I am trying to understand the correct usage of this grammar. I have been
taught that ばかりか means 'not only A but also B.'

A Japanese friend mentioned that it is only used to talk about negative
things?

I have seen many examples that don't fit this description.  
For example:

> 私は英語ばかりか日本語も話せる。  
>  彼女は美しいばかりか、心もやさしく、しかも聡明である。

So I tried to practise this grammar by making my own sentences and made many
mistakes.

>   1. あなたは美しいばかりか、動物にやさしく、しかも聡明である.
>

I was told this was wrong...and was changed to and I only changed the subject
and one description (from the example sentence above)

> あなたは美しいだけでなく、動物にやさしく、しかも聡明である

I won't go through all of them but here are my (bad) sentences. Maybe you can
see what my problem is:

> １．私は水を飲めないばかりか、アイスクリームも食べられない。  
>  ２．あなたは美しいばかりか、動物にやさしく、しかも聡明である。  
>  ４．私は日本に行ったことあるばかりでなく、中国も行ったことあります。  
>  ５．私の国は安いばかりでなく、食べ物もおいしいですよ。  
>  ６．私は日本に行きたいばかりか、中国も行きたいですよ。  
>  ７．大学で日本語を勉強したばかりか、中国も勉強しました。  
>  ８．そればかりか、彼は私を安心させたいばかりに、そんな嘘をおっしゃるのね。  
>  ９．リンゴは安いばかりか、ひふにやさしいです。  
>  １０．私は漢字を書くことが下手ばかりか、発音も上手じゃない。

Why did they all get changed to だけでなく?

Thank you so so much for your help!
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grammar
Correct way to use ばかりか・ばかりでなく
I would say ばかりか is more emphatic than simple "not only ～ but also ～", and
thus should be used sparingly. Perhaps this construction sounds more like "and
what's more/worse...". It's probably true that it tends to be used in negative
situations (ie., "what's worse"), but you can use it in positive sentences,
too.

I feel ばかりでなく is not as emphatic as ばかりか, but still somewhat more emphatic
than だけでなく. だけでなく is safe and neutral.

> 私は英語ばかりか日本語も話せる。

This perfectly makes sense, but sounds like you're fairly proud of being able
to speak the two languages -- perhaps to the point where you may sound a bit
arrogant in business settings. Likewise, Sentences 6 and 7 sound a bit too
selfish or confident to me.

> あなたは美しいばかりか、動物にやさしく、しかも聡明である。

Um, I think this sentence is perfect as far as the usage of ばかりか goes. You
cannot praise a woman too much.

> 私は水を飲めないばかりか、アイスクリームも食べられない

This is grammatically correct but semantically awkward because the "what's
worse" part should come after ばかりか. It's hard to imagine a situation where a
sick person cannot drink water but can eat ice cream.
"アイスクリームを食べられないばかりか、水も飲めない" is good.

> 私は漢字を書くことが下手ばかりか、発音も上手じゃない。

な or である is required after 下手 (ie 下手なばかりか or 下手であるばかりか). And this doesn't
sound natural either, because "being bad at pronunciation" is not really a
worse thing than "being bad at writing kanji".

> 私の国は安いばかりでなく、食べ物もおいしいですよ。

Add 物価が or 物【もの】が before 安い; a country cannot be cheap. Otherwise the sentence
looks perfect to me.

Regarding Sentence 8, そればかりか at the beginning of the sentence is a valid way
of saying "what's more". ばかりに in 安心させたいばかりに is [a different
idiom](http://www.jgram.org/pages/viewOne.php?tagE=bakarini).
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According to "A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar", page 8:  
ばかりか...(さえ): a compound particle/conjunction which is used to connect two
nouns or two sentences, the first of which is normally expected, and the
second is normally unexpected.

So in the sentence AばかりかB, A needs to be something expected, while B needs to
be something unexpected.

Examples:  
日本では子供ばかりか大人さえ漫画を読んでいる。  
In Japan not only children but even adults are reading comic books.
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On a more general note, the use of か as a negativizer - in this case ばかり
(just, only) into "not only" - is quite a forceful negativizer.

There are several expressions that use this and they are all quite strong (I
would except the sentence ender じゃないか which is saying that something _is_ so
by double-negative since this is so common that it lacks much force).

If you think of that か as creating a very condensed rhetorical question "and
you think that was all?" I think it becomes clearer why would come across too
strong too self-confident. too critical etx. in cases where a less forceful
negative would be in order.
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