Foreign Language

Let's face it: in this country, people as a whole take a very negative attitude towards learning a foreign language. Don't get me wrong; I'm not saying that immigrants who migrate to the States haven't been lax themselves on learning our tongue, but that's another discussion for another day!
For my honeymoon this summer, we're going to France and the Czech Republic. My father (who speaks French, Spanish, Italian, Latin and rudimentary German) was kind enough to pick me up a phrase book on the Czech language and I must say, it's not an easy language to master. It's interesting that when expressing my concern over the language barrier to friends and general acquaintances, they give a wave of the hand and remark, "Oh, they speak English everywhere!"
Well, yes that is true but why can't we take time out to learn a few phrases here and there? I've been dabbling with the ROSETTA STONE LANGUAGE LIBRARY. It's a CD-ROM program and it uses pictures and sounds to teach phrases and key words. It's something of a Sesame Street (Or Rue de Sesame)for adults. I've been playing around with the German version myself, in spite of the fact that both countries I'm visiting don't use German for their native tongue. Now, there are a few pros and cons as should be expected with any technological devices.
Ok, the bad news: This program is EXPEN$IVE!! The software costs over $200 and that's just for one level. More bad news is that the program does not offer any English translations. One looks at a picture and just assume "Der Hund ist Gelb und die Katze ist schwarze" means "Dog is yellow and the cat is black."
So the good news is, the cost issue can be fixed as well as the ambiguity of the language. To save costs you can borrow the software from most libraries. OR there's an online version available from the New York Public Library's website. As long as you're a New York state resident, you can get a NYPL card and access some of the databases from home! As far as clearing up the ambiguity of the language, try out some of these translation sites through Altavista and Google.
Buenos suerte!