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Youn Mee Oh
ENG115A
Professor Collins
October 1 2015

Culture Changes Who You Are

No shoes in asian homes. This is a stereotypical joke based on cultural traditions

of Asian. Many people of modern days are aware of many cultural differences to make
cultural jokes. And those jokes are often able to be found funny because one is used to
another culture. This is as if their nature is embedded within their culture. In this busy
day of society, people may not realize or admit that culture would be such in deep
relationship to every little decisions made in their lives. However, in psychological
perspective, culture is part of an environment that shapes personality. In terms of chain
effect, this change in personality can also leads to social standing, and social literacy.
Social Literacy? Yes, it is a bizarre term that not many discuss. My personal definition is
ones understanding, acknowledgement and fluency on society. I strongly believe that
culture affects social literacy because I was shaped and changed by my cultural
transition between Korea and America, the psychological evidence, and realization of
my social literacy through two public speeches.
Two of the renown speeches that provides perspectives on social literacy were
made by Wallace and Saunders. First is that of Foster Wallace. The speech contains
overall philosophy of realizing one's world and spreading one's recognition from not just
himself but for others also. Wallace states that one has to constantly make conscious

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decisions on things that have meaning or not, and that if one cannot, he/she is living in
an unconscious default setting life that has no meaning. In Wallace's perspective, the
real world does not encourage you to wake up and make your own choices because it
revolves around self-centered beings. His speech ends with noting that the real freedom
is knowing how to understand and remind oneself of what the real world is. Wallace
informs us that "The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness
and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people" (Wallace), and I
wholeheartedly agree that one needs to completely realize the situation to make the
most beneficial choice. The world truly needs conscious and constant
acknowledgement.
Second is George Saunders. He carefully begins his speech with an old nostalgic
story of his failure of kindness. His speech navigates around his ideal behavior of
people being nice When he wonders why people are not nicer, he attempts to clarify
the answer stating because humans are selfish beings. Saunders state that people
naturally become nicer as they age. That as people grow up and realize how "useless it
is to be selfish-how illogical, really."(Saunders). As people gain more experience, they
learn those logical factors. His grand statement that working for oneself leads to
kindness and cures the selfishness closes his warm speech.
I once thought my biggest transition in life would be when I came to United
States six years ago. But, my brain whispered me that it was when I confronted the fact
I have had cultural transition a year ago. I was a common child in South Korea. When
my family first immigrated to United States, I did not want to leave my old home and
country. I was furious with tyrannical power my parents possessed over my life.

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Nonetheless, beginning of my American childhood was terrifying and merciless. I had

very little friends, and was not very sociable due to my lack of English skills and
difference in personality ( did not know this was due to culture back then,). As I learned
English, I also learned another personality. As if there was another me in America. This
epiphany came to me in various instances of my life where I used to always think I
should be guided under wise elderly to where I wanted myself to learn how to make
best choice for myself. My parents and I disagreed here and there; however, the
volcano erupted when I had turned eighteen. Korea was heavily influenced by few
Chinese philosophers such as Confucius. Therefore, my parents believed that age
grants power over young ones. I did understand that notion up to certain point but there
were some time that I found my parents very unreasonable. It was only after few days of
argument and disagreement that I and my parents realized, that this was cultural
difference. I could not comprehend the logic behind their principles nor could they of
mine. It was as if I was the red trying to understand the blue. And that it was only
through respect that we can harmonize as social beings in such close knitted
relationship. As Wallace have once said "The really important kind of freedom involves
attention and awareness and discipline,"(Wallace), I had to acknowledge who I am and
who my parents are, and how we think individually. Then, I was free to be myself without
my parents' discouragement and restriction. From here and on, the choices I have made
in life became reasonable and meaningful to me because I finally became aware of my
inner self. Realization of cultural influence on myself further helped me face my own
social literacy on social surroundings.

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Some may insist that there is no valued information on how culture really
influences ones personality and that it is hard to believe. However, there are many
standings in psychology educating that environment has close relationship with
personality development. Two researchers in UC Riverside states that cultural influence
is indeed, an important factor among genetics while quoting More recently Chiu and
Hong (in press) have defined culture as a network of knowledge that is both procedural
(learned sequence of responses to particular cues) and declarative (representations of
people, events, and norms) and is produced, distributed, and reproduced among a
collection of interconnected people (Culture and Personality). As those four
psychological researchers gently describe deeper details on how culture influences
personality change, it is not superfluous to propose that realization of this change and
acceptance leads to better social literacy. Furthermore, they specific factors help on
smoother description of how the cultural influence changed my social literacy.
Because of educational research, statements of educated speakers, and my
personal experience, my standing as cultural influence on social literacy stands strong.
In the days where society is full of wonders and stirs identities of people like a chemical
compound, it is hard to extinguish tranquil self awareness. Although it consumes
valuable time and effort, understanding oneself and around oneself can ultimately
improve your social literacy and relations.

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Literature Cited

Wallace, David Foster. "Kenyon Commencement Address." 2005 Kenyon Commencement Address.
Kenyon, Kenyon. Sept.-Oct. 2015. Speech.
Saunders, George. "Advice to Graduates." Syracuse University Convocation Speech. Syracus
University, Syracuse. Sept.-Oct. 2015. Speech
Foer, Jonathan Safran. "Jonathan Safran Foer's Commencement Address at Middlebury College."
YouTube. YouTube, 02 Oct. 2015. Web. 02 Oct. 2015.

Martinez, Veronica Benet, and Shigehiro Oishi. "Culture and Personality." (n.d.): n. pag.
Print.
Chiu, C-Y., & Hong, Y-Y. (in press). Cultural processes: Basic principles. In A. Kruglanski
& T. Higgins (Eds.), Social psychology: Basic principles. New York: Guilford.