The only moment I find foreign language ability to be useful is when I read a book in that language. Understanding directly what the author says is such fun that I prefer a foreign book than translation.
Having a conversation in a foreign language, for example in English, is really fun only if the person whom you are talking to is patient enough. But it can be stressful to talk in that language even if you are with a kind person because you might want to express your idea fluently like you do perfectly in your mother tongue.
Therefore I will tell you how I, a grown up Japanese who has never been to a country where English is spoken, read an English book at the level of enjoying it.
Before telling you how to read, I will tell you how to choose a best book for you. From my experience, novels are the best. Just like it is easy for child to listen to a story, novels are suitable those who are beginning to read in English for the first time.
I think you should avoid classic novels. Instead of these, I recommend a recent bestseller like The Color Purple by Alice Walker. At least, I think you had better choose a recent book. Like we usually prefer Smap to Hikarugenji now(or U2 to Beatles), current hits interest everybody.
Then start reading. Until you catch the personalities of main characters and the global idea of the plot, you had better use a dictionary. In the case of The Color Purple, you should need it until you know in what situation the heroine is, and what Shug, Sophia, the children of the heroine's husband, and Nettie are like.
After you find out what is going on in the story and the personalities of main characters, read further without looking all the unknown words in your dictionary. Continue reading and follow the development of the story. Hopefully you won't quit reading for such a long time that you forget the plot. In the case of The Color Purple, you can go on without dictionary after Nettie's letters began.
Maybe you will still need to look up in the dictionary some unknown words to follow the story as you read half of the book. For example, you might need to find out what "to circumcise" means when you read Tashi's story in Nettie's letters.
In terms of speed of reading, I think you don't need to read quickly but you have to continue reading until the end. When you read sentences of which the grammar structure is highly complex, you should stop proceeding and think about carefully the meaning.
What you should take consideration of is, I think, the main character's emotions or change of feelings through the story. Whether you can enjoy reading in English or not depends on whether you manage to comprehend the main characters' feelings. If you find reading in English enjoyable after reading a novel, you may be courageous enough to read more English books of any kind.
In my case, it was after reading the whole story of The Color Purple that I thought I shouldn't afraid of reading English too much like I was when I took English tests.
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