MSI Press Blog

  Although Boris Shekhtman died several years ago, the sales of his book, How to Improve Your Foreign Language Immediately , continue to top MSI Press LLC charts. One reason for this may be that the book reflects his extraordinarily effective teaching methods, as attested to by journalists, diplomats, and others.  In testimony to Boris, upon his death, NYT journalist, Sam Roberts, who studied with him, wrote a highly insightful column about Boris and his methods -- and one that is enjoyable to read. An oldie but goodie. Here is an excerpt: “The first time I met Boris he didn’t talk at all about language,” Lucian Pugliaresi, a former National Security Council official in the Reagan administration, told The New York Times in 2001. “He talked about power relationships and fascinated me instantly. He said, ‘When you don’t speak the language over there, you have no power.’” Mr. Shekhtman’s methods were intended for everyday face-to-face exchanges — like “two guys on a park bench,” as Strobe

Photo by Frank Perez It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's topic continues the discussion from the last two weeks about that lure for every first-time author: the  New York Times  Bestseller List. We talked about the need to sell 5000-10000 books each and every week you want your book to appear on the list, with the understanding that this is not a count of total books sold but an algorithmic approach, using sampling from stores that NYT considers representative of the whole (right or wrong) and might require the number of books sold as a whole to be greater in order to have enough hit the right sampling venues. We talked about the difficulty of doi

  (photo by Frank Perez) It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's topic continues the discussion from last week about that lure for every first-time author: the  New York Times  Bestseller List. Last week, we talked about the need to sell 5000-10000 books each and every week you want your book to appear on the list, with the understanding that this is not a count of total books sold but an algorithmic approach, using sampling from stores that NYT considers representative of the whole (right or wrong) and might require the number of books sold as a whole to be greater in order to have enough hit the right sampling venues. The traditional and honest way

  (photo by Frank Perez) It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's topic is about that lure for every first-time author: the New York Times Bestseller List. Every author wants to know how to make it there. Plotting a place on the list is a complicated matter. To wit, Your book needs to sell 5,000-10,000 copies a week to make the list. Some considerations include  Not every book sale counts, so you would need to exceed that number. A calculation is made by surveying selected bookstores, with an emphasis on independent bookstores, and extrapolating overall sales for that. As such, Tucker Max considers every bestseller list a lie . Large sales through onl

  Boris Shekhtman has been considered a national authority on teaching students to use foreign languages effectively in communication with native speakers. He has developed a unique set of tools designed to enhance an individual’s communication in a foreign language environment, which he describes in  How to Improve Your Foreign Language Immediately . Boris Shekhtman presented his communication rules at numerous seminars for a number of U.S. Government agencies including the Library of Congress, the Department of State, the Department of Defense, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Agriculture and Air Force. His clients included correspondents of major news organizations such as ABC News, CBS News, BBC, NBC News, New York Times , Washington Post , Los Angeles Times , Chicago Tribune , Time Magazine , and Associated Press. The content of the seminars is well described in his books. The most popular of them are:  Developing

  We regret to announce that on March 18, 2017, Boris Shekhtman passed into eternal rest after a long battle with cancer. His colleague and friend, Natalia Lord, wrote the following commentary on his obituary page: I have known Boris since 1982 as a colleague and friend. He was a genuine trailblazer in foreign language teaching, caring not only about what bits of language his students had acquired, but also focusing on how to help them effectively use their language in face t o face communication with native speakers. His belief that an instructor is responsible a student's proficiency, spurred him to come up with his Rules of Communication and eventually his own method of teaching. He continued to learn from his student's challenges and pass along the findings to the broader foreign language teaching community through his writings. The full significance of his contribution to the field probably won't be understood for quite some time because he was so far ahead of most of