A safe place

In Terry Pratchett's book, The Truth, he says:

"Words resemble fish in that some specialized ones can survive only in a kind of reef, where their curious shapes and usages are protected from the hurley-burley of the open sea. 'Rumpus' and 'fracas' are found only in certain newspapers (in much the same way that "beverages" are found only in certain menus). They are never used in normal conversation."

In some ways, the language I am learning in my Dutch class is the same. We are learning how to say simple things very slowly in complete sentences, with a sort of exaggerated pronounciation. Every day in class, my classmates and I sit there and have practice conversations that run something like:
(in dutch, obviously)
Me: How ARE you?
Marisa: I am good, and you, how are YOU?
Me: Good!

Me: And all of you? Are you going to Paris tomorrow?
Andrew: NO. All of us are are NOT going to Paris tomorrow.
Me: Ah, and where are of you going to?
Andrew: We are all going to Brussels.

Then, when we are talking about our actual plans for the weekend, we lapse back into English, because, seriously, who talks like that? But in a way, I have gotten used to these conversation even so. I was returning a book to the University of Gent library on Monday, and I carefully constructed a sentence that (I think) would translate to something like, "I have a book to return" that I could say to the librarian as I handed it in. I almost expected him to say something like, "Oh, you have BOOK to return? Ah, HERE is the book! THANK you very MUCH" and I braced myself to try to understand any variation thereof. Of course, because this was the real world, he took it, making a noncommittal grunting sound. I stood there for a moment feeling disappointed, and then I walked away feeling relieved. In the real world, people still communicate mostly in gestures and fragments that are pretty universal, and that is something I feel like I completely understand!