Boris V. Shekhtman Died

[rdearman]

Boris V. Shekhtman, Who Taught Russian to Journalists and Diplomats, Dies at 77
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/24/world/boris-v-shekhtman-who-taught-russian-to-journalists-and-diplomats-dies-at-77.html

[tommus]

That is sad to hear. I believe his "language islands" is an especially effective learning method. I wish I would spend more time and effort on "islands". I think that a commercial company that developed lots of "language islands" in many of the world's language would make a lot of money. Perhaps we should start a new segment of our Wikia that would be devoted to language islands. People could contribute islands in their native languages and people could translate islands from their L2's into their native language. I'll bet it would be a winner, and would be popular.

[reineke]

That is sad to hear. I believe his "language islands" is an especially effective learning method. I wish I would spend more time and effort on "islands"....

"At the institute and in private practice, Mr. Shekhtman taught his students to distinguish the muscular litany of curse words that they were likely to encounter in Russia, but not how to write Cyrillic.

In his published manuals, including “How to Improve Your Foreign Language Immediately” (2003), he recommended that students give verbose responses, memorize mini-speeches and, when stumped by what they are hearing or reading, find “islands” of familiar phrases that conversationally, as one pupil recalled, produced “the appearance of fluency.”