MSI Press Blog

  Six weeks before a short-term assignment in Indonesia, I dutifully opened Duolingo and began working through the Bahasa Indonesia course. It was slow. Painfully slow. And the sentences — “my cat drinks milk,” “I see the bread on the table” — felt like linguistic postcards from nowhere. I kept wondering when, exactly, I would need to announce the dairy preferences of a hypothetical cat. Still, I persisted. I arrived in Indonesia with a handful of phrases and a vague sense of the language’s rhythm. And then something happened that no app had prepared me for: I needed Indonesian immediately. A small complication at the airport. A hotel check‑in with no English. A first dinner out with my American colleague — at a lovely, inexpensive local restaurant where the staff spoke only Indonesian. A winding walk home through unfamiliar streets. Without Indonesian, we would not have eaten. We would not have found our way back. We would not have been able to function. The next day, as we were b...

  Just sharing another cat from Bandung, Indonesia, who likes to attend classes at a local institute (where I taught for a few weeks). Sweetie , described in an earlier Caturday post, "owned" the buildings down the hill; Handsome owned the building on top of the hill. For more Caturday posts, click  HERE . Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter Follow  MSI Press  on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .   Interested in publishing with MSI Press LLC? Check out information on  how to submit a proposal . Planning on self-publishing and don't know where to start? Our  author au pair  services will mentor you through the process. Interested in receiving a free copy of this or any MSI Press LLC book  in exchange for  reviewing  a current or forthcoming MSI Press LLC book? Contact editor@msipress.com. Want an  author-signed copy  of this book? Purchase the book at 25% discount (use coupon code FF25) and concur...

  Like all cats, Manis (Sweetie) likes her chin rubbed. [with Betty Lou Leaver, Managing Editor, MSI Press] There is something special about cats. They appear and suddenly "own" things and people -- and the people go along with it quite well. Recently arrived in Bandung, Indonesia, one of the first members of the "staff" of the institute where I am doing sone consulting/training work that I met was "Sweetie" or Manis in Bahasa. She comes to classes and sits at the front among the students. (And, though technically feral, she allows handling, true to her name.)  For more Caturday posts, click HERE . Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter Follow  MSI Press  on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .   Interested in publishing with MSI Press LLC? Check out information on  how to submit a proposal . Planning on self-publishing and don't know where to start? Our  author au pair  services will mentor you through the process. Interested...

  Dr. Betty Lou Leaver, Managing Editor of MSI Press, is in Indonesian, helping university lecturers begin their publishing careers. It is just one of the wide variety of activities that one can find MSI Press staff and authors doing. A side benefit for Leaver? Welcoming in Ramadan in Bandung -- standing here beside Jatinangour Hotel's lovely Ramadan display. Ramadan kareem! (Sweet Ramadan) To all who celebrate it, MSI Press wishes you Ramadan mubarak wa kareem. Kul am wa intum behair. For more posts about MSI Press staff in the news, click HERE . Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .   Interested in publishing with MSI Press LLC? Check out information on  how to submit a proposal . Planning on self-publishing and don't know where to start? Our  author au pair  services will mentor you through the process. Interested in receiving a free copy of this or any MSI Press LLC book  in ...