I've always found it interesting how society can take someone with no idea how to speak and turn them into someone fluent in a language within four or five years. Learning a second language is no easy feat either, but when learning a first language, you could have something like this happen:
               "What's the English word for '苹果'?"
               "Oh, it's 'apple'."
               "...what's the baby word for 'apple'?"
               "..."

I've studied Mandarin Chinese for over six years now, but yet I still have much to learn and I'm far from fluent. One thing I've learned is that I can't trust myself. In the past, I've said something like "Oh, I'll just put down these exercises and work on them later." Yeah, that's never going to happen. Because of this, much of the six years has been off-and-on practice, switching between formal classes and informal practice.

The informal practice, I believe, is the most important part. I've been using the online language exchange site italki (my page is here) to practice my Chinese with real people. In turn, I correct their English. In this way, I can see how the language is used outside of textbooks and lessons and help people in my situation realize their goal of everyday speech is not far off.