To Rosetta Stone or Not to Rosetta Stone

Once upon a time, I was nearly fluent in French. That was a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Now there are different ways to refresh my French. One would be to purchase Rosetta Stone French edition and invest $599. Now I can rationalize this because we are working on a project with someone (at work) who is challenged in their command of the English language...suffice it to say, not one of his strengths. So I could use it for work as well as for our birthday journey. (Thank you Needle Noggins for keeping those sales going so as to fund our trip.) However, Rosetta Stone is $599!!!! Now, one can purchase levels 1-3 for about half that amount and it would probably get us through Paris, Giverny, Versailles and most certainly our day in London!

There are also CD's of foreign languages. They retail for a whole lot less, I am sure. Are they as thorough? Will someone really ask me the color of my pencil (which I am quite positive I will be able to answer that question with a CD program)? I wonder...

We have a dealer in Quebec who is French. She's lovely and has volunteered to help me regain my French. So, at $.06/min on the phone...hmmm. Should I take a class? The only tests I'm interested in are those in the patisserie where they are going to ask me what kind of croissant I want!

So, back to the issue of re-learning my francais. (There's supposed to be a squiggly "c" thingy under the c but I don't have that on my computer...I don't think.

I guess it is more important for me to regain my French for work as that will be the most challenging situation. I think I'll try Levels 1-3. Surely, he will be able to meet me halfway in his quest for communication. If I find that 1-3 is not enough, I'll search online and supplement my language education that way. Maybe my friend, Hans, who is fluent in 5 languages will help me! AND he's in the same field for which I need to learn vocabulary. There. Problem solved.

PS I told you I could rationalize anything! :-)