Refresher courses in foreign languages

Not really online, but I loved the Pimsleur audio lessons. I used them in conjunction with Italian classes to help my verbal skills. You can probably get them at your library.

I am not very fond of Duolingo or Rosetta Stone. I just don't care for the pedantic nature, especially if you know some of the language already.

Or you might try a community college course.

Laurel makes a good point about trying the continuing education or "life long learning" programs at one of the many colleges and universities in your area. If all else fails, perhaps you can locate a tutor for a few lessons just to get back up to speed.

I went to a private company in town where my classes were taught by a professor from the local community college. It was mostly conversational Spanish with a variety of class offerings. I had been fluent years ago(college) but when we moved to a largely Spanish speaking area in retirement I wanted to increase my lost ability. It has been very helpful in my daily life and when we go to Spain or South America very useful.

Have a look at the BBC language courses on line. They are free!

Pimsleur is good for speaking.

For an online course, with entertaining videos, I really like the Annenberg series Frenchnin Action ( as well as the Spanish one, Destinos). You can watch online for free:

https://www.learner.org/resources/series83.html

With four years of high school,French you should be able to move pretty quickly through them.

Another possibility is the "News in Slow. . ." Series. I don't know if there is one in Fr nah, but my husband is studying Italian this way and really enjoys it. You do have to pay, but can choose between just the news, or with grammar lessons. He learns a lot about current events.

Another vote for continuing-education classes if they are available to you. And just about anything that includes a practice-at-home component (via CD or something available online) will be superior to a program that is classroom-only, assuming it's just once or twice a week. I took weekly modern Greek lessons twice, once with just classes and once with classes supplemented with audiotapes (back in the day) that I could use at home. Having those tapes available 7 days a week to reinforce proper pronunciation made a big difference. There's a reason a lot of university language classes are held 4 or 5 days a week.

I was able to take German classes at the local German club in town; and I know friends who have done the same with French and Spanish locally. With that as a base, then I found Duolingo good for some basic refresher exercises and vocabulary drilling. I have also bought other books that are good for "homework" but none of that helps me much with actual pronunciation like the in-person class.

Check Youtube. I regularly visit 3 German language channels that really help.

I agree Pimsleur. I would suggest renting French movies from the library, watch with the subtitles off. In your area there may be a conversational group that is accepting new members.

I have used the Pimsleur and other courses (Michel Thomas, etc) before travel. They are good for a beginner but with 4 years of HS French your abilities are way past what is covered in those courses. You can't have a simple conversation with those courses alone because you 1) don't learn how to conjugate verbs much past a few cases of the "er" verbs in the present tense 2) you don't learn enough vocabulary to converse.

I actually am a fan of the courses, they are enough to travel and ask basic questions ("We'd like a table for 2 tomorrow night", "do you have a vacancy", "I would like to buy this. How much is it?") stuff like that. I've used them on travel to areas of France and Italy where English isn't really spoken such as the Adriatic coast or smaller towns in Brittany. But a real conversation is too much to expect. I wanted to wear a t-shirt that says "here are the 200 words I know. Speak them slowly and no more than 4 in a sentence" because that's about the level these courses can get you to.

If it has been a real long time it wouldn't hurt to use one of these courses to get your feet wet again, so to speak. But there are other courses that will take you much farther. Assimil French would probably be more useful to you and is pretty cheap. The 1960's era Foreign Service Institute courses (FSI) are available online for free.

You might also get more replies if you ask on a forum devoted to language learning such as https://forum.language-learners.org/

Lynda,

I also took French in high school many, many years ago. So months before my trip to France last year I reviewed my French by listening to the Pimsleur Language Program CD’s borrowed from my local library. I found it very helpful listening to the CD’s and when I actually had to speak the language I was able to remember much of what I’d learned.

Have a wonderful trip!

I am also a fan of Pimsleur. However, I find them to be expensive. I have been using the Duolingo app to refresh my Portuguese and Italian. It’s a great app and it’s free!

Berlitz -- very flexible (on line, in person, book) and excellent for refreshers or learning a new language.

Thanks for all the great suggestions! During the cold weather this winter, I hope to practice speaking French!

I like the Living Language program. I purchased the CDs and books on Amazon, though they also have online courses.

