Ask the Readers: Advice for Learning a Foreign Language

I recently got accepted into an international exchange program through my university. It seems I’ll be living in Montpellier, France, for one year starting in early September.

There’s only one problem: I don’t speak French.

I’ve taken some basic classes, but I’m far from fluent. I understand many of my readers are multilingual, so I thought I’d ask the audience for help on this one. What is your advice for learning a foreign language?

I’ll be spending the months between April and August putting myself through second-language boot camp. Hopefully I’ll get a change to experiment with different tools to give myself a basic level of conversational fluency before I go to Europe. Any ideas are welcome!

Edit (Mar 18, 2009): I have the best audience on the web, and possibly also the smartest. It’s been less than a day, and already I have a few dozen comments. Thanks for all the advice, I’ll keep you guys updated on my progress.