Robert James Masters

Brief bio of author Robert James Masters

EASIEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE SERIES

Do you think it is difficult to learn a foreign language?

Language expert Robert James Masters believes that traditional approaches to learning foreign languages are too difficult and discouraging for students.

Learning a foreign language is never EASY, but some foreign languages are EASIER than others, and languages with many words like English are EASIEST for English-speakers.

As an author he developed the easiest way to begin ten foreign languages as the Easiest Foreign Language series of books - under the titles Easiest Italian, Easiest French, Easiest Spanish - featuring words related to English. Nothing else is easier!

He also created the website easiest-foreign-languages.com to help more people begin foreign languages the easiest way.

That website reveals that you and everyone else can read some sentences in ten languages immediately, because so many foreign words are related to English.

ROGET'S II, THE NEW THESAURUS

Have you found it difficult to use a thesaurus to choose the best word for what you want to say?

While teaching he found that existing thesauruses are problematic for young students to use efficiently.

He started to work on a new type of thesaurus on his own time and at his own expense and continued for many years before any publisher involvement because he believed it needed to be done and would be a cultural contribution.

Then he wrote a 150-page book proposal for this new type of improved thesaurus, which his literary agents sold to the publishers of the American Heritage Dictionary.

In his initial interview with the dictionary staff, they asked: "Who are you? What are you doing writing a thesaurus? Nobody writes dictionaries anymore!" Meaning it is no longer done by individuals like Noah Webster and Samuel Johnson and Roget as it was 100-200 years ago, but nowadays by full-time dictionary staffs. On a humorous note, they added, "Where are you from?" When he replied the Midwest, they said, "That explains it. If you were from either coast, you would have known it couldn't be done."

These editors also said that of all the proposals for new reference books they had seen, his idea was the only original one and the first worth publishing.

Subsequently he was the consultant for the development of this new type of thesaurus, and worked with the American Heritage dictionary staff in Boston for four months laying the groundwork for compiling this new thesaurus, which took them another year. The resulting book, Roget's II The New Thesaurus, is a combination of his original ideas and their more traditional ones.

BACKGROUND

Robert Masters went to college at Northwestern University in Chicago as an English major on full scholarship, and also has a Master's degree from Northwestern. Instead of continuing toward a PhD, he was advised by a college professor to go adventuring instead, which he has done ever since.

After college as part of a job application at a large advertising agency, Foote Cone and Belding, he was given a four-hour test to measure "applied creativity". The results said he scored the highest of anyone who had ever taken the test - so he got the job.

Since then he has been a serial entrepreneur with various independent projects, including the Easiest Foreign Language Series of books with its related website, and Roget's II The New Thesaurus.

He has had a contract to develop a new type of Writing Dictionary for Random House, until that publisher was sold.

He has created a computerized Word Choice Checker that automatically suggests better words as you write, a project in continuing development.

He created the website must-see-movies.net which features five-star documentaries and docudramas containing important information you need to know that could affect your life - check it out.

He also developed some of the first experimental houses constructed of polyurethane foam sprayed on inflatable curvilinear forms. He built one as his home in Aspen Colorado, and then two of them to be show houses open to the public as Xanadu, House of the Future, in Wisconsin and Florida.

All of these diverse projects he has undertaken because he saw them as things that needed to be done, and should be done by someone, for people's benefit as a contribution to society.

Most of these large projects he accomplished virtually single-handedly without funding initially, and without any staff due to budget constraints.

He also is an editor, notably for the book Loyalty on Trial by Erik V. Wolter.

To continue developing the Easiest Foreign Language series, he travels to various countries in Europe as much as possible.

After college he has pursued serious writing projects while choosing to live in resort areas where the focus is on enjoying life with other happy people, rather than slaving away at merely making money.

He lived in Aspen Colorado for ten years, where he was a ski instructor and owned the restaurant Little Nell's at the base of Aspen Mountain.

He also had the first river rafting company in Colorado, and he "bought a town" located on maps as State Bridge Colorado to turn into a rafting resort on the Colorado River. He has guided on many raft trips through the 275 miles of the Grand Canyon.

After Aspen, he has been writing more books while living happily ever after on the island of Maui Hawaii.