We have purchased Pimsleur for a number of languages and they are great. However, there is a FREE app, Duolingo, that we use daily for updating our langagues, 6 different ones from French to Russian.

coffee break french (or Spanish) It's so good! Podcasts are free, but you can pay to get the downloads. love it!

We find the Pimsleur programs at our local public library. If they don't have what you want, try inter-library loan, or whatever the equivalent is at your library. I had two years of French decades ago, and the Pimsleur discs brought much of it back. Same for Spanish. I also enjoy the Michel Thomas disks, but some are definitely better than others. I didn't like his Spanish or Dutch discs, but I found the French and Italian to be useful.

Another vote for the Annenberg videos as suggested by Lola -- they have captions in the language, so you can hear and see the words at the same time (very useful if you have a hearing limitation.) I watched Destinos (Spanish) for the telenovella story.

New app to add to this - Memrise. It's way more fun to me now than Duolingo.

I take an OLLI course at a local college regarding French cinema. (I am the worst in the class, btw.) There is one classmate who does Slow News and his French has gone from none to crazy good over one year. Because of OLLI, free enrollment in Mango Language classes online are allowed, so I did work with the French one...(it would be wonderful if I could stick to it). So, I suggest you see if there is an OLLI program at a local university (if you are of age...55+?) to see what classes and benefits that they have online and/or do Slow News in French. Another recommendation from authorities is foreign films, the same over and over. Listen to it once with subtitles, 2nd without subtitles, and then just small portions of the same film over and over until you hear and master the small segment and then move on. We also (Boston) have the French Alliance organization, which provides classes/library/audio and/or tutoring so maybe your area has such a group. There are many options from which to chose. Bon Chance!

A couple of suggestions for French:

If you want to spend money, consider joining your local Alliance Française of Birmingham: http://www.afbirmingham.org. While I don't see the extensive courses that are available at some larger AF locations (such as Portland, OR), I see they offer conversation groups that may help you improve your French.

If you don't want to spend money, an online resource that you may find helpful is provided by the French network TV5MONDE: http://apprendre.tv5monde.com/en

You can take lessons at various levels.

Also, if you want help understanding spoken French and practicing your ability to read and write French, there's nothing like dictées. There are countless resources online, most with various levels starting from early elementary level to high school and beyond. Here is Bescherelle's: http://bescherelle.com/dictees-audio. Here is ladictee's: http://www.ladictee.fr/. They must have hundreds.

I have used a combo of Duolingo, Memrise (which is fun) both of which are free, and Babbel which has more grammar hints. It costs per month but not a lot. All speak to you and two expect you to speak back so you get to both listen and understand and practice. Good luck!

Seriously an amazing course for learning Spanish is "Spanish with Paul." He's an Englishman who lives in Mexico, and his course works! He learned Spanish himself and developed this course based on how English speakers can best understand and absorb Spanish. He is methodical, with no fluff (no games, music and inane conversation). He has various techniques and methods that he suddenly slates into the building blocks of Spanish. He builds grammar, vocabulary and a love of Spanish into the modules. He makes you practice -- gently drills you, and if you follow his instructions, you learn. I have studied online, at university and with private teachers -- French, German, Italian, Hindi, Sanskrit, and Spanish. "Spanish with Paul" is one of the best language courses I have taken. There is a 50% discount at the moment, which I took advantage of. It's some of the best money I ever spent on learning a language. https://spanishwithpaul.com/join/

I’m a fan of both Duolingo and Memrise language apps. Love them! Both are free, and both have their advantages. I used them to refresh my German prior to visiting my pen pal in Germany. I also used it to learn some Portuguese (new language for me) so have had both experiences. I plan to start it soon to refresh my French before our trip this fall.

Duolingo is more straightforward in its organization by topic. Memrise is quirkier in its words and phrases, but a) has a timed fast-paced review feature and b) phrases by native speakers.

I love these apps because I always have my smartphone with me and I could do a quick session (10 minutes) while between events, on the bus, you get the drift. DO IT EVERYDAY for 10 minutes and it will be great. Well, 10 minutes daily times 2 apps. Bon chance!

The old Rosetta Stone is still a good one, you can download apps now instead of the old CDS. I finished German a few years ago and am now pretty fluent and I have recently started French. Seems a bit mad but I learnt when I came in off nights out would put headphones on and subconsciously took everything in, this may not work for everybody. Try at work when you are bored just pop an earphone in and off you go.