These are geared towards the adult learner, however I found them really nice if I want to learn a language myself and converse with kids to make them bilingual, since they focus mainly on conversation and everyday....
Bilingual books
http://www.bbks.com/I reviewed two languages; Arabic in 10 minutes a day
http://www.bbks.com/languages/arabic.aspxand Chinese in 10 minutes a day.
http://www.bbks.com/languages/chinese.aspxArabic is my native language so I can judge how useful it is as an outsider and I don't have the first clue about Chinese so I can judge how it was for me as a learning method.
They both are 132 page colored workbooks with an included CD. The concept is that 10 minutes a day will teach you how to speak the basics of the language for the main purpose of travelling or anything else where you need the communication and understanding basics but not in depth language education. Even so, they contain massive amounts of new info that will sure make you a conversation-pro if you follow through! They start with the alphabet letter sounds then follow on to the most used vocabulary in everyday terms and surroundings.
The workbooks are pretty interesting and keep the reader engaged, with extra techniques such as removable stick-on labels that you should stick on objects throughout the house. For example an Arabic sticker on the book would say كتاب so these words eventually stick!
Also, there are flashcards to review words on the go and crosswords and word games throughout to keep you engaged and challenged.
The CDs have perfect pronunciation judging by the Arabic one of course, since I have no clue about the right Chinese pronunciation of course!
The only problems I had with them were:
The Chinese book:
The I didn't like was the lack of Chinese writing, I would have loved the book to have the words in both phonetic Chinese and written Chinese because if I travel to China or try to read Chinese packaging, I obviously need to know the written Chinese too not just the conversational.
The Arabic book:
The book concentrates on the classic written Arabic, which assumedly all Arabic speaking people understand. But usually in conversation, there are many many dialects to Arabic depending on where you are. Egyptian Arabic is different from Lebanese Arabic, while they are both scores different from Algerian Arabic for example. The words themselves that are used in everyday speech are usually colloquial not classic. So if you didn't pick up perfect pronunciation from the CDs, you won't probably have such an easy time communicating with people even if you've gone through the book. If your pronunciation is good on the other hand, most people would understand you well
It would be more beneficial if you know exactly where you are going to grab something about that country's conversational language specifically. That said, this book is excellent for reading Arabic and reading signs, menus etc.. wherever you go because at least that's the same!
I would have loved to see excerpts on the website for people to see what's inside the books as well.
Other than that, these books are excellent, entertaining and might just be the alternative solution to boring traditional language learning!
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