Yes, that's why I started to study more with textbooks and audios that were created by native speakers and deal with natural everyday English rather than stubborn grammar. Nevertheless, my grammar skills help me with understanding (regarding the usage of tenses etc.), of course.
It is true that grammar knowledge helps you understand English. What I was trying to say is that it is actually the wrong grammar.
Now that I've confused you let me try to explain.
When the Renaissance language philosophers tried to analyze modern languages they did so through the lens of Latin and Old Greek because they believed that before the biblical Babel incident when God confused the languages of people everyone spoke the same perfect divine language and ever since Babel all the languages had deteriorated. So to them older languages meant that they had to be better. So when they analyzed English for example they thought something along the lines of, Latin has this feature let us find out how English does the same thing.
This worked, after a fashion. Mostly because linguistics before the 20th century was mainly prescriptive, meaning they told others how to speak. They could just say everything that native speakers do that doesn't follow the rules they just told you is them making mistakes.
As a language learner you want to be told how to speak, so that's fine. It also turns out that using Latin was a happy accident. Latin encodes so much information in its grammar, that when you learn English through this Latinesque grammar you get a working language. It's not actually the same as a native speaker's English but it is never wrong and it is close enough to be useful to understand basically everything that is written, it's just not always the most natural way of expressing things. It puts you on a starting point from which your brain can figure out how spoken English works.
But when you are trying to analyze how native speakers actually use the language this type of grammar seems to sprout exceptions like pimples on a teenager.
Linguists really noticed that when they concerned themselves more with how people really learn languages. Now they were forced to analyze that everyday English and find the structures and they found that they really needed a completely different type of grammar, one that reflects the true inner workings of the language and how the human brain of a native speaker would, likely, analyze a phrase.
So what I am really trying to say is that when you really want to try and learn to speak like a native speaker I'm not saying that you shouldn't use what you've learned when you need it, far from it. It's a myth that children learn faster than adults. They don't. They are just better at learning things by exploration. Adults can actually learn almost everything faster than children but we need a structure to guide us. You have that structure within the grammar you've learned. I would estimate that you are in a place in your learning where you should try to leave this grammar behind. Not by ditching it but by using it as the guide to find the places where it doesn't help you anymore. That's the place where I would suggest you learn these things like you learn vocabulary. Don't question the grammar, just accept that's how it is said. Over time you will come across something similar and you will recognize it again and at some point you'll just understand it without thinking about it.
Of course, I'm also happy to explain the internals of the English language and how there aren't really any tenses and why there is no gerund and how English has no clear distinction between parts of speech and so on. I've done this before and sometimes it helps but often it's just because I like to think about these things and analyze them.
Ich wollte zum Ausdruck bringen, dass ich auf eine gute Gemeinschaft, mit anderen Worten, einen netten, hilfreichen Austausch im Forum hoffe. Wie würdest du es zum Ausdruck bringen? Sometimes I think too complicated and sometimes too simple!
I'm afraid I cannot really help you in this case. I would say "to good collaboration" but that's just the English expression of the pragmatics I'm able to extract from "einen netten, hilfreichen Austausch im Forum". However, in my experience "nett und freundlich" usually extends beyond pragmatics when used by neurotypical people, so I would expect that you mean something less socially distanced than "collaboration". So ... uhm ... help? Someone?
You're never too old to learn something stupid.
Mistake – Suggestion – You sure that's right?
), and I've been studying English for years now (with the help of books, audio CDs, online courses etc.). Firstly because I really love this language (especially the American way of expression) and secondly because I need it for my job. 
. But otherwise the more active writers are usually more mature. Most of the younger people probably just drop in for a question or two and then leave again.
isch (English). That's why I love this language that much. 
Und wäre ich konzentrierter bei der Sache gewesen, hätte ich sicherlich auch geschrieben "