I've been using Duolingo.com to brush up on my old Spanish. But it's more just vocabulary and phrases. It's free. I've also heard ads for News In Slow (google it for accuracy), which provides weekly lessons based on current events. I haven't looked at it much, but it sounds interesting. I think the basic package was something like $100/year. Not sure if it would work for a completely new language, though.

I am trying to brush up on my French in case I choose to emigrate to Quebec (they have a pretty favorable investor program). You can actually be tested on your French skills and it may enhance one's application. Plus, it is fun, I can use it when I travel, and it is good mental exercise

Anyway, I use Duolingo. It is so easy and you can work on it anywhere.

That said, it is great for vocab but terrible for conversing. I am thinking of taking a course in the spring or joining a club for that element.

Good luck. Or should I say "bonne chance". Tee hee

I used Duolingo last year to supplement what little French I remembered from the one quarter I took in college. It was in preparation for a trip to France. I made it all the way through their French lessons at which point they deemed me to be 60% fluent. I was able to communicate with the landlady at our cottage, who did not speak any English and got by with some market-day vendors whose English was worse than my French.

While it doesn't offer conversation practice, they do include exercises where they read a phrase out loud and you need to either write it down in French, or translate it. There are other exercises where you speak in French into the mic and their voice recognition rates you on your pronunciation. It won't make you a fluent speaker, but it's not nothing.

Once I had built up some vocabulary I streamed some French language movies on Netflix to work on comprehension at conversational speeds.

Thanks for the heads up on the meetup. I would not have thought of that.

I took French in HS, and before my trip to Paris I bought a "French for Dummies" book, and it actually was a pretty good refresher. I remembered a lot of the pronunciation. We bought MIL Rosetta Stone French and I don't think she ever used it. We even had to buy a faster computer for her to use it. Like Mtn, if we move to Canada, the French could come in handy

If I end up going more to China on a regular basis, I really do need to learn some language. My tour guide was saying that there are local dialects and that can make it a little tricky in some locations.

I am using the Duolingo app, but got to the point where I decided to also take private French lessons.

Thanks everyone. I will check out Duolingo for sure for my Italian. I highly doubt we have a meet up where I live in the bowels of south New Jersey but I will check. Our closest Italian market is 50 mins away :(

I realized last night that my son's online high school (he is in the music business) used a language program that looked like it would work for me as far as how I learn. My Italian will come back quickly but learning a new language will require a program that really works for my learning style.

Thank you

I took a beginning Spanish class offered by my city, then started using Duolingo. I got to the point where Duo said I was 51% fluent. :) I find I can read Spanish pretty well, but conversation goes by me too fast. And I've been afraid/shy of conversing with coworkers who speak Spanish, though several have offered to help me learn.

Donna

I've started to use Duolingo to learn Welsh. However I fear it will end up just being phrases and some vocabulary.

Why Welsh? No, it's not practical, perhaps just one of those post retirement things. I would like to read some of the literature.

Msmeow, for listening practice, try Destinos, a telenovela specifically designed for teaching Spanish listening comprehension, with lots of drama (and the biggest shoulder pads you ever saw, since it was filmed back in the 80s):

http://learner.org/series/destinos/watch/index.html?ep2

The dialog starts out slow and basic and then speeds up gradually to normal speed as the grammar becomes more advanced.

ETA There are grammatical exercises and dictations attached to each section, but no actual grammar instruction.

Thank you, Writer! I will check it out.

That sounds so cool!

I just signed up for some French classes at the local HS for continuing Ed. Despite the fact that duo lingo has functionality to test pronunciation and does require you to speak, I think that aspect is still very limited. I agree with the above poster who says it's mainly good as a vocabulary drill

I should have mentioned, don't be put off by the amount of English voiceover explanation in the first couple of episodes. By about Episode 12 it's all in Spanish.

I'm not even close to fluent in French but I can make basic conversation and can read fairly well enough to understand and get around.

I use Duolingo and Babbel to quiz myself mostly. I spend a lot of time reading and building sentences in my head and then seeing how well I've done by using Google translate.

There are a lot of courses on YouTube.

Learn French with Vincent is one I really like. I love his voice and not too bad on the eyes either (ymmv) - he has different courses so you can skip around.

Check out his YouTube channel
Learn French with Vincent

For French, I like watching episodes of Secrets d'histoire (on youtube, but the full episodes mostly aren't on their own channel). Stephane Berne has wonderful articulation and the program is always interesting if you're interested in history. I do find, to my shame, that the more aristocratic the real people they interview are, the harder it is for me to understand them.

Itele.fr has current news streaming for a totally different kind of French.

ETA The BBC used to have some interesting French and Spanish language training videos on their site, but I think they all require Flash Player, if they're still there.

Oh, I found the BBC Spanish series, Mi Vida Loca:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/mividaloca/

And the French one:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/french/mafrance/

which isn't as interesting as the spanish one, just a bunch of videos for practice with tourist French, but they do have dictées and games for grammar.

They also have German and Italian but I don't know anything about those.

ETA If you have audible.com they have a few French recordings, including a series of mystery stories designed for learning French, but I didn't care for those. librivox has a whole French section and some of the readers are very good, especially the Belgian woman who reads Bruges-la-Morte., although that's a pretty esoteric title if you aren't super interested in Bruges or turn of the last century decadent literature. I mention her because she reads lots of other titles, too, and I can't remember her name.

Forgot to say that if you own movies on DVD, a lot of those have foreign language soundtracks available in the settings.

Also, I'd like to add, there's a big difference between learning for personal satisfaction and measurable skill than learning enough to be comfortable and make your way through life when you're in a foreign country.

I like to learn languages for two reasons ... 1) enjoyment and 2)to convey respect for my host country's culture.

Thanks, WB, love the BBC stuff!