Does anyone know of an internet site where I can practice my French? I am a beginner and would like to be prepared for my visit in May. Thank you for any assistance.

Try Googling on French in Action; it's a great series.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/french/index.shtml

This site from the BBC might help. As Underhill mentioned, google will find pages of free French courses.

Blackduff

http://french.about.com/od/pronunciation/

This is another site which gives good help. I have used this often. Of course, it's trying to get you to buy something but there's a lot of free help on this site. There's even pronunciations.

Blackduff

Go to about.com. Click onthe "channel" called Homework Help. Scroll down to Languages and click on French. There you will find Laura K Lawless' French courses. There are beginning and intermediate course, a verb conjugator, Daily Franch lessons and sound files. I use this site to compliment my French lessons. FREE

Bookmarking.

Wordreference.com includes a french-english-french dictionary and forums where users discuss idiomatic expressions, etc. A good way to pratice reading and pick up new vocabulary words.

Nothing better than chatting with real people...

http://fr.docs.yahoo.com/chat/chatbylycos.html

Best wishes,

Rex

Great sites! Is there a site where I can actually hear the correct pronunciation?

Rex, I did not see your responce, I will check it out!

For reference...

The BBC site is really excellent - you can read articles while they are read outloud to you. Really helps learn how real French people speak French.

I don't know if French Yahoo "tchatche" has audio or not...

Here is an interesting site, Radio France International, I read about in FRANCE magazine:

http://www.rfi.fr/lffr/statiques/accueil_apprendre.asp

"Within the Langue Francaise section of the website, the Journal en Francaise Facile presents three simplified new bulletins complete with accompanying transcripts...Mots de l'Actualite is another great section."

Bookmarking, thanks!

Also bookmarking

bookmarking, moi aussi.

Great question!

Would these answers also work for those of us trying to learn italian?

TV news three times a day:

http://jt.france2.fr/8h/
http://jt.france2.fr/13h/
http://jt.france2.fr/20h/

If you have a CD player, you might check and see if your local library has any French language CD series, like the Pimsleur Language Series. I put these in while I'm in the car and find them to be quite helpful in learning some basic phrases.