I am an English lady who has lived and worked all over Europe during the last 25 years, I settled for 7 years in the Netherlands working at a number of Dutch companies and am entirely self-taught in terms of the Dutch language both written and spoken.  I met a Dutch partner and decided to go full immersion to ensure my daughter could also start in a local school without fear of not being understood.  My daughter picked up the language like only a child can however being somewhat older I needed to improve my skills using word-searches, reading books, watching detective shows and eventually embarking on a degree course with a Dutch distance learning university (LOI) to study Business and Information Technology, that was certainly a challenge but gave me both confidence and an extra qualification (not to mention an unhealthy addiction to Dutch detective shows).  I feel my key skill is to be able to understand the subtleties and nuance of Dutch text and word that in English to 'mean' the same rather than directly translate. 

I believe English is a language that anyone can rapidly make themselves understood in but takes a lifetime to master - I haven't had my lifetime of practice yet but I have a good grip on both business and private language forms and have a good grasp of IT, medical and legal terms thanks to my career having taken me in all 3 directions.  I am also able to write snappy succinct marketing taglines or keep sales material sharp and to the point as I have worked in competitive bids and stakeholder management where these skills are paramount.