Become fluent in French

Je parle Français un peu, mais je voudrais parler très bien.

I studied French the first time in fifth grade, then took two years in junior high and four in high school.

I can read it really well and understand it somewhat when I hear it. My expressive skills are much weaker. I blame this on the method of instruction which was almost entirely focussed on writing out verb conjugations.

I was luck enough to study French with a native speaker and he expected us to write a great deal, but we didn’t really practice conversational French.

Anyway, I decided today that I’d really like to be able to converse fluently in French. I’m going to need it when I go to Paris.¹