Je veux un café, s’il vous plaît.

I don’t have a knack for learning languages. In high school, I took five years of Spanish, which served me well in grad school. In college, I took three years of Japanese, which, well, hasn’t helped much, other than being able to understand bits and pieces when we were in Japan a couple of years ago.

If I could learn a language now, it would be French. Fresh out of grad school, I went to work for a French company. Despite the fact that it was acquired by IBM two years ago, I still work with the same colleagues believe that French would prove to be quite useful for me for both work and for travel.

A year or two ago, I systematically worked through the first level of Rosetta Stone. At first I felt like I was learning quite a bit, but then I started to get annoyed with it. I want something more than translating phrases. I actually want teaching; someone to point out irregularities and help me see the patterns.

Camille uses Mango Languages via our library (free!) and appears to be learning French that way. Again, I don’t see myself liking Mango. It moves too slowly, and while Camille’s accent is reasonable, I don’t know that she can create her own sentences easily.

I recently heard about Fluenz, and today tested out a trial lesson. It is a little slow as well, but I like the way the lessons and workouts are tied together. I also like that there are explanations as well as typing exercises.

Anyone have any other programs that have worked well (or not)?