Bill Belew has raised 2 bi-cultural kids, now 34 and 30. And he and his wife are now parenting a 3rd, Mia, who is 8.

I live in Silicon Valley, near San Jose. (Yes, we know the way. Daddy always makes me say that. I don’t know why.)

There are a lot of Asians in Silicon Valley.

Indians might be the largest group. Chinese are the second largest. There are a lot of Chinese Americans. I am one of them.

Naturally I am interested in Silicon Valley. So, from time to time I will tell you some things I know or have learned from my daddy. He gets invited to go on cruise ships to speak about these things.

Here’s a quiz for you.

Which of these 11 inventions happened in Silicon Valley?

1. Transistor
2. Integrated circuit
3. PC
4. Internet
5. WWW
6. Browser
7. Biotech
8. Greentech
9. Social Networks
10. Smartphone
11. Search Engine

The answer is …

Famous Companies in Silicon Valley

none of them.

Where were these 11 inventions created?

1. Transistor – France
2. Integrated circuit – Germany/Britain
3. PC – Germany
4. Internet – UK
5. WWW – France
6. Browser – France
7. Biotech – Who knows?
8. Greentech – Who knows?
9. Social Networks – 1800s
10. Smartphone – Sweden
11. Search Engine – Montreal

There probably are things that were invented in Silicon Valley – Twitter, Pinterest – but generally people bring their good ideas to the Valley and that’s where they take off.

It’s called catching a cold. (Ed. going viral).

Silicon Valley is a great place to grow up … and not just for Chinese-Americans.
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Talk to Bill and others about their experiences raising bi-cultural Japanese-American kids.