Like many other people, I've tried my hand at learning another language.. only to become bored and give up on it. I had a spanish class in middle school, and took a couple years of german in high school. I remember almost nothing that I learned for either language. Some german has stuck with me, mostly insults, but that's about it. Over the last few years I've also attempted to learn some japanese and russian. I can say "excuse me" in russian and sometimes I'll come up with a phrase in japanese, but won't be able to remember what it means.

There's a new web service call Mango, and I'm very impressed with it. It's currently in beta, which mean the bugs aren't all worked out.. it could stop working, or steal your foot, you never know. Mango is a flash based application, that's completely free, and uses a format that seems superior to anything that I've ever come across (language classes included.)

Each lesson is broken up into slides (like a powerpoint presentation) that you can go through at your own pace. The slides include audio pronunciation, you can mouse over words to see a visual pronunciation guide, and you can skip forward or go back at any point. There are also slides explaining any oddities of a part of speech, and explaining important concept in detail. It's about as close to a 1-on-1 tutor as you can get, not to mention a lot cheaper.

The following languages are currently available in the beta: Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, German, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Russian, French, Greek, English for Spanish Speakers, and English for Polish Speakers.