>>I suspect in my case, it's more my timidity in using the language (Really, you can all stop laughing now. <s>), and perhaps a lack of fluidity.
>>
>
>I hear you. We all have our comfort zones. But I think Charles is right, alcohol helps <g>

It does... once we got drunk with a bunch of Germans; somewhere around the 4th beer (or 6th, recalculated into these small beers), I became fluent in German and others in English. Later, we were just fluent.