Well I am trying to learn French  

I've been living in France since July 2005 .. so I was FORCED to learn french, not just to survive but I have 2 kids at school and they needed my help and that was my strongest motivation... they are better than me now though:))
Anyway .. I wanted to tell you that living in France is very hard if you don't speak french so I recommend that you don't give up and try harder and don't hesitate to ask me for some useful links to help you.
Good Luck!!

ok i will tell u something about my expeirence about learning Japanese .I think it's the same with the french.

first ,I must let u know the reason I decided to learn Janpanese is camparing with my English , I reallu can speak more nice in it. I mwan the voice . I guess because I am a chinese ,so the Janpanse is in someway like the chinese. no matter in pronounce or tune.so it's may easier for me to speack a very nice Janpanese. but the most improtant thing is , I like something about the Janpan , the chineselike music (they have many woundeful musicians.) and the traditional culture . (the kimono , the tea ceremony blah blah..), and we both coutry have a long relationship dateing back thousands yaers ago.
I in my eyes , I very admire the Japanese national spirit(it 'very complicte for me to say the details here, ) u know if one really love doing something , just put ur heart in it , and then u will have a good result.(if there's something worth doing, it's worth doing well .)

so it took me nearly one year to learn the basic phonetic symbol and grammar. two semesters.and I really did a good job.

now I am in my summer vacation and I wil go on doing this .I am waiting for the day wihch I could speak a very good Janpanese!

so if u love the french , just go for it ! step by step, I will find that the french is not so difficut to cope with ~hehe...

and do hope this can help u~

good luck!

I did take about 2 years of college french. It is a difficult language to learn, but I did okay. I have forgotten a lot of it, because I never really use it.