Learning a language

I'm off on holiday to Italy in October and I'd quite like to learn some Italian before I go.

I did French at school, while I managed to get a 'B' in my French O Level (and did an AS Level in business French), I never did manage to really speak it. I think the problem was always confidence, I always believed that I sounded like an idiot.

I am more confident generally now, so hopefully I'll be better at it now...

Can anyone recommend the best way to teach myself some Italian ?

I've found that for people who want conversational skills, the Rosetta Stone products seem to work well. $$$ but worth it.

Quote:
I think the problem was always confidence, I always believed that I sounded like an idiot.

That's the key, you've got to forget all that self consciousness. we used to have loads of Spanish clients, one day I upset one, couldn't work out why so I started learning Spanish, just off phrase books and stuff but making sure that I spoke as much Spanish as I could to anyone I could. Yeah I made a tit of myself more than once but my conversational Spanish gets me underestood whenever I need to.

I'd also add that I was already bilingual; Punjabi/English, makes it a lot easier IMO to pick up another language later, I'd recommend anyone with kids to start them on a foreign language as young as possible.