Wireless Flash: AMERICAN TEACHING ‘BLACK HIP-HOP SLANG’ TO JAPANESE STUDENTS

Thu 01-14-99 10:20 am

AMERICAN TEACHING ‘BLACK HIP-HOP SLANG’ TO JAPANESE STUDENTS

TOKYO, Japan (Wireless Flash) – The real “gangsta’s paradise” might just be in Tokyo, not South Central Los Angeles.

An American transplant named Naomi Marie Wells is making big bucks teaching what she calls “black slang” to eager Japanese students who want to sound like Coolio and Ice-T.

Wells created her Tokyo-based Street Talk Language School after she went nuts listening to Japanese rap fans using slang like “homey,” “dope” and “da bomb” without even knowing what they were saying.

Her “Hiroshima homies” pay about $35 an hour to learn the latest rap words from Compton. Some students take the classes just to sound “jiggy” but others hope to work as translators for rap artists who tour Japan.

Wells’ street talk school isn’t just limited to rap slang. She also teaches a class for Japanese who want to learn American curse words and another course on how to sound like an Australian surfer.