Caveat: Who is we?

I was listening to an interview on NPR the other day, with the actress Niecy Nash (who I'm not familiar with, but anyway). This quote made me laugh.

"I had one of my children ask me, when they were younger, 'Mommy, are we rich?' I said, 'Who is we?'"

I think this is a strikingly American attitude that crosses ethnic and class lines, although it is hardly universal. But regardless, it would almost not make sense in a culture like Korea's – I think I would have difficulty successfully explaining the meaning of this quote to my coworkers or students. The "we" of the family takes total primacy over the individual "I," to the extent that one uses the plural possessives exclusively when talking about family (e.g. "our mom" 우리어머니) – a singular possessive (e.g. "my mom") is a grammatical error. 

[daily log: walking, 6km]

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