I was able to carry on an hour-long conversation about international politics with some random old dude in a bar in France so I'm decent at that language.
If you decide to get into any language, I'd recommend the Pimsleur series for the first primer you get (I listened to the Italian CDs on the plane and train rides there and was able to ask for directions around town and exchange pleasantries and basic conversation no problem), and if you get into French specifically, the Michael Thomas series is awesome at helping you learn conversational French.

If you want to concentrate more on writing than speaking, you'd want to go a different route - even some mobile phone apps can help you in that department as they can make the vocab and grammar into a game with scores etc.