But until you actually engage in a conversation with someone in the language, an actual exchange where you're listening and speaking, you cannot say that you are conversant in that foreign language. You simply know a lot about it. It takes having done something repeatedly to prove both to yourself and to others that you acutally have skill in it and know it. You know, it's so easy to blindside yourself. Be open to small opportunities.
Big gifts come in surprisingly small, plain packages, to paraphrase the adage.
You may be thinking of the limelight type of opportunity when the small, nondescript intrusion comes along. Before you brush it off, consider how many ways your general goal can be used in the real world. Example, you want to be an orator. You train in public speaking classes, become a skilled member of Toastmasters , throw yourself in the way of others only to find you're getting nowhere. Then the little mouse in the back of the room approaches you and meekly asks if you'd be willing to read their blind neighbor's mail to them.