“If your son eats like a pig he has to go to another table because this is the way we do it and how we’re going to do it every time.”

That's just an excerpt from the article.

So I don't post here much. In fact, this is my first post. Anyways, I just read this article that really, really pissed me off! Tell me you guys aren't upset after reading this. Wrong to eat with a fork and spoon? I don't think so!

I know, I know, I'm being biased sticking this in a Filipino forum but who cares. I think it pretty much applies to most asian cultures. So pass it along to everyone! And let them know how wrong this principal and lunch monitor are.


Click here to read article.

wtf are they to tell us how to eat!!!!!! i feel like bombing the principal's house. damn frenchie!!!!

That's why you move to the USA instead of Canada

wtf? what's so wrong with eating with a fork and spoon? damn. people now a days are just so stupid.

wat u talkin about?? it happens everywhere eventho its our first time to hear this. i live in canada btw. but ye i know the place where it took place. its near my aunts old place in quebec.

I was wondering, any Filipinos own chopsticks and use'em sometimes?

Thai people also eat with spoon and fork,
and sometimes with chopsticks.

i know indonesians and malaysians do.

wtf?....i'll eat w/ no hands!

umm, WTF.

aren't you supposed to eat with both utensils?

that's jsut fu-ked up. i thought the kid was eating w/ his hands or something.. lol. thats true filpino style, yo.

Yes...sometimes I eat with my hands

europeans eat with fork and knife. spoons are only for soup and deserts. but i think the man only thought that he was teaching the child correct table manners but he should have done it in a gentle and kind manner. here, we also teach our children table manners. we teach them how to eat like filipino (spoon and fork) and how to eat like east asians (chopsticks) and how to eat like europeans (fork and knife). but we have to do it in a good way without insulting them. make learning a pleasant experience. i see nothing wrong with teaching the child to eat the canadian way but he should do it in a kind gentle pleasant manner and with patience.

I only eat with a spoon because I hold the plate with my left hand and i hold the spoon with my right hand because ther is no table in our house.

I can understand teaching different eating techniques. And I don't have a problem with that at all, I actually agree. I also agree that he should've used a different (ie more educated) approach. What bothers me is what he said, and I quote,



He's basically saying that we all eat like pigs. That's a very stupid thing of him to say. Being a person in the field of education, he obviously isn't very educated. To assume that because you're in Canada, you should eat like a Canadian is just plain dumb. If you come into my house and I put a spoon and fork in front of you, and you just use the fork to eat. I'm not gonna be an a$$ about it and tell you to use both the utensils because that's the way we do it!

This principal needs to be reprimanded, at least until he makes an apology to the boy, his family, and our people.

whoa i can't believe someone would have that much of a problem with eating with a spoon and fork that they would actually do that to that little boy, thier supposed to be examples in the school, but then they punish him until he is ashamed to eat, what kind of crap is that?!? that principles stupid for doing such things & having no respect for luc's family either when approached the subject. who said that moving to canada would have to make people give up their traditions or customs?! it doesn't! its a free country! and how is eating with a spoon and fork disgusting? they need to get real, just b/c everything isnt their way they reject and insult everything else.

Nice thread. When going out with friends, I will prefer to use western utencils; when Im out with family in a fancy restaurant, ill use chop sticks or western utencil. However, in my dorm...I use my hands. I prefer using my hands anyways. Thai Style

OH. thanks for clearing that up. heh.

Damn straight lol gotta watch out for the aunts and grandma's though or else itll be a slap on the head for bad manners.

I usually eat with spoon and fork... is that bad??!!!! lol

yes, i believe that the statement is foul and that it was wrong. but i see nothing bad with teaching a child to eat like the rest of the students. we also teach our children to do that. we teach them to do so out of respect especially if the rest are doing it. or maybe teaching the correct way of eating is part of the school training. my opinion is that when in public and the rest are using fork then just learn to eat like the rest. and do it out of respect. during other times when you are with your family or community, just do whatever you like.

i eat with my hands too but most often i eat with a spoon and a bowl.

Don't let westerners tell us what to do. Let's do it the South East Asian style, bare hands...That's what I'm talking about, and for me, it tastes better with bare hands, I dont know why but it does, maybe the feeling or the passion to eat.

i eat with fork and knife sometimes if i'm lazy i'll eat with hands but only for non sticky foods.

yeah..try eating the adobong adidas with ur hands...darn sticky...lolz

i do eat with my hands but not in public...maybe i'll do it one day..

Not just South East Asians but South Asians as well they always eat with thier hands.

yea it does feel good eating with hands. especially after hard work, or when u r juz relaxing in the beach with a barbecue or barbecue fish with rice. anywhere it feels good to eat rice. hhhhhhmmmmmmm tastes really good.

I just ate but after reading this thread I feel hungry again ... Oh and by the way, Indonesians also eat with fork and spoon, we push the food with the fork to the spoon, then we eat the food with the spoon.

ye we also cut our food with the fork and spoon.

“He said, ‘Madame, you are in Canada. Here in Canada you should eat the way Canadians eat.’

fu-k! and they say Americans are bad. And I can understand if he was eating with unwashed hands and eating like a pig, but I think for alot of "etiquettes" the Filipino fork and spoon comes the closest to most western etiquette. In fact some parts of Europe's top restaurants the fork and spoon is the customary, which is differnt from Anglo fork and knife.

I would rather use a spork than spoon and fork i think sporks are more practical. I find it tiring to use both hands for eating.

