[Micro67]

In Micronesia my Chuukese was pretty good. It's an easy language, but my Vietnamese leaves something to be desired. The things that must be done in Vietnamese can be done and usually the listeners know what you want anyway (bathroom, restaurants, etc.), but when I've tried more complex conversations with people who are not learning English something is lost. The tones are crucial and even, 'How are you, Ma'am?' - 'Chi co que khong?' sometimes just doesn't fly.

[Siddhartha]

It’s amazing how fast your English can atrophy. You’d think that daily reading, frequent movie watching and some degree of small talk with fellow native speakers on a consistent basis would keep your fluency in pretty good shape, but it just doesn’t seem to be so.

Any time I’ve gone home for an extended break, I’ve found that it takes at least two months for me to feel like my own communicative ability is back up to 100 percent.