Quote:
Originally Posted by d-null
..., you can do all the courses you want, and you will still be lost if you try to get in a real conversation at normal speed in real life, immersion is the only way to get the brain to click over 
I took years of french courses and not anywhere close to fluent, but I spent about 3 months learning spanish and then immersed myself with spanish only speakers (no english) and I am much more fluent in spanish than in french....
going to the country you want to speak the language, and avoiding english at all times possible (even if you are with bilingual people) is the best |
I do agree that kind of immersion is the best, but it's not the only way to get truly fluent. There are plenty of people who achieve fluency in languages without ever stepping foot in an area where it's spoken. It's just harder to do it that way.
To answer the OP's question. I find programs like Rosetta Stone to be only minimally effective. You'll learn far better if you just get the grammar basics of the language and study foreign DVDs, music, etc. Half the world learns English by watching English language movies.