Hi fran,

I'm going to bang the drum for another audio course - this time it's Michel Thomas. You can get his foundation french [or german, spanish or italian for that matter] for about £30 on e-bay and amazon. IMHO they are the best self-help CDs because he teaches the structure of the language, rather than just a number of phrases that you will find difficult to remember because by themselves they are pretty meaningless.

link the use of the CDs [I listen to mine in the car] and a live teacher, and you have a recipe for success. [not blowing my own trumpet, but with the help of Michel THomas, i have gone from no italian to AS level, so I am proof that it works!]

good luck, and have a great trip!

My husband, who had never studied any French, used Rosetta Stone software. He did most of level one, rushed through level one a bit near the end and did some of level two. He was quite disciplined about doing the lessons and ended up being able to read signs, menus, Meto machine instructions quite well. With the Rosetta Stone, he thought that I, with four years of high school French, could start at level two as a refresher.

if you have a microphone and headphones then try busuu you can chatter to as many french speakers as you want real time, its helping my Italian

My wife and I did levels One and Two. It took us about four months. We don't go until April, but it is paying off as we study the Rick Steve phrase book. The pronunciation is already there (sort of), and the phrases make sense.
We'll also do fourteen hours with Alliance Francais.

Keep in mind that achieving functional fluency in another European language when starting from scratch usually requires about 400 hours of study (a little over two months if you study full-time).

ps - i just got sent an advert for "Paul Noble" on amazon. the reviews suggest that it is the Michel Thomas method brought up to date with a native speaker.

were I starting french or italian from scratch, I might get it.

Is it not 'bez won'?

I checked out every tape in the library before settling on Berlitz. Bought a cd and played it over and over in the car and while exercising. It was made for traveling and I found it to be very helpful.

Different folks learn differently so you might prefer a different one. Good luck!

There are many french tutor available that helps us to learn french but i am looking for professional and experienced tutor,please can anyone have any idea.

http://fruition.com.au/

oh, please, who are you kidding, you are advertising that website, aren't you? nice touch, changing your screenname. I'd suggest you learn English first since you don't seem to be fluent in that language as you can't write a decent sentence. Also, you might brush up on reading comprehension and read the Fodors terms of service which bans advertising.

these are FREE, FREE, FREE!!!

I used the following 2 sites to learn Italian, brush up on my German, and now for learning French.

Radio Lingua (http://www.radiolingua.com/shows/french/) I've been using Coffee Break French and One Minute French. You can download to CD, MP3 player, etc.

BBC Languages (http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/french/lj/) You don't have to wait for the emails, do it directly from the site.