>I do not know whether knowing French is very useful in the US
>
>And should you decide to go for a private teacher, make it a she-teacher - you'll find it more enjoyable
As far as useful, even though Spanish is supposed to be useful, after studying it for about 20 year and being fairly fluent I have yet to find that it helped me in any real life situation. I usually study languages for a pure self-satisfaction. Last night we (my wife and I) were watching the movie De Vinci Code on TV. And whenever they would talk in French I tried to listen very attentively. And even after only a few weeks of listening to some basic French tapes I was able to catch some words and understand them. Made me feel very good. I can't say the same about the movie. I never liked the book and I didn't finish watching the movie as I found it (both book and the movie) boring.
I do agree that having a "she" teacher adds to the focus of the lessons <g>.
"The creative process is nothing but a series of crises." Isaac Bashevis Singer
"My experience is that as soon as people are old enough to know better, they don't know anything at all." Oscar Wilde
"If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too." W.Somerset Maugham