Bilingual books advantageous for locals
JAKARTA (JP): As the English language is increasingly emerging as a second language in Indonesia, and there are now many international schools operating in the country, there is likely to be a growing demand on bilingual literature.
Such literature will help Indonesians learn English as well as assisting foreigners improve their Indonesian.
"Although we are an English-speaking school, we do have students studying Bahasa Indonesia for whom the books are of great value," said Paige Summers of North Jakarta International School.
The Balai Pustaka publishing house has brought out 17 bilingual book titles, all of them folk tales from different regions of Indonesia, mainly Java.
"Some of the books still need some revision to suit the English language abilities of elementary students," Elvis Iskandar from the marketing department at Balai Pustaka explained.
"By promoting books that the children can relate to, we believe that English can be introduced in elementary schools more easily," he said.
One of the latest books is Si Bungsu Katak (The Youngest Frog) by Murti Bunanta, founder of Kelompok Pecinta Bacaan Anak (the Society for the Advancement of Children's Literature). The book received the honorary award from the Janusz Korczak International Literature Prize for promoting "literary values of the folk story which teaches us to accept and understand the 'odd and small'," according to the award itself.
Balai Pustaka is planning to continue publishing bilingual books even though the sales are slow. Since June 1998 the company has sold less than 1,000 books, mainly to schools and libraries.
PT Grasindo, which has launched a series of eight books written by Pavan Kapoor, sold a little bit more than this over the past year.
"The product still needs some time to get going, so we are working on new marketing strategies," Subagya, head of the company's marketing division, said.
More publishing companies are planning to follow suit. PT Elex Media Komputindo, for example, is planning to introduce a 15- title series of bilingual folk tale books to the market. (Lena Rosenthal)