- the language is just too difficult.

The eternal excuse....

I studied Spanish for 6 years from the time that I was 12 until the time that I was 18. Even though it has been a lot of years since then, every time we visit Spain I try to speak only in Spanish. The native speakers tell me that if we lived there that I would be fluent again very quickly. I also studied French for 2 years but now the only thing I can say is "Où est ma valise bleu ?" Which is really helpful because it just so happens that I do have a blue suitcase. The only problem is that if I get a response, I have no idea what it means :) Andy speaks French well enough for us to get by when we visit France.

It is true that many English speakers, even those that are well-travelled do not bother trying to learn any other language. They expect everyone else to speech English. Whenever I am in someone else's home, I try to learn at least a few words in the native language. Things like hello, goodbye, please, thank you.