[f00zz]

Just bear in mind that there's a huge difference between being able to get the gist of something spoken in a foreign language and being able to convey your thoughts effectively in that language. Even after man-years of study I still sound like an idiot when trying to speak English in conference calls, even though I can understand nearly 100% of written and spoken English.

[sjcsjc]

I obviously can't judge your spoken English, but your written English is fine. If you hadn't stated otherwise, I would have assumed from your writing that English was your native language.

[asark]

Idiomatic usage ("bear in mind") and register ("gist") even came off as native, without running into common give-aways like incorrect or technically-OK-but-not-quite-right prepositions. Nice.

[notyourloops]

You can't rely on it as the only means of learning, but it makes for the foundation. Conversation is hard to begin with, but conversation when you don't understand what is spoken quickly enough to begin to form a response is impossible.

[mcguire]

I sound like an idiot when trying to speak English and I'm a native speaker.

I don't know what my conclusion is; maybe speaking is difficult.

[p1esk]

Ability to communicate effectively, especially in public, is an extremely valuable skill. Much more valuable than, say, knowing how to program.

[overcast]

Unless English is an easier language to understanding all broken up, nearly 100% of the time I can figure out what someone who claims to be "bad" at it is saying. English speakers, particularly in the US seem to be pretty tolerant of it. While other countries seem to be dismissive of anyone attempting their language, as if they can't POSSIBLY understand a single word you're saying.

tldr: I'm sure you sound fine, and we can all understand you.

[robocat]

English speakers have contact or familiarity with a huge variety of foreign speakers, enough that we can categorise French accents, Swedish accents, Hindi accents etc etc. And we simply get heaps of practice with non-native English speakers. I don't think the same thing occurs so strongly in other languages.

English has a massive variety of vowel sounds within its different accents, as well as other variations in length, emphasis, consonants etc. Native English speakers have a subtle ear for a massive range of vowel sounds (and plenty of people can reproduce them when speaking in an accent). A Spanish person can be confused if you substitute or mispronounce a single vowel in my experience.

[luckydata]

nah, the man is right. I learned english that way, it works surprisingly well, but only if paired to "use in context". Every time you learn something, you gotta use it, otherwise it won't stick. You gotta use that new word to get something done you actually need, because your brain is very reward oriented and it will fix the memory if it leads to a positive outcome.