You are a false beginner if you have ever studied a language at any point in time, have some linguistic knowledge, but cannot use the language.
I recently published a post detailing an ever increasing situation holding UK Muslims back from enriching their lives learning Arabic (I suggest at least skimming through it first before reading this).
As a very brief summary, there are numerous intertwining barriers both logistically and attitude-driven preventing progress, thus rendering people with little to no practical language skills.