For example, the recently released Bahasa Kita: Indonesian for School and Business takes quite a different approach to that of the SmartyPants series, and comes across more like an interactive phrase book than an introduction for young children. It has none of the slick animation designed to help hold a child's attention, but it is very good at giving you the basics and the opportunity to practice them. You supply the motivation.

The instructional material is divided into twelve units: The Alphabet; Greetings and Civilities; Introductions, Family and Nationalities; Numbers and Times; In the Taxi; Verbs and their Affixations; Dates, Days of the Week; Doing the Shopping; Illness and Emergencies; At the Shopping Centre; At the Restaurant; and Writing Letters. Each provides Dialogues, Useful Phrases, Other exercises and word practice, while explanations set the context and give background information. It is easy to jump between exercises or repeat them, and there is plenty of scope for practicing your spelling, your understanding of spoken Indonesian and your pronunciation (its use of audio is simple and works well).

In addition there is a dictionary - with audio pronunciation, crosswords and a Hangman game. The dictionary can be toggled to display all words used on the disc or limited to those in a given unit. A quick overview of Indonesian culture and social tips are provided through an interactive map, and there is a slide show presenting images drawn from the variety of Indonesian life.

I found the navigation a little clunky, particularly when moving to and from the Unit Overviews, but this is at most a minor annoyance and for the most part the disc is well structured and simple to move about. Key features are a button which always returns you to the main menu, and from which you can go direct to a new menu, or you can progress linearly through the units and exercises.

The main problem I found was in accessing the interactive map and slide show, for which you must go through the Help screens - and if you don't finish the Help screens, you may not be aware that they are present.

In summary: a well presented title which will well serve those looking for a crash course in Indonesian.

Bahasa Kita is available for Windows and has a recommended price of $79.95