Contributor
Wieke Gur. | Founder
Wieke Gur. founded Bahasa Kita in 2006. Bahasa Kita is a practical learning site that helps people learning and getting to know Indonesian language. Both formal and informal. Bahasa Kita is useful not only for non Indonesian speaking people but also for Indonesian who don’t live in Indonesia and rarely use Indonesian to keep up with new vocabularies. Wieke is responsible for setting the overall direction and strategy for Bahasa Kita.
As a marketing graduate from the Faculty of Economy, University of Indonesia, she attended Institute for International Studies in Shizuoka, Japan before studying Information Management at the Curtin Univeristy, Australia. She wrote international and national award winning lyrics between 1985 - 1995. She was born on July 20, 1963 and currently resides in Perth, Australia with her husband and three children.
Dr. Ulrich (Uli) Kozok | Indonesian and Malay Language Specialist
Born in Hildesheim, Niedersachsen, Germany, on May 26, 1959, Uli Kozok was a lecturer at the University of Auckland in 1994-2001 before he became associate professor at the Department of Hawaiian and Indo-Pacific Languages and Literature at the University of Hawaii in Manoa. Kozok, who speaks German, English, Dutch, Indonesian and Batak fluently, obtained his master’s degree in 1989 and his PhD (Magna cum laude) in 1994 from the University of Hamburg. His thesis was on the Batak language. He married a Batak Karo woman and has two children. He now lives in Auckland, New Zealand.
Kozok’s three books on the Batak language, written in Indonesian, were published in Indonesia in 1999 and 2005. His upcoming book: Aku Anak Siapa: Potret Anak Jalanan di Yogyakarta is based on interviews with street children by Juliani Wahjana (Radio Nederland).
Iem Brown | Lecturer/Writer
Iem Brown has many years of experience in teaching Indonesian language at the tertiary level in Australia: James Cook University; University of Queensland; Griffith University, University of Tasmania, Flinders University and The University of Adelaide. She now lives in Perth, and is now an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Faculty of Humanities, Curtin University.
She has translated Mohammad Hatta memoirs (1981) and in collaboration with Joan Davis, has translated some Indonesian Poetry “Di Serambi - On the Verandah” (1995). She has written a number of research papers on Buddhism in Indonesia. She conducts Indonesian Conversation Club regularly in Perth, Western Australia and contributes a great deal of material for this website.
Kafi Kurnia | Marketing Guru/Writer
Born in Jakarta 24 May 1960, Kafi Kurnia began his career in 1986 with the Hero Group, Indonesian leading food retailers and processors, as a Management Trainee. In 1990, he founded Peka Consult Inc., a Marketing Consultant company. He is also the Managing Director for Interbrand in Indonesia, a brand consultant company - part of Omnicom Group in USA.
As an accomplished columnist, numerous media work with him as an analyst on many issues of retail and marketing affairs in Indonesia. His collections of article in “Jakarta-Jakarta” and GATRA Magazine have been published into 4 best seller books. He also serves as a Guest Lecturer at many universities and private institutions. His radio talk show, “INTRIK”, the largest syndicated radio show in Indonesia, broadcast live to 31 major cities around Indonesia.
Zara Zettira ZR | Writer
Zara Zettira ZR was born in Jakarta 5 August 1969. She studied Psychology at the University of Indonesia. Started her career as a beauty pageant, model and writer at the age of 15, but finally decided to be a writer. Translated 3 tittles of total approximately 50 books of teenage stories such as Sweet Valley Highs, Girl Talks from English to Indonesian.She has written over 20 novels, 50 titles of TV soap operas on aired on major 5 TV stations in Indonesia, and 5 big screen movies as well as writing and translating many articles, short stories and essays in Indonesian’s news papers and magazines.
She had been living in a country side of Ontario, Canada since 1999 with her husband and two children of 13 and 7 years old. In 2008 she wrote her first book in English, “Every Silence Has a Story” now available at www.lulu.com
Andra Ramadhan Muluk | Astrologer/Writer/Speaker
A practitioner of astrology, Andra was born on May 6th, 1955, and graduated from the University of Indonesia, majoring in Criminology Social Science. His interest in the influence of moon to the crime behavior lead him to study the influence of moon and other planets to past, present and future events experienced on a human scale, and became an expert in it.
He is a guest and host astrologer in some television and radio programs like TPI, J-TV, Radio Pesona FM 103.8, and in some tabloids and newspapers. He is also a speaker in astrology seminars. His other hobbies are music and singing. He was one of the PSP(Pancaran SInar Petromaks) members, a comedy dangdut music group who were really famous back in the end of 70’s and 80’s.
Yani Prasatya | Accountant/HR Consultant/Writer
Born in Jakarta, July 22, 1963. She has been crisscrossing her career between HR consultant and Accountant. She studied accounting in the University of Indonesia and earned her MBA from the University of Adelaide, Australia. As a teenager, she wrote short stories for and won some awards from Gadis, Femina and several others youth publications. She also wrote some articles for the Jakarta Post.
Currently she resides in Calgary, Canada with her husband and three children aged 15, and 7 (twins). She is a newspaper junkie, reads most of what’s in the newspaper except sports, and yes, including obituary. As a member of Kompas Readers’ Forum, in 2005 she was chosen as one of the best members in terms of providing feedback/critiques to Kompas. She loves to read books especially books related to women issues.
Bagas D. Bawono | Architect/Writer
Born in Surabaya 14 July 1966, Bagas is a young Modernist Architect. He finished his study at Gadjah Mada University in 1990 as the youngest graduate of his class who finished first with the highest mark. He established his own architect firm, Bagas & Associates in 1997. He lives in Jakarta with his wife and 3 children age 16, 13 and 11.
As a writer he has written many poems, short stories as well as articles for local papers in Yogyakarta. He produces some of the materials for ‘Indonesian Slang’ columns for this website. He loves to spend his spare time karaoke singing or doing painting and photography. Some of his pictures are also displayed in this website.
Nina Muriza | Music Teacher/Blogger
Born in Jakarta on October 7, 1962, Nina - a mother of 3 children - comes from a musical family. She began piano/electone lessons at the age of 10. She then continued her Electone Performance Degree at Yamaha Music School in Tokyo, Japan. For 20 years Nina took on the roles of music teacher as an Electone Organ Instructor for adults and children at many Yamaha Music Schools in Jakarta, Indonesia.
As a a graduate of Japanese Literature at the University of Indonesia, Nina understands very well that throughout history, human needs have affected their behavior, how they lived, and how their languages developed. She didn’t know she can write until she started her own blog. She is very happy to share her knowledge on Indonesian slang words on this website.