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. She has authored books, audio CDs, phrase guides and interactive computer software for 20 languages.

Background

Kershul attributes her lifelong passion for languages to her family. She grew up in a trilingual home on the Oregon Coast where in addition to English, her father spoke Croatian and her mother spoke Danish.

Kershul studied in the U.S., then took her academic endeavors to Heidelberg, Germany where she earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees. She received a second graduate degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara and then went on to do her doctoral studies in German Languages and Literature.

Early Career

Kershul worked her way through school as a bilingual tour guide, traveling all over Europe and parts of Asia and Africa. She also served as a translator for the U.S. Embassy in Bonn, West Germany and for Berlitz in Europe and the U.S.

She spent ten years teaching at universities in Germany and the U.S. where she noticed students experiencing the same problems. Most students were self-conscious speaking a foreign language and Kershul wanted to help them progress to the level where they were laughing and using the language comfortably.

The idea for her first book grew out of what she observed as a teacher and a traveler.

Bilingual Books

Kershul saw the need for a language instruction method that would not intimidate or frustrate beginning students. She wanted to fill the gap between textbooks and traditional phrase books. She developed a fresh approach to learning a foreign language, which remained academically solid while geared to the traveler.

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. 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. In the next three years, she would add Inglés, Norwegian, Japanese, Russian and Hebrew languages to the Series, followed by Arabic and Portuguese.

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 the globe.

In 1995, Kershul reacquired Bilingual Books and moved back to the Pacific Northwest to base the company out of Seattle, Washington. 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 CD Series, and the 10 minutes a day® Software.