New Project Learning another Language

Those of you who have followed my other blogs know I spent a great deal of time, money and energy learning Spanish. I had a good time learning Spanish in Mexico and cherish the experience. I didn't become fluent, but learned to communicate to some degree in the lingo and customs of dear Mexico.



Now I have a new quest; I am learning French on my own. I have scoured the Internet and book stores looking for a reasonably price program to learn French. I have tried out several programs and have found fault with all of them. I tried Rocket French and it has its good points, but didn't ring a bell with me. I tried 200 words a day and found it didn't inspire me and soon lost interest. I tried Immersion French that claims to be the same as Rosetta Stone without the expense, I was disappointed and again gave it up. Now I am trying the Pimsler French learn in ten day program (ya sure). Between all of them I will learn some French, but will it be enough French to communicate? We shall see. One would ask why not RosettaStone?
Well those that know me know I am .... cheap so the expense didn't give me a warm fuzzy the other thing is my computer runs on Vista, and I hear that RosettaStone has issues running on the Vista platform and is not known for support with fixing the problems. So, I am holding this program in reserve.



Aha, I hear you asking Why French? Well, I have always like France and the vision I have of France in my mind that was put there by books like Toujours Provence, A Year In Provence by Peter Mayle and several short trips to France when I was station in Germany in the early 60's also a trip to Paris in the 70's that was a hoot. It poured rain like the proverbial rains that floated the ark in the bible. I stayed at a small Paris hotel the Atlantic on the top floor with a view of the picturesque Paris roof tops that you might see in the old time movies of Paris. the bathroom was so small that it was hard to turn around and the hot water wasn't hot. But, it was wonderful I was there with someone I was in love with and it is all I needed to make it magical. The vision lasted the relationship didn't. Well as the saying goes "We will always have Paris".

I have often said that if I won the lottery (the big one) I would be in Provence France within days of getting the money, whether I spoke french or not. One can always hire tutors to learn there. One other reason for learning a foriegn language is it keeps the little grey cells in your brain alive, they love a challange.