I tried Rosetta Stone for French. The numbers were fun, but I had problems with words.
They do it like this...
une femme is your word and you have to select the correct photo. At no time do they give you the meaning. It's photo association all the way though. After femme for the girl, they'll do homme for the guy and then the boy and girl. That's how it works.
Not bad at all with single words, but my head was spinning when the full sentances started and the focus is on one word in the sentance and they aren't telling you want the other words mean.
I'm thinking an approach that uses a few different systems would be best.
I'm going to try Pimsleur. Looks like it might be audio books. No software? Worth a shot...