Bilingual Books
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| Industry | Foreign Language Learning Publishing |
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| Founded | 1981 |
| Headquarters | Seattle, Washington |
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Key people
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Kristine K. Kershul, founder |
| Products | Computer Software, Books Audio Programs, Phrase Guides 10 minutes a day Books Series 10 minutes a day AUDIO CD Series Language Map Series 20 languages: Arabic, Chinese, Dari, Farsi (Persian), French, German, Greek, Hawaiian, Hebrew, Inglés, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Pashto, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, Vietnamese |
| Website | www |
Bilingual Books, Inc. is a privately held publishing company that develops foreign language learning products. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, the company publishes interactive computer software, books, audio programs and phrase guides for 20 different languages.
Bilingual Books, Inc. was founded in 1981 by Kristine K. Kershul, a language scholar and teacher planning a career in academia and working towards a doctorate in Medieval German Languages and Literature. While teaching at the university level, she observed that the majority of her students were learning a foreign language for personal reasons such as an upcoming trip abroad, researching family history, or dating someone who spoke the language. Seeing that the traditional academic methods, designed for those majoring in the language, were not best suited to help her students achieve their goals she decided to develop a way to learn, in a short amount of time, practical and relevant conversation skills they could use.
Kershul authored her first book, German in 10 Minutes a Day, with the intention to return to her academic career, but the success of the publication became the catalyst for more books in other languages and within a year, the Seattle company began worldwide distribution with five titles, adding French, Italian, Spanish and Chinese.
The company was sold to Sunset Books and Magazine in 1988 and seven years later, in 1995, Kershul reacquired it.
In 1999, the first Language Maps were published in Spanish, French, German and Italian, as an alternative to traditional phrase guides.
In 2004, the company continued its expansion by publishing audio programs for its Spanish, French, German and Italian titles.
Beginning in 2007, Bilingual Books developed computer software as a complement to the 10 Minutes a Day books.
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