[iakdnf]

You are using English because you are using English. When I lived in Germany I used German nearly 100% of the time, and now I speak fluent German with hardly a hitch. 10 years later I regularly run into German speakers, and while it feels a little rusty now, I continue using German because I know if I fall back on English Im going to be using English and not learning German. I recommend you adopt the same learning strategy.

I have been learning Chinese in China for about 7 months, and have a functional command of most conversations because I never ever use English during those conversations. English will always win if you keep biking with the training wheels on.

When I lived in Cambodia for an even longer time I didnt learn nearly as much Khmer because I was constantly speaking in English, even though I diligently listened to Khmer conversations and researched the language. Like programming, language learning is much slower as a spectator sport.

[freehunter]

Right, that's what I'm saying. It's harder to learn another language as an English speaker because there far less incentive to speak anything other than English. Because most people I end up talking to around the world can speak their native language and English, so we both end up speaking English. Sometimes we're speaking English at their request (I've known people who refuse to speak to me in their native language) and sometimes at my request (I really need to understand them and not mishear something).

In my travels, I've yet to run into someone who I really need to talk to who only speaks their native (non-English) language.