Learning French, free resources.

[northernladuk]

I had go at learning Arabic using Livemocha: Learn Spanish, French and other languages for free

Seemed to work pretty well including the sound clips of the words which was invaluable. Didn't get that far in so can't say if it was a well structured course that was any use I am afraid. Worth a look I'd say.

[thelastrosbif]

If you work well with audio you can try some mp3/audio packs:

- Pimsleur French for beginners - good for very basic & somewhat repetitive methodology, but you will get it in your head quick enough (*cough* bittorrent it *cough)

- Radio France International has an excellent French-for-beginners news programme - "Journal en Francais Facile"

- If you want to go real hardcore - the foreign service institute has loads of free-to-download resources that diplomats used to use to 'quick start' their language skills. Be warned though a lot of this is super 80s & direct from cassette recordings! proper vintage

- Also recommend wordreference.com rather than google translate for individual words & getting the context of an expression.

[odpadnik]

The Duolingo app is ideal for starting and you can concentrate on specifics like food, menus, etc

Second that. Duolingo, combine it with google translate on your smartphone. Real-life translations of text and so on, you'll do just fine

[Brussels Slumdog]

I speak French at home an also speak Dutch and German but absolutely useless for any IT SAP contract.
There are three types of language books. One for class learning and one for self learning and the other is plain stupid " assimil where you learn the cat sat on the green mat
Try using the internet and finding lessions on youtube like beginners French in the restaurant etc.

[pink]

I liked Duolingo, but found that it didn't do a good job of making me relearn old things. So whatever I did learn, I ended up forgetting a few weeks later. How often do you visit places which you'll know for sure speak English when on holiday? Like Starbucks, McDonald's, etc?