I’ve been struggling with that myself for the past decade. As a college student, I found out my mother’s mother was Jewish. Her parents were second generation Romanian/German and Russian Jews. They assimilated fully – to such a degree that I didn’t know about my Jewish background until I was 20….yep, 20.

I am in the 4th generation – and like some of my peers identifying myself as an American, but also relishing the diversity of my heritage is very important to me. Provide your daughter an outlet to experience her Korean heritage in and you will find your connection to that heritage as well.

Last piece, my mom, to this day, repeatedly notes that my friends growing up were ‘so diverse’. I’ve always been like ‘uh, okay’. Her sentiments have never resonated with me – and it is entirely because I always saw all of my friends as American (except for one German).

We had far more in common than what we didn’t. Yes, we all looked different. Yes, we came from different faith and cultural traditions – but we all played atari, liked movies, tv, music and toys AND frankly were raised in an environment where we were explicitly told that those later materialistic things mattered a hell of a lot more than faith, culture, or race.

I can’t believe I’m saying it now – but materialistic consumerism actually did some good in my life.