Some people seem to have a knack for turning their hand to anything that comes along and, moreover, making a success of it. This is certainly the case with Hiroshima-based Adam Beck. Over the years, the American has been a children's theater director, an English teacher, a newspaper columnist and the co-founder of an arts-themed NPO to benefit young people.
For Beck, recognition and financial success have always been less important than getting his message across to his audience in an authentic way, regardless of the medium involved. Currently he divides his time between editing and translating for the Hiroshima Peace Media Center and running his popular Bilingual Monkeys website, which supports families raising their children in two languages.
While it seems hard to believe now, Beck readily admits that he spent a restless youth. He grew up in Quincy, Illinois, just a short drive across the Missouri state line from Hannibal, the hometown of iconic writer Mark Twain.