Travel abroad to learn the language
 

Have any of you done it? I really like German, and I'm seriously thinking about doing a study abroad thing through my uni. If only I didn't owe the bursar so much...

My wife did that and she learned Icelandic living with some Icelandic families... she did it outside uni via some other program.

We now go to Iceland on a regular basis and meet up with those families.

i was studying in germany last year through uni. I did have a good knowledge of german before i went but improve vastly by the time i came back. I even met an american that just went over to study the language from scratch he would have done better if he didn't meet so many other year abroad students who all talk english and get drunk. However he did learn alot about the culture and had some basic german skills when he left. (Ein Bier bitte)

My brother did a summer session in France his freshman year, then went back and did his entire junior year in France, thru the Univ Of Chicago. Liked it so much Frech ended up being his minor. The summer session he did, he didn't get a lot out of, because he lives with other students, and wasn't forced to speak the language. When he did the year in France, it was a total immersion program, no English spoken at all (unless you are calling home to your family). They put them thru a lot of rigorous classes, the best, he said, was a class in slang and colloquialisms.

He was completely fluent when he left, and ended up going back after graduation to work for a few years.