Kristine K. Kershul is an American author, publisher, linguist and teacher. Kershul founded Bilingual Books, Inc. in 1981 with the publication of her first book, German in 10 Minutes a Day and the development of the 10 Minutes a Day Series.[1][3] She has authored books, audio, phrase guides and interactive computer software for 20 languages.
Background
Kershul attributes her lifelong passion for languages to her family.[2][4] She grew up in a trilingual home[3][5] where in addition to English, her father spoke Croatian and her mother spoke Danish.[1][2]
Kershul worked her way through school as a bilingual tour guide, traveling all over Europe and parts of Asia and Africa.[3][4][5]
She also served as a translator for the U.S. Embassy in Bonn, West Germany and for Berlitz in Europe and the U.S.[6]
She spent ten years teaching at universities in Germany and the U.S. where she noticed students experiencing the same problems. They were self-conscious speaking and Kershul wanted to help them progress to the level where they were laughing and using the language comfortably.[2]
The idea for her first book grew out of what she observed as a teacher and a traveler.[3][4][5]
Bilingual Books, 1981 - 1988 and 1995 - Present
Kershul saw the need for a language instruction method that would not intimidate or frustrate beginning students.[6] She wanted to fill the gap between text books and traditional phrase books. She developed a fresh approach to learning a foreign language, which remained academically solid while geared to the traveler.[1][2][4][7]
In 1981 she designed and wrote her first book, German in 10 Minutes a Day, which was the beginning of a series of language-learning books that launched Bilingual Books, Inc.[6] By the end of the first ten months, Kershul had authored a total of five books, adding French, Spanish, Italian and Chinese to create the 10 Minutes a Day Series.[3] In the next three years, she would add Inglés, Norwegian, Japanese, Russian and Hebrew languages to the Series.[6]
In 1988 Kershul sold her company to Sunset Books and Magazine. She moved to Cape Town, South Africa and spent the next six years traveling around the world.[1]
In 1995, Kershul reacquired Bilingual Books and moved back to the Pacific Northwest to base the company out of Seattle, Washington.[1] In the following years, she expanded the breadth of languages to 20 and added new product lines with the creation of the Language Map Series, the 10 Minutes a Day Audio Series, and the 10 Minutes a Day software.[8]
