Why do you want to learn a language?
Travel. Well, you can get by with very little foreign language to travel, since people in hospitality industry are most likely to speak English. Travel is great, but I've known a guy who is a great traveler to Cuba, knows the country well with many Cuban friends, whose Spanish is almost non-existent.
Reading. If you want to read, then you can read. You can read very well and not have a basic traveler's knowledge. That's fine too.
Teaching. If you want to teach, you have to be a step ahead of where your students are. You also want to be good role model.
Pronunciation. You might always speak the language with your own accent. If I heard a tape of myself speaking Spanish I could have a hundred quibbles. That is the gold standard, in the sense that someone native will always sound native, and you and I might never. But think that Joseph Conrad might never had passed for a native speaker of English...
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