Event

Celebration of Multiethnic Cultural Capital of Adolescent 'Half' Girls in Japan

Sunday, September 24th, 2006, 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM

Speaker: Laurel Kamada

This presentation examines the ethnic identities of a network of six Japanese-Caucasian early-adolescent girlfriends, who were born and raised in Japan, by analyzing their talk within group discussions. The girls, who are all in the same grade at different schools and who consider each other to be "best friends", have been associated through their foreign parents' network of friends and associations since preschool. Spread over a geographically broad community, all of these girls attend Japanese schools, which socialize and enculture them in Japanese history, customs, mores, language, and thought parallel to their Japanese peers as opposed to multiethnic children who attend international or immersion schools in Japan. This presentation attempts to answer the research question of if these girls discursively (through their talk) celebrate their ethnicity; and if so how? This paper reveals that while they work to re-position themselves away from ethnic discourses of powerlessness, simultaneously, they create and celebrate their multi-ethnic cultural, linguistic, symbolic and social capital within alternative discourses of empowerment. The types of capital resources which these girls create for themselves here include: bilingualism, biliteracy, access to greater choices, multiethnic girl-friendships, intercultural savvy and ethnic embodied capital at the site of the body. The audience will be encouraged to ask questions and share their own stories.

Organization: Iwate-Aomori Chapter of the Japan Association for Language Teaching (Iwate-Aomori JALT)

Cost: JALT Members: free
Non-members: 1000 yen

Venue: Mary's English Talk, 2-9-65 Kuroishino, Morioka; 019-663-3132

Location: Morioka City, Iwate Prefecture, Japan

Contact Iwate-Aomori JALT

Mary Burkitt

Work phone: 019-663-3132

Jason Hill