How important is a language?

I haven't been writing in my blog for a long time and I think that it's due time that I put all these thoughts that been running through my head onto paper (well the electronic kind anyway)
My partner celebrated his 32nd birthday on 1.12.2009 and this was the 2nd time that I celebrated with him and his family. From what I remembered of last year, it was really awkward for me as I didn't know his family that well and my level of dutch was not at a level that it allowed me to converse with me and all I remembered doing was answering 'ja' or 'nee' and basically hanging out with the two toddlers as they were not able to converse as well (although for a far different reason). But after also a year here (and months of Dutch lessons), I felt more like a part of the family and like a real honest. I even baked two pies; an apple pie, because whats, a Dutch birthday without apple pie, and a chocolate cake, because lets face it, I was actually baking it for myself. It made me realise how important knowing and being able to effectively use the language is. I'm glad that I put in all that energy, money and time (and not to mention many hair-pulling hours) into it. For the last couple of months, I've been using the Dutch language more often and also more readily, to make appointments, to ask for information, and especially during my salsa trainings. It's come to a point that when my salsa trainer explained something in English, I sometimes feel like telling him to say it in Dutch. At the beginning of my stay here, and to be honest, even up to a few months ago, I never thought that I would be comfortable with the language. Don't get me wrong, I still have a long way to go in terms of mastering the language, but I also feel that it's not such a big obstacle like it used to be (I've noticed a lot less tears involved). I'm currently doing a class for 3 times a week and this time around, there's plenty more homework involved and at the end of the week, I've noticed how much more tired I am but it is all worth it. AT the end of April, I will have completed level B2 and home to take my NT2 Level 2 exam by September as this is what is needed in order for me to be a high school teacher.
So, if you don't see me so often on here, you know I'm up to... conjugating those verbs and using new words in sentences.