The two most valuable things I learned in high school: * Most of the time, people are too worried about themselves to worry about you. For you, that means if y

The two most valuable things I learned in high school: * Most of the time, people are too worried about themselves to worry about you. For you, that means if you talk and smile, people will not care about your English. Yes, they'll notice it. They may even say to themselves, "His English is not good!" But if you act like it's not a problem for you, it won't be a problem for them. * Schedule conversations and times to check in with people. A lot of posters here mention maintaining relationships, and many say it's hard for them. Just schedule it in! "Call Tony. Figure out conversation topic... hmm, just got new job, ask for advice." Or "Call Tony. Ask about his new car." Have a topic to start with and then see how things go. Maybe you just want to invite some people to a Mozart concert. The conversation might end after that, or it might continue. Either is ok. A weird cultural thing: in Europe if I smiled as much as I do in the Midwest of the US people would/do think I'm a little disturbed. In the US people smile a lot. An Asian-American male friend has commented that people think he's angry sometimes when he is simply looking into the distance and deciding whether he needs to pick up cereal today or tomorrow. I'm sure this is not true for everyone, but maybe think about what others see when they look at your expression.