My problem was I got to the point where I could understand the language, and then never got to the point of actually expressing myself completely.
Maybe one day...
That's really hard to do without immersion in a place where it is spoken and no one speaks English. Then you have to learn it the same way a child does — you use your limited vocabulary to work around concepts and then listen to what gets said back to you.
One time I was in Italy with my 5-year-old, staying in a village with a friend from school. Virtually no one spoke English. We were out sightseeing and my kid was getting a red rash under his arm from sweating. I stopped a lady in the street to ask where I could buy some talcum powder, but I didn't know the words. Finally I showed her his arm. "O!" she said. "Polvere!"—which I understood from the English cognate "pulverize." So I nodded and smiled, and she directed me to "la farmacia."