Apprendre le francais

For a long time, I've wanted to learn French.  I started doing just that a few weeks ago.  Teaching myself with the help of a book and Google Translate (to get pronunciation).  So far, I've cracked the surface.  I'm starting small and branching outward.  All the chapters in the book start out with a paragraph in French, mostly untranslated.  Some of the words and phrases are translated, but most aren't.  When I got to the second chapter's paragraph, I was a little shocked at how much I could read of it.  It's feeding my enthusiasm to keep going.  That's crucial, because before I read that paragraph, I was wondering what I'd gotten into.

I hope to be somewhat fluent in six months.  It'll be a challenge to maintain it.  I don't have a reason to speak French on any kind of regular basis.  But I can seek out French language news sites, read French books, watch more French movies.  These can help.  Once I can get to a certain level, I'll be able to move to the French Riviera and not worry about how to communicate.  Step 2 in this plan is, of course, winning the lottery.