We should e-mail that principal or the Canadian embassy in our respective places or country to tell them our cultural diversity in eating !

Growing up, no one ever told me that eating with a fork and spoon was a Filipino thing, it wasn't until I was older and asked my friends why they don't use a spoon (after all, it's sooo much easier right?) that I realized that people in the west usually eat with a fork and knife. To this day however, I still bemoan any setting where there is no spoon and fork for me to use and think eating with a fork and knife only (especially when you eat rice) is quite, well dumb when you compare how much more efficient a spoon is! Arrggh... forget that principal and ettiquitte, let's all eat kamayan style! >=D

wow.. i was taught that manner too .. spoon and fork.. and now i only eat w/ a fork >_< lol..

The Filipinos inherited the use of the spoon and fork from the Spaniards and they call it "kubyertos". The Americans also inherited it from the Spaniards during the Spanish rule in the Americas.

Since Canada is French, they use the fork and knife for eating, the Canadians must adopt to the culture of the French and I think learning the French language in some schools is also mandatory in Canada.

In some degree, it is racism because they restrict other cultures in their country.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!OMFG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and i just beat up a canadian/german-nazi wanna be freak today during our school dance...
lol wtf, this is like spam and all so ill be back on da topic. i think that is really wrong, good thing that kid isnt like 13-15 yrs old, cuz he would have kicked some canadian @$$ or somethin.

well i think that is frickin wrong, i betcha if that canadian $!*%^ went to the philippines, they would like torchure her/him/it/canadian/$!*%^/&@#!$/something by eating the pinoy way lol...

majority of canada is not french, mostly english. the french r only in quebec. the rest are either english speaking caucasians or english speaking immigrants. u can never really call canada a white country since this country is the most multicultural in the world and almost everyone being immigrants!!!!! if u go to the big cities outside of quebec province, u'll see schools are majority asians or blacks with 2 or 3 white kids juz barely mixin in the crowd.

and they dont restrict cultures here!!! if they do, then canada wouldnt be the most multicultural country in the world. its only in that school that happened.

Then how do you eat rice with fork?

you can pick it up using fork ! Heheheh but it will take a while longer!!!!

Ang hirap noon noh!

Try this link:
http://www.dailybooger.com/?p=21


another opinion from a blog site;
comment lang?!?! papaapi ba tau sda mga walang kwentang canadians na yaN?comment naman kau

A Roxboro woman has filed a formal complaint with a local school board after her son was disciplined by a lunch program monitor at Ecole Lalande for eating in what she says is a customary Filipino manner.

Luc Cagadoc’s table behaviour is traditionally Filipino; he fills his spoon by pushing the food on his plate with a fork, his mother, Maria Theresa Gallardo, says.

But after being punished by his school’s lunch program monitor more than 10 times this year for his mealtime conduct — including his technique — the seven-year-old told Gallardo said last week that he was too embarrassed to eat his dinner.

“Mommy, I don’t want to eat anymore,” Gallardo says Luc told her at the kitchen table April 11. “My teacher is telling me that eating with a spoon and fork is yucky and disgusting.”

When he eats with both a spoon and fork, instead of only one utensil, the Grade 2

student said the lunch monitor moves him to a table to sit by himself.

Upset over Luc’s story, Gallardo confronted the lunchtime caregiver the next day and on April 13, she telephoned the school’s principal, Normand Bergeron. His reaction brought her to tears, she says. “His response was shocking to me,” Gallardo, who moved to Montreal from the Philippines in 1999, told The Chronicle. “He said, ‘Madame, you are in Canada. Here in Canada you should eat the way Canadians eat.’

“I find it very prejudiced and it’s racist. He’s supposed to be acting like a professional. This is supposed to be a free country with free expressions of culture and religion. This is how we eat; we eat with a fork and spoon.”

Luc’s father, Aldrin Cagadoc, was also surprised by the comment. “I can’t believe even the principal would say that,” he said. “A person of that calibre, I wouldn’t expect him to say that.”

Gallardo, who operates a day care out of her Roxboro home and is close to completing her studies in early childhood education, wrote a letter last week and lodged a formal complaint to the Commission scolaire Marguerite Bourgeoys (CSMB) yesterday.

She disagrees with the lunch monitor’s approach to teaching children how to eat and says it is emotionally abusive to Luc. When she questioned Bergeron about punishing students for their table habits, she says he replied that, “If your son eats like a pig he has to go to another table because this is the way we do it and how we’re going to do it every time.”

But Bergeron says it was Luc’s eating technique combined with his behaviour at the table that was inappropriate that day, which is why he was moved. “Luc can be turbulent,” he said yesterday. “Like other children, he is frequently in situations where we have to intervene. It’s normal, he’s a child. He is in a period of learning.”

The principal of the 387-student Roxboro school said he explained his position on using two utensils to Gallardo during their telephone conversation. “I said, ‘Here, this is not the manner in which we eat.’

“I don’t necessarily want students to eat with one hand or with only one instrument, I want them to eat intelligently at the table,” he said. “I want them to eat correctly with respect for others who are eating with them. That’s all I ask. Personally, I don’t have any problems with it, but it is not the way you see people eat every day. I have never seen somebody eat with a spoon and a fork at the same time.”

CSMB spokesman Brigitte Gauvreau says the board will not comment — due to confidentiality procedures — until Gallardo’s complaint is filed and she makes a public statement.

According to a Canadian envoy : The bad publicity of the Spoon and Fork incidence had slowed the tourist arrivals in their country.