Over the last several years, I have been lucky enough to travel to France and experience the people, culture, art, etc. Hoping to improve or add to my experience, I purchased and studied the Rosetta Stone French I & II prior to my initial travel. I would like to continue with my studies with another computer based program but I am wondering which would be of the greatest benefit. Two have been recommended to me, Fluenz and Tell Me More. My question is, "Have any fellow travelers studied with these two programs or for that matter any other that they found helpful?" Thank you for your input.

My SO listens to the free News in Slow French streams on his iPod all the time. And the free BBC programs. If you can get your hands on the old France in Action DVDs, those were great, too. I've never studied a language using software, though, so just throwing out a few suggestions here.

I've found the Living Languages series to be very helpful.

I use Pimsleur language programs if I am traveling to an area where I do not speak the language (which is pretty much everywhere where English or French is not spoken). I am working on Spanish (again) now in preparation for my home exchange in Costa Rica coming up in November 2013. I keep the CD's and use them over and over again. You can get good prices on the CD's or download to your MP3 player. I have used Spanish, Italian, Russian and Turkish for different trips. It gives you good working vocabulary so you can do things such as ask for directions, how much things cost, etc. You do need to work with the CDs daily to make it work. I play them whenever I am in the car. After you have done them a couple of times, you can zip right through them. It is a very good system and does not require you to have designated time at your computer. You just play them when you would normally be listening to the radio in the car.

I have Mandarin Chinese which I plan to do one of these days.

They work.

If you want my take on Pimsleur, I have a piece on it on my website:

http://altecockertravels.weebly.com/...-pimsleur.html

If you want to buy the CD's look for used ones online. The used ones are usually ones that are returned and are new! I just got 30 lessons of Thai on sale for $109.00 because I am planning to visit a friend there in a year.

Popular languages, such as Spanish, French, Italian & German have 120 lessons. Less popular ones, such as Thai, have only one series of 30 lessons. Buy one series first and see if you will do it before investing a lot of money.