Best Way and how long to learn a language

[mulranno]

Just bought a holiday home in France and really want to and need to speak the language ... have v basic vocab recollection from school days but no experience (or confidence) in conversation...a friend said that he was using the Rosseta Stone system ...has anyone else tried this?...should I have one to one tutoring as well or will I just pick it up?...have not done so far any tips/suggestions/recommendations.....

IME nothing beats tutoring, either one to one or in a group (evening classes?). Studying at home is good, but it's really helpful to have a real live person to speak and listen to.

If you spend a lot of time in a french speaking environment you prob will end up picking it up, but this will happen a lot quicker if you've had lessons / studied on your own a bit.

Have a baby! Just joking, but seriously that was what did it for me. The prospect of giving birth in France and not being able to communicate except through my dh was the incentive I needed to knuckle down. Then I had all my ante-natal friends to practice on. By the time it came to the delivery I was fluent - in fact jabbering away in French was almost a form of hypnotherapy as it took my mind off labour.

Ive been living Italy for 5 years and my Italian is still rubbish (not very helpful but true),

Tutoring. I second scouserabroad, I'd attend evening classes once a week.
I too would love to learn French, even if I'm Italian and both languages are vaguely similar, I've never managed/had time to learn it.

Tutoring and listening to CDs as often as possible.

Don't expect to pick it up just by living in the country, especially if you are only there on holiday.

We have been in Switzerland 2 years and my French is still appalling.

Is it an area where you will meet lots of expats?

Oh and talk to people in French, every opportunity you get. You might embarrass yourself a bit to start with, but the more you speak the better you will get, like a snowball effect.