I don't feel particularly proud, due to all the horrible things I go through, but well, despite everything, I am coping living in a land that is not mine and not my language and despite having absolutely no lessons; just absorbing the language, I can get by in French. I am useless with writing in French and find it still very difficult to understand when it is spoken, but my husband, who is really, really shortfisted with compliments towards me, actually commended me for my French the other day and said that it does annoy him, because if I studied French, I would become fluient. I doubt it though, because I find it a very hard language ( when I delved deeper into English a few times in the past, I felt the same way).
So yes, I can have a conversation with French people, who often commend me for my command of French, although with GREAT disappointment, when I did a voice message for my spiritual mom, I spoke a bit of French ( she assumed that I sounded part English and part French), I played it back and was dismayed at how ENGLISH I sounded. All it was, was different words I was saying; but absolutely not sounding French and lol I was so upset and had to delete it; but in fact, it was not cringeworthy, which is a blessing.
An English woman once said on hearing me talk to a French lady. Wow, you sound amazing, Suzanne; your voice just flows and you sound so natural speaking French. I smiled and said: please, do me a favour? Do not come and live in France, because if you do, you will soon see how AWFUL I sound and she laughed.
I base this on my brother in law, who is no longer alive. Before I moved to France, he sounded French. On moving and speaking a bit, I detected a slight English accent to his voice.
OHHHH and I am actually REALLY proud of my cross stitching!