Speaking a language fluently is subjective. I moved from Hong Kong to UK. We studied English for 10+ years back then, and I had worked in full English environm

Speaking a language fluently is subjective. I moved from Hong Kong to UK. We studied English for 10+ years back then, and I had worked in full English environment for years. Still struggling with talking in English with local people. The accents are different, the choice of words are different, sometimes we preferred to use simple words etc. The results is I can probably understand 60-70% what the other person says, and vice versa. Fill the empty holes with guess game and I feel I sound like a total idiot in conversations sometimes. The worst part is either side repeating the same word two or three times, because the word already known to both is pronounced differently. My confidence in my English ability went from 100% to 0% in a few months. At least for some places I can use email and I'm definitely feel much better when I can just read and write.