Learning a foreign language

Books and CDs work ok, but you really have to be around fluent speakers and try to understand and speak as much as possible. The brain is flexible, just have to immerse yourself in it a bit because there are nuances to all languages.

I watch a lot of foreign movies on netflix and it is not helping

I really want to move to a foreign land... I applied to teach in Italy this summer but during my interview when they told me I would have to pay my way I objected. That ended the interview.

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learned a foreign language after graduating high school?

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Spanish in college. Could read pretty well after two years. you learn what you work on. It takes 4 years to master any romance language. it takes 5 for Asian languages, because you are learning a representation system too.
pictograms. stylized pictograms.

Spanish is ideal because you are able to use it constantly in many regions.

Google is pretty handy to use to keep it up. You can read the press in whatever languages on Google.
I have spent a lot of time at work reading French and Spanish news.

The only thing you will learn from Caillou is how to be an entitled, whiny brat.

If you are in college, learning a foreign language isn't too bad. Going to class and having someone instruct you makes it easy to get started. If you really want to learn the language and work towards it (study, practice conversations) you will do well.

If you are just doing this on your own, I would buy a introductory textbook or learning system. College level textbooks that have workbooks are great options.

I have studied foreign languages in both of these ways. With the college (or class) option I learn more, and faster, because of the constant schedule and instruction. The 'on your own' option is fine, you just need to be sure to make time and commit yourself to it. If you don't you will not learn much and have difficulty retaining what you covered. Trust me.

Don't just go with Rosetta stone, research other options. There are cheaper and better alternatives.

Took Spanish I and Spanish II in high school.
My girlfriend's mom's side speaks nothing but Spanish. I can understand what they're saying and I can reply with terrible Spanish.. If it was the other way around, it would be like:

Q: How are you?
A: Yes

While it doesn't make sense, it's a positive response... So they get the picture

Sorry... Haven't slept in 2 days

I'm the only English-speaker in this village in the Gobi Desert. I speak nothing but Mongolian all day, and I still sound like a dumbass after a year and a half. I was intermediate low the last time I took a test. Mongolian is ridiculously hard though. I'm learning more about learning languages in general, and I think the next language I will learn faster. It takes a lot of work as you get older, I guess, but you can do it.

I could chit chat with people after about 6 months. I found that what I knew after I studied by myself just fell apart when thrust into a real situation. So it's about those live reps, even though you can understand it all at home it doesn't matter.

Mongolian has vowel harmony, which is weird at first but then seems to make the most sense. It has base words, and then you tack on all kinds of suffixes. You change all the extra parts to match the vowels. It's the same cyrillic alphabet as Russian, and Russian looks super weird to me. Vowel harmony would be like Tigir Droppongs OT Loongo.