MSI Press Blog

  University Spanish Classes After the 7 th grade self-taught experience, it was quite some time before I would take actual classes. In the interim, my Latin and French classes kept my Spanish going in a way, given their being members of the same language family: similar grammatical structure, similar lexical derivation. It was only at the university that I picked up courses in Spanish. Since I had a full plate of French, German, and Russian, Spanish did not fit easily into my schedule, so I asked one of the Spanish instructors if I could officially audit her class, and she agreed. Because I already knew some Spanish, it was decided that I should audit intermediate Spanish. I did two courses this way, which, had I taken them for credit, I would have finished the two-year language requirement (a requirement I quite overfulfilled in my college days). The teacher liked having me in class, let me participate with everyone else, take the test, and do the assignments. She was as met...

  Spanish House I didn’t live in Spanish House; I lived in German House. They were located, however, just two floors apart in my Penn State dorm. French House was there, too. So, it should not have been surprising that we would all run into each other many times. For me, it was fun. I could speak French to my friends in French House, Spanish to my friends in Spanish House, and German to my friends in German House, which was where I spent most of my time and most of my talking. My roommate Brigitte, a native speaker from Koeln, Germany, had a very close friend, Patrice, who lived in Spanish House. They had become friends at the Mount Alto campus prior to moving to the main campus in State College their junior year. It was a given that Patrice and I would become friends, too—a three-some. Brigitte was dating a young man who lived in the same apartment as Patrice’s boyfriend, all of them friends from Mount Alto. So, again, it should not have been surprising that they invited me ...

`      Rob Asby, the "Spanish Obsessed," talks about how to improve Spanish proficiency and draws from How to Improve Your Foreign Language Immediately by MSI Press author, Boris Shekhtman, n this article . Rob says: How is your spoken Spanish? If you’re anything like me, it depends on what day you ask the question. Some days my spoken Spanish is flowing and accurate (or at least, it feels like it), other days I stumble apologetically over every sentence. Over time, however, I’ve learned what it takes to have more good days than bad, and in this post I’ll share what’s worked for me. This post focuses on the “performance” side of speaking, dealing with the psychological blocks to achieving fluency. If you feel that you struggle with fluency, and are frustrated with your spoken Spanish, you’ll find the tips in this post helpful. Read more HERE . Read posts about How to Improve Your Foreign Language Immediately here .              ...

  The story behind Dia de Muertos is pretty simpe, really. Sula, the parish cat at Old Mission San Juan Bautist a, already had published five books about the Mission and about Catholic customs and beliefs, all of them in English. The parish, however, was pretty equally divided between English speakers and Spanish speakers with two Masses each Sunday in each language and holiday and holy day Masses bilingual. (The community of San Juan Bautista is a pretty evenly divided bilingual community, as well.) Sula, the parish cat, was present at all Masses. She was beloved by all parishioners. The "Sula books" were written to help raise funds for a very expensive retrofit requirement. (The church sits atop the intersection of three major fault lines and has twice fallen from earthquakes high on the Richter scale). Although most Spanish speakers in the parish could understand English, they felt left out of the Sula project. They wanted a book that spoke to their community in their lan...

We have a few Spanish-language books and two authors, very different from each other, who write in Spanish. First, meet psychologist Fernando Ustman . Fernando focuses on transpersonal psychology; his works intersect with psychology, philosophy, spirituality, and the eternal.  His works include the books below: Read about this book HERE . Read about this book HERE . Read about this book HERE . Read more about Fernando and his books HERE . Now, meet Sula, Parish Cat at Old Mission San Juan Bautista (Gata parriquial). Sula has published six books so far on theological topics that touch on the everyday lived experiences of Catholics and others. She has one book in Spanish, with a second one, about Catholic (Franciscan) prayers planned. Here is her Spanish-language book: Read about this book HERE . Read more about Sula and her books HERE . (Yes, when the prayer book comes out, it will automatically link here.)

  For many language learners, translation is the default bridge between unfamiliar words and understanding. But for me, translation has never been the path—I bypass it entirely. I do not translate. I comprehend directly, or I don’t comprehend at all. And when I don’t, I approach the text as I would an esoteric passage in English: through context, inference, and inquiry—not through conversion into my native tongue. This isn’t a philosophical stance—it’s a practical necessity. With over twenty languages floating around in my head, reaching for a specific one to serve as a translation anchor is not just inefficient—it’s cognitively disruptive. The languages don’t line up neatly. They swirl, overlap, and sometimes compete. In multilingual settings, English is often absent altogether. I’ve been in situations where I’ve acted as a go-between—not from English to another language, but between two foreign languages. These aren’t rare occurrences; they’re woven into the fabric of my prof...