book

This week I began teaching at two senior high schools in Jakarta.  I teach Biology, of course.  I’m excited by the thoughts of what my students and I can do to help them with their goals.

Other than teaching, I’m editing a very wonderful book called The Gifted Kids Survival Guide: A Teen Handbook by Judy Galbraith and Jim Delisle.  Oh, if only this book was available in Indonesia when I was a child or a teen…

You can find my reviews on Osamu Tezuka’s Buddha and Kanno Aya’s Otomen in this month’s issue of Animonster (volume 101).  While next month, you are bound to read my report on the discussion held by Japan Foundation and KPG (called Buddha: Religion and Comic) and my review on Shiomi Chika’s Yurara no Tsuki and Rasetsu no Hana.

 Well then folks, your comments and opinions are always welcome :)

Today I received some proof copies from KPG. The first one is of Jared Diamond’s Why Is Sex Fun? (the result of a teamwork and a lot of editing, I bet). The book actually has been published sometime before. And also… of Larry Gonick’s History of the Modern World I (published here in Indonesia under the title ‘Kartun Riwayat Peradaban Modern Jilid I’, not ‘Kartun Riwayat Peradaban Jilid IV’ like I mentioned before).

I really enjoyed working on Gonick’s book, and although my editor naturally edited my translation here and there to make it even more funny, lively, and correct, I’m glad that some of the jokes I translated were accepted. Well, you can’t find a perfect translation for ‘It’s heretic clobbering time!’, bless The Thing, but there are jokes that can be adapted, such as:

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Two books that I translated are now on sale, both on Erlangga. One is under the Perti line while the other is under EFK.

The first one is Schaum’s Outlines: Biology, 2nd edition, by George H. Fried and George J. Hademenos. It is a book aimed to help students who take classes such as Biology 101 learning the concepts of biology, but it can also be used as a text book of the field.

The other book is the second part of The Giant Encyclopedia of Transition Activities. The original book is only in one volume, but due to its thickness, EFK has decided to split the book into two parts. The first part, Aktivitas Pintar Pengisi Waktu, has been published earlier; the second part is titled Permainan Kreatif Pengisi Waktu Luang in Indonesia. Both are books for parents and teachers of children 3-6 years old. Don’t think that it’s easy translating this kind of books. It’s frustrating to translate songs so that they can still be sung in the same tone without losing its intended meaning. Oh yes, it’s frigging hard, we finally got a consultant on the songs.

What other news? Hmmm… I’m working on some comics, soon to be appear here. One is a personal project, while the other is a project with my friend Vanessa. And next month, I’m scheduled to be one of the speakers in a discussion about Osamu Tezuka’s Buddha. I’ll keep you updated about this.