I do agree that learning a foreign language is not an easy business but one should think about it before being in the process of an upgrading.
I am french and I know that we are (the french people) very bad at speaking an other language. The thing is that our job requires to speak english so we must do our best in this matter.
I do not blame you, Flyingtet, but I do blame the french airlines, a few years ago none of them had their applicants undergo an english test or interview...