Resources for Learning Languages
General
I learned some French in school mostly through 2 textbooks, and memorization by writing things down over and over, and chanting things to myself a lot. However, I found those methods to be brutally boring and tortuous. Mostly I would like to speak, and learning through books is not an ideal way to learn to speak. I tried some apps, but they seemed to start too slow and I got bored. Plus the part of my day that I can devote to learning a language is while I drive to and from work. So I prefer audio lessons.
I use the Pimsleur audio lessons for French and Italian available on audible.com. The Pimsleur audio lessons are good for learning the pronunciation since they use native speakers. I find deciphering French spoken by native speakers to be challenging because in French the words are blended together. These lessons have spaced repetition and grammar basics built into them. I typically only have time to work on French while driving and that works well with the audio lessons. These lessons give you a role to play in dialogs. These dialogs are on typical situations you will encounter while traveling. So they focus on key things like ordering food, getting directions, checking in to a hotel, reserving a table, etc. The speakers are native speakers.
If you want to do the audio approach and Pimsleur seems to challenging. Then I recommend starting with the Paul Noble audio lessons which are also on audible.com. He has pdf sheets with the content on them so you can follow along. He also has books with the material written down. He uses the same kind of technique as Pimsleur, but he goes at a slower pace and has more explanation in English. He divides his core course for each language into 3 parts and for some languages he has a 4th set of lessons called Next Steps. He focuses on core verbs and basic sentence structures and does some space repetition.
Now the audio approach would not work for learning to write languages especially ones with a different alphabet or writing system. Here are some general links about learning languages to learn about a variety of approaches to learning languages that be helpful to you. Ultimately, one just needs to find what works for you. There are many different approaches that can help one learn languages such as learning the most common words first, immersion, learning reading stories, starting to speak right away, having lots of passive input such as tv shows prior to speaking, learning through song lyrics, working on conversations with a tutor, etc. What you try or focus on might also vary with time.
There are also a lot of language learning videos online that are free. Most of them are good for beginners, but some of them focus on how people really speak rather than formal language taught in standard classes. Those kinds of video can be very helpful for intermediate and advanced learners.
French
For French the most helpful thing for me has been the Pimsleur audio lessons. Even Pimsleur French Level 1 is challenging so I do recommend starting with Level 1 even if you took high school French. My French classes in school were not with a native speaker so level 1 Pimsleur audio was helpful for training my ear and as a solidifying basics. The books I used in school are out of print so I would not recommend those. Even though I studied French in school and never took a course in Italian the Pimsleur French lessons seem more difficult than the Pimsleur Italian ones. Paul Noble is a similar audio course that is easier than Pimsleur. Paul Noble has French audio lessons. He divides his core course for each language into 3 parts and for French he has a 4th set of lessons called Next Steps. He has a book with content from the audio lessons for French. He focuses on core verbs and basic sentence structures and does some space repetition.
Italian
I also recommend the Pimsleur Italian Audio lessons. I have been watching Italian tv shows and movies on Prime, Netflix, Apple Tv, MHz Choice, Youtube, Rai, etc. If you want to start with an easier audio course first there is Paul Noble Italian. The core course is divided in 3 parts which you can purchase as one or in 3 parts. For Italian he does have 4th Next Steps part. He has a book you can order with content from the audio lessons.
My favorite tv shows are the trilogy series 1992 Berlusconi Rising, 1993 Berlusconi Rising, and 1994 Berlusconi Rising. I also recommend watching some youtube videos of Italian actor Stefano Accorsi reading with the captions turned on. You can slow the speed of the video down if you need to, but this is a good way to learn Italian phonetics because he enunciates very clearly so that you can match the sounds with the caption text. He is a very famous Italian actor. I have bought some books on Italian, but I have been avoiding them because I fear I will get bored. By watching tv I learned a lot of command phrases that I can say automatically like "Let me go!", "Enough!", "Let's go." "Sit down" because I found a lot of detective shows. Also note that Italian tv shows and movies blend genres so don't be surprised if a love scene pops up in the middle of a detective show. Also the cuss words stand out in the Italian tv shows because they yell them in isolation so you learn cuss words quickly by watching Italian tv shows.