I've had some success in language learning through Pimsleur software. Having gone the conventional academic learning for language, and Pimsleur, if I had it to do over again I would master Pimsleur French in 90-days and THEN go on to an academic course to work on the written communication. Supposedly, Pimsleur is what the FBI and the US embassies use to teach their staff languages as quickly as possible, but that might just be marketing.