A5 – Module 3 Artifact:

This photo depicts many aspects of what I believe represents my culture. The German plaque depicts part of my ancestral background. I acquired it during my student exchange program the summer of 2012. The rhyme roughly translates to “cool beer and young women are the best way to spend ones time.” I bought it as a gag gift for my grandfather. The setting of the picture is my grandparent’s lake house. This also has a strong impact on my familial culture. My grandparents and my grandma especially, have had a strong impact on my enculturation. This home has been “home” longer than any other place I’ve ever lived so it is always a welcoming and nostalgic place to be, especially surrounded by my family. My grandma has also always incorporated bits of our Swedish ancestry into our Christmas traditions which has always been exciting and fascinating to me. Before this class I struggled with understanding that I in fact had my own culture. I didn’t realize that culture was more than just ethnic or national culture. I didn’t realize that all social contexts have cultures. Now my life is full of my own culture. I’m slowly finding myself and finding my cultures and I am so grateful for that.

A4 – Module 4 Artifact:

This archive really caused me to think about how my country compares to others. South Korea is a country I plan to live in after I graduate and its interesting to see the potential differences I will experience and need to be cognizant of. Through this class I have found myself being much more critical and aware of subtle cultural differences. For instance noticing the way someone greets me.

I believe the results do depict what I have experienced meeting others from other countries or even of co-cultures in the U.S. Especially with my ethnically Asian friends, the house rules and familial relationships are different. I typically had a much more independent experience with my parents while theirs could be said to be more dependent and strict. I believe its important and fascinating to see and think of these differences in a new light and to appreciate them even more. 

A3 – Module 5 Artifact:

I found in this assignment that I couldn’t relate to many of the statements presented on the enculturation sheet. I found that many of them were values I did not have and many of them were also not values my parents instilled in me. There were only two statements that I marked as my parent’s values and my own. I found this interesting as I wonder how I compare to others in the course and to others in my culture and other cultures.

The only discrepancies I found were in the question about children being required to live with and take care of their parent’s when they’re older. I marked it as my value because I would like to take care of them when they reach that point but they haven’t instilled that in me and I don’t think they’d want me to feel obligated and stressed to take care of them. I’m curious to see how the values will change in my generation and the next in terms of enculturation and values instilled on our children and grandchildren.

A2 – Module 6 Artifact:

I couldn’t think explicitly of only one significant experience, but rather several across the span of my childhood. My mom always helped fuel our imaginations, illustrated as her enveloping my brother and sister and I with stars in our heads. Some of my favorite experiences as a kid were playing and watching Star Wars and my favorite movie The Goonies. These are illustrated by the X-Wing fighter jet and pirate ship. I was also obsessed with space and the ocean, which is illustrated by the moon, stars, and giant squid. My siblings and I were always interest in science and the way the world works, in fantasy and imagination, and in the world. I was raised around the sea and forest so the experiences I had surrounded by both were quite significant in my development of self. Over all the experiences my family and friends, especially my mother, helped incorporate into my life helped shape my sense of self today.

A1 – Module 7 Artifact:

An aspect I found highly interesting in this archive activity was that all of the experiences I thought of were socially engaged experiences. It is hard for me to think of a significant experience where my friends or family were not involved. There was one experience, when I was on my student exchange in Germany, that could partially be construed as socially disengaged but that’s only as part of a larger socially engaged picture. This archive helped me realize I am much more collectivistic and interdependent than I thought and that would be seen from a typically individualistic country. I find a lot of happiness in the people I love. 

These photos illustrate come of the experiences I spoke of such as spending time goofing around with my sister, my trip to Germany, and a cruise to the Bahamas that I went on with friends.