Mine was Mandarin - twice a week when in town and then you have to practice and keep practising it, largely because of the small tonal inflections.....now mostly forgotten as there is not the opportunity, not unless that language the mater speaks is really Mandarin in disguise.
I found the thing that helped me the most was telling French people I was Welsh whenever they mistook me for English.....!
Seriously, as one poster has said the Michel Thomas CD's are very good.
I also befriend a few French players on xBox, most speak a little English and are more than happy to help me improve my French.
The Michel Thomas courses are very good as others have said. Also just type free French lessons into google and there will be plenty of them. The BBC even has one.