@Robert Gentel,
I also noticed I am much better at "sounding" colloquial. Due to various factors when I was younger I struggled at sounding "normal" (foreign language influence made my vocabulary more Latin-based, and I had sesquipedalian tendencies) and it was off putting to many and hard to have some conversations. Now I can better fit into the kind of language people are using and am less prone to sound like I just bought a thesaurus.
Some of it, ironically, is due to not working with language as a profession anymore (used to teach, interpret and work as a lexicographer and memorizing dictionaries was a pastime). By studying and working with language less I am actually using it more effectively in day to day life.