I got this game about two months before a trip to Paris to work on basic French since I had no experience with the language. I was fairly fluent in Spanish about 10 years ago but haven't practiced in the meantime so I think that familiarity helped me progress. I practiced every day leading up to my trip and I can't even tell you how much it helped. I learned so much vocabulary that I was able to communicate my needs clearly and ask for help and directions. I'm sure my accent was terrible but the key in France is to make an attempt to speak the language and most people will immediately start speaking English to you and are very nice about it. The only people I observed the French being rude to were people who didn't try to speak French and would shout English at them...I think I'd be mad too.The game format was perfect for me to learn things quickly and made it engaging that I actually wanted to practice. I think the only problem I had was that I didn't get through enough of the game and just didn't have enough practice listening to French so when I would communicate with people, I could talk at them but had trouble understanding them. The biggest benefit besides a basic grasp to navigate the country, was that using this game I found it very easy to read French. Being able to read the language helps SO MUCH. I think that was my biggest takeaway other than basic conversational skills.