Originally Posted by
emma69
In Europe, both of your hands are holding cutlery, and specifically, your left hand is the one holding the fork, so it seems natural that they are both above the table.
It seems natural once you get to know it, but at first, keeping hold of the knife with your right hand and never setting it down actually kind of looks slightly uncouth, since it looks like you are so hungry you can't even take a break to put your utensils down. Someone who never sets his or her utensils down in the U.S. is regarded as an aggressive eater.
Maybe it's just evocative of this kind of image signifying a hungry person:
