You know its quite hard for us Americans to actually to learn to speak a 2nd or 3rd new language fluently, outside of maybe Spanish.

I lived in Turkey for two years, spoke at a conversation level fairly well, but once the other person realized I wasn't Turkish (it wasn't apparent) they wanted to practice their English. I went to Ukraine in December, spent 3 months learning Russian (I was visiting a Russian speaking area), and once they learned I was American (much sooner than Turkey), they wanted to practice their English. The only two counties that let me practice were France and Italy, with the Italians being the most patient in our conversations.

As an American, we want to learn new languages but no one let us practice.