I wonder if it works for other languages. I took a single semester of German in my last semester of college (I needed 3 free electives to graduate) and several years later I found myself in Litihoro, Greece, the gateway to Mount Olympus. As the night wore on, I got increasing drunk and eventually found myself hanging out with a bunch of old Greek guys drinking ouzo. We discovered the closest thing we had to a common language was German, so the night devolved into one of those where you get so wasted can't find your way back to your pension. We had great conversations, though, including some quite heated discussions about Macedonian politics, which drinking also made me an expert on.

I actually considered doing my MA dissertation on alcohol and language fluency before settling on a dryer topic. Preliminary research showed me that while fluency (the ability to speak without stopping, etc) improved, accuracy went to hell. It's all related to the way alcohol makes you lose inhibitions and do things you might not normally do, be it hit on that girl you've had a crush on, swim across that frozen river, or speak in a langauge you don't really know.