้วดูน่ากิน ตักแกงไม่ให้หยด ควรตักกับให้คนอื่นไหม จัดคำข้าวให้พอดี ถ้าเคี้ยวข้าวคำใหญ่เกินควรปิดปากไหม etc.. I used to practise only western dining etiquette. So I have to use them to improvise the eastern one. (I don’t know any eastern etiquette lol.)

Was I worried too much about everything? I don’t know lol but it should be reasonable to do so since it was the first impression.

Wow, I just realised my memory was so good that I could recall a lot of details from a western etiquette course long time ago ex: ช้อนแบบไหนใช้ตักอะไร มีดแบบไหนใช้ตัดอะไร แก้วน้ำวางยังไง ส่งขวดเกลือให้คนอื่นยังไง จับแก้วยังไง ปาดเนยยังไง เช็ดปากยังไง ตักซุปยังไง หั่นสเต็กยังไง นั่งยังไง วางแขนยังไง etc.. Maybe I was so nervous that my mind became sharper. (I rarely use them so I forgot lol)

I wish my memory was also this good for the university.

Eating and talking with another family like this somehow opened my eyes to many things. Learning new knowledge, their background, and how they live was satisfying. They were so cute and nice together.

I should start talking to more people while wandering.

I was also asked “Do you have a girlfriend?” during dinner.

Again I don’t know how weird this is to others.

This is something I have been curious about for a very long time. After I graduated high school, there were countless times that I was asked this question while having a meal with my family or my relatives. They said it is normal to ask. Maybe I just feel weird from the embarrassment. I am just too young to talk about this topic lol.