<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META content="text/html; charset=windows-1255" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META content="MSHTML 5.00.2920.0" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=굴림 size=2>Koreans use metal chopsticks traditionally, but
nowadays</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=굴림 size=2>they do also use lacquered bamboo or wooden ones
in</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=굴림 size=2>Japanese restaurants and even plastic ones in
Chinese</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=굴림 size=2>restaurants. The metal ones are still the ones that
are</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=굴림 size=2>regarded as "Korean." I don't think metal chopsticks
are</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=굴림 size=2>used in any other country. As for why, I'm not sure
there's</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=굴림 size=2>a good answer to that, but I susect in has to do with
the</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=굴림 size=2>fact that Koreans developed a fairly high level of
metallurgical</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=굴림 size=2>technology early on. By the way, rice bowls and soup
bowls</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=굴림 size=2>are also traditionally of metal.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=굴림 size=2>Gary Rector</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>