Olivia Treptow TS#9

I met with Yun Jung on September 24th at CIES. We talked about many aspects of American culture, especially more implicit parts of American culture. Her and I discussed the climate of anti-establishmentarianism that is prevalent in the United States, and how it manifests itself in different parts of the country. Some examples are New Hampshire, where there are few residents, but those residents decided to have as few taxes as possible. In New Hampshire, there isn't even a sales tax. They only have property taxes. On the other hand, in California anti-establishmentarianism manifests in a different way. People in California believe that the federal government should not have a say in how they do things, so California has repeatedly voted to allow progressive measure like same sex marriage years before the rest of the country allowed for that. We discussed this because it helps Yun Jung get a better idea of the United States as a whole, as well as give her the opportunity to express her ideas about advanced topics in English. It also helps her understand that the United States is not a monolith, and that even within different states there are many cultures. She told me about taxation culture in South Korea, and I enjoyed it a lot.