Quote Originally Posted by Maciamo
I know it feels insistent on me to repeat this, but I really can't understand what this obsession with the gaijin's abilities to do banal things (chopsticks, futon...) is about. From my experience, after being asked these questions maybe between 50 and 100 times, I can say that most of the time it was not to break the ice, not to make small talks, mostly out of the blue, and the questioners' reaction was typically a great surprise when I told them that yes I could use chopsticks like everybody.
Take this with a grain of salt because I have only spoke to one native about this theory and after thinking about it for a minute said that is possibly true which is often Japanese for you are so full of sh!%.

I think that because of the flood of images from the west in the form of movies advertising etc. some Japanese have a bit of a national inferiority complex. The fact that a gaijin takes the time to learn Japanese is very validating to these people. It is further validating to know this gaijin has taken to heart things they find innately Japanese like chopsticks, futon, japanese food, etc. It's just a theory but sometimes helping to understand why people do things helps us be more understanding of their foibles.