Hi Janet.
If you’re new to WordPress and to qTranslate, you probably don’t want or need to delve into tweaks like the ones in this thread.
There is a language chooser included with qTranslate, as a widget. From the WP dashboard, choose Appearance —> Widgets, and drag the “qTranslate Language Choose” from the left side into one of the “widget areas” on the right. You should then see the language chooser appear on your website.
As for creating separate subdirectories with the content in different languages — you don’t have to. With qTranslate installed, any time you edit a Post or a Page, you can do so in as many languages as you have enabled in qTranslate. You just create the content within WP/qTranslate, and it Just Works?.
If it’s not working for you, can you describe what you expected to happen, and what is actually happening.