I did badly in GCSE French at school and didn't think anything more about the language until I ended up living here a bit over a year ago.

I have tried the Rosetta Stone French course but I lost interest in it quite quickly. The Tell Me More French program is much more interesting and even comes close to being entertaining at times. Some of the speach recognition seems a bit sketchy though. I think it's a bit too harsh on marking accent and pronounciation, even in the beginner courses, so I lost interest in that eventually too as it was difficult to make any progress.

I found the Michelle Thomas Advanced course on CD quite useful though.

By far and away I find that the best way to learn though is just to talk to people.

I spent my first months here working for an English company and I learn't nothing. Then I worked as an assistant English teacher for a while and learnt at least as much French from the kids as they learnt English from me but I was still speaking English with teh other Prof's. Now I finally have a proper job in an almost entirely French speaking company. I was really thrown in at the deep end, with a team who did not speak much English at all. Everything I read and hear is in French, all day everyday, and my level of French is improving very quickly indeed. The company has offered to pay for a French course but at the rate I'm learning at the moment, I don't think I'll need it.