Self Help Books for Learning Foreign Languages (French or Spanish)

First i again want to say thanks to the people that run this forum and those that contribute.

Its a great day in age where people can be supportive of one another and exchange info and trade with each other.

Really. Its a nice feeling to be able to come here and ask questions and VENT too when we need to.

i made a post about how i was planning to go France in 2 months. But now things have changed and i won't be going.

Thankfully i have ALOT more time. I actually have  a year or more now. i can't explain why and how. I can only say i don't have to go in 2 months. (whew boy!)

but i still have a desire to go to Paris, France and other places in Europe someday and do what i said i was gonna do.

but i have a few questions.

i am into self-help books. i'm looking for a book that talks about learning foreign languages but talks to the person who is an adult beginner from a sensitive sympathetic point of view. An author who is a sensitive writer who can really motivate and talk to somebody who's american who wants to learn another language like French.

i see language as a way to express your emotions. not  just a language where you conjugate verbs and know lots of grammar rules.

when i talk in English i don't see myself as talking in English or conjugating verbs. im just simply expressing my feelings as i am in this message. when im angry i talk a certain way. when im happy i talk a certain way. when im feeling competitive i talk a certain way. it all varies. When i write i write a certain way.

When i look at foreign films with subtitles i now realize that we are all different but the same. At the end of the day whether we are all people at the end of the day. We all are emotional human beings.  We all on some level judge each other and compete with each other in our heads.  We are all capable of good and bad whether it be our pride or our prejudice.

Whenever you see language learning CDs/DVDs and books you see people with smiles on their faces and so on. Specifically for me when i see, French learning materials I see people smiling with Berets on.  But we all know that life is not all smiles and easy exchanges. Life is not like that.

In the past i have always learned language in a very BORING technical way and then i get THROWN. Into an aggressive situation where i am expected to be a PROBLEM SOLVER in another language.

When i was in high-school and in college (undergrad). (learning spanish) i could never really get motivated.  And i was always being forced to learn it during tough emotional times in my life too.

So i would learn enough grammar to pass a written test but then i'd forget everything i learned the next day because it was all so technical and boring and it didn't relate to my emotional experience as living person. But i was always being compared to someone who is affluent.

There is a film with the actor antonio banderas. i think its called the 13th warrior, where his character learns a language just bu listening to it for 10 minutes. And i was always compared to someone like that.


Learning the language always gave me a headache. and looking back if i had had a role model/motivator someone who's speaks english/french or spanish who i could model myself after who was nice and patient, and close to me i would have mastered one of the two.

young children who grow up bilingual are very fortunate because the various languages they learn are apart of them. they learn to express emotion in different ways and it stays with them.

When i hear foreign language being spoken whether it be French or Spanish, all i hear is a very FAST paced mumble mur mur. And to me it always sounds very fast and aggressive sounding to me.

And reading Spanish and/or French is intimidating.

and i don't mean to offend anybody. Im sure the same could be said about people who are learning english.

its harder on grown ups.

i understand that i have to put in the effort, but i just need alittle push emotionally.

But there must be some sort of movement of people who are like me who have the same ISSUES as i do.

I'm trying to search amazon.com and i think i found a few books. but at the moment im looking for something that is not boring written by someone who's a sensitive writer talking to a beginner who is American learning french.

the website livemocha.com seems like a nice site it could help.