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People take part in a great variety of social situations in which they hear conversations and face people or cultural objects that seem unknown to them. Whether these situations are formally educational or not, people can still engage in ways of developing new knowledge and using knowledge they have gained elsewhere. A case study, based on a sociocultural approach to educational dynamics, contributes to examining the cultural elements that a person encounters in various situations and the uses s/he makes of them. The consequences of these uses in terms of identity modifications, knowledge building, and “sense making” are shown. The social conditions of such uses are also discussed, with particular emphasis on the recognition dynamics in which they are set.