For some reason that seemed like an impossible imposition to ask of someone to my adolescent self! I find that as I get older in a monolingual environment, and lose a bit more French every year, I’ve started to appreciate the little portion that remains that much more. If I go somewhere French-speaking now, I do force people to entertain my reasonably-accented but grammatically fumbling French. And I’m secretly delighted when I meet a visitor with better English than my French who still feels uncomfortable enough in English that they’re happy to converse in French!