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"How I Learned French in One Year" : http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/12/29/15258/287 is a very insighful article on how to learn language without going to the country. Advices are not specific to french. The best advice I retained is that commute time are your friends when learning a language.

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There are more self-praise than real stuff. To learn French to appropriate level, that native speakers could understand you without a pain takes a whole life, especially when started not so young.

It is just a cognitive stuff - it is very difficult to distinguish where the one vowel ends and next one starts when you're listening to a native speaker and almost impossible to articulate correctly such difficult and beautifully sounded language if you started to learn after 25-30 years old.

I'm french, so I may miss in what way the language is difficult.

I agree, there is a lot to learn to speak a language correctly. I was very average at english at school, but I improved by reading and recently listening everyday. I'm not going to write novels, I'm interested at communicating with others and as long as I can do that, I'm fine.

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