Academics

I've become quite the academic lately. Well... quite the academic proofreader, that is.

1. It all started when a friend from my church had to present his research at an international conference. It all had to be in English. His research was in Indonesian. So he translated his entire paper (20+ pages) into English and had me proofread it before he presented it.

2. Then that same friend wrote a dissertation proposal. It was only about 10 pages. But I proofread that for him as well. On a train, in fact. I proofread it on a train.

3. Then another friend had to WRITE a proposal for a PhD level research project. He had no idea what to write about, but it had to relate tourism, gender issues, and social media. Together, we came up with an idea and wrote the proposal from scratch.

4. That proposal got rejected by the committee because apparently, it really had nothing to do with gender issues. It was supposed to be about tourism and batik making. I don't know how those wires got so crossed. So he is currently re-writing that proposal, and I'll proofread it when he has it finished.

5. Yet another friend messaged me just today from Australia, where he is currently working on earning his PhD. He has a chapter of his dissertation nearly finished, and he has to submit it on Tuesday. He asked if I'd proofread the chapter over the weekend. I said sure.

Things I have learned from all this.

1. My friends who basically never speak English to me are actually QUITE FLUENT IN ENGLISH.

2. I should basically have a PhD of my own by now.

3. I never want to get my PhD because it is WAY too much writing.

4. Enough higher education type things are conducted in English here that I'm pretty sure I could make a living off of it.