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 know one word in every language in the world.

My daddy taught me.

Baikin Man

My daddy is pretty smart, I think. I mean my mommy calls him smart alex (Ed: aleck) all the time.

He has been to a bunch of places. On all sides of the big blue ball. He speaks Japanese – “ha hi hu he ho!” – like Baikin Man, and Chinese and Russian, and he learned Greek and Hebrew at university and German in high school and even speaks English sometimes.

The big blue ball

So I guess he knows stuff about how to stay stuff.

He taught me a word that everybody everywhere can understand. And I practice it sometimes, too. And it works with my friends at pre-school who are Chinese, Korean, German, Spanish and, and I am sure there are more places but I am lucky I know that many for now.

The word?

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“Waaaahhhh!!!!!”

“It’s the same everywhere,” says my daddy. When people cry they all sound the same.

Oh, and smiles are you knee purses, too! (Ed: universal) I practice them a lot as well.

I can tell you a 3-year old’s secret. Both cries and smiles will get you kisses. But the smiley kisses taste better.

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