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.

When I heard this I laughed so hard I wonder how my daddy was able to give his presentation because I know that my daddy laughed, too.

The assistant’s name to his session at the Hospital Management Asia conference is Shampoo! Daddy is in Bangkok teaching hospital managers about marketing with social media.

HMA Assistant Shampoo

That’s what daddy does. Teach.

And do Social Media Marketing.

The little girl showed up to help me. When I looked at her name it said “‘Shampoo.'”

“Shampoo?”

“Yes, that’s my name.”

“Is that your real name?”

“No.”

“What’s your real name?”

“It’s Ji Ddddlllrrraa Na Lin.”

“Huh?”

The first, third and fourth syllable were easy enough to say. The second part starts off like a ‘D” then changes to an “L” and the “R” rolls and you add a short “A” as in father.

Daddy tried it. And don’t you know? He could do it!

That’s my daddy. I think he can do things like that with his mouth because he has lived in so many countries and can speak so many different languages.

My name is Mia Mei. Me, then”A” like in I see a dog. And Mei like in May the month.

You don’t need to live in a bunch of countries and speak a bunch of languages to say my name.

But kids who grow up learning two languages have more sensitive ears and softer tongues I think. Do you agree?

Repeat after me … dddllllrrraaa … dddlllrrraaa … I think I need to move to Thailand for a while.

Talk to Bill and others about their experiences raising bi-cultural Japanese-American kids.