I've decided I really should learn a decent amount of Spanish. Recommendations for programs and courses?

Underhill - how much spanish do you already know? if you are starting as a beginner or "intermediate", the Michel Thomas courses are excellent IMO. you can pick them up on e-bay for not too much [make sure that you get CDs and not cassette tapes or vv depending on what you like to use] . I used his courses when I was starting off in italian and I found then very helpful, and I have used the spanish beginners' course before going to Spain a few times.

good luck with whatever you decide to use.

I like http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/mividaloca/
Don't know how good you are, but even so, this is a good start!

Www.radiolingua.com , Coffee Break Spanish

I always recommend Michel Thomas. My local library carries them and have used them to learn German and brush up on Spanish.

He makes learning the language fun- "step by step!"

I highly DON'T recommend Rosetta Stone. I found them to be too shallow and inconsistent on their "lessons".

Thanks, all. My very limited Spanish comes from living in California. I took a summer-session course between high school and college, but French had consumed too much of my mind by then. Time to try again after giving German a try and concluding that memorizing all those articles with the nouns was just too much trouble.

concluding that memorizing all those articles with the nouns was just too much trouble.>>

lol, underhill, i think that many germans would agree with you. as Michel Thomas says, what you are aiming at is getting the ball over the net, and who cares if you say die Haus or das Frau? there are of course genders to remember in spanish, but only two of them, if that helps!

That's what I like about Michel Thomas, you just learn to speak and put the sentences together. I don't need to write fine literature in German, I need to find out what restaurant to woman at the hotel would recommend and a few pointers about the city.