Being a non-native speaker, I can confirm this

I have a strange sensation of déjà vu, but anyway, it's usually the case that it is much easier to learn when we want to, and nearly impossible when we don't.

I learnt a lot playing Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic when I was a teen 😂 I actually encourage my students to play video games (real video games, Fortnite is a no) in English. It works for many people. I know some of them like Hogwarts Legacy and have played it in Spanish, so I encouraged them to replay it in English.

Schools only teach you the rules. You gotta figure out the rest on your own.

"I have severely underestimated the amount of English school taught me".

I'd say without the base knowledge of English I learnt from school, I wouldn't be able to improve on my own by consuming content in English.

Actually, I learned a lot more about grammar from school and the more common ways of speaking through games and other social media platforms. I've read some novels as well and I think they helped me a lot while I was learning English. My first novel was Gulliver's Travels which I read when I was in Grade 6. Easy language but still used to be fairly difficult for me. I remember those fun times when I got an Oxford Pocket Dictionary and used to look up the meanings of all the words that I didn't know about even though it was a lot more time consuming. It was a part of our school syllabus and we had to answer some fairly easy questions about the story in that novel. I still am learning English and have to improve the way I talk, my pronunciation is good but I stutter while speaking. Gotta fix that.

Everyone asks me "how can you speak English so fluently?" tbh? idk lol

Haha

I wish it was as easy to do it in non english languages

I LOVE this! I've found that formal language rules in school build the foundation for continuing to learn on your own - similar to what u/Sea-Hornet8214 said. That being said- the English you consume naturally like that from video games, movies, and memes will propel you forward in your English knowledge and mastery.

hahaha very laugh!! good posting!

Basically learned the entire English language by playing about 600 days of WoW as a teen.

See, I often hear this from people studying English. So, I tried the same approach when studying Chinese. Yet, even after over a year of watching Chinese dramas and general media, I still learn much much more through my classes. I don't understand the difference

As a native speaker, I can confirm this, too.

Even as a native speaker, Pokemon is how I learned to read. I saw my mom playing and really wanted to play myself. She told me I would need to know how to read to play. I still wanted to play, so she got me a guide book and had me read it before getting me my own copy. Her logic was that since it was something I wanted to do on my own, I'd be motivated to learn more than if it was something I was being forced to do. And hey, it worked. Video games seem to be a common one for learning to read/learning English, from stories I've seen online and heard from friends irl. I'm pretty sure it's as simple as having a concrete motivation helps people to focus on learning. I've seen similar with native English speakers learning some Japanese because of anime and manga.

This is true with every second language.

I learned to read to read the civolpedia in civilization 3

I must be the only one who pretty much learned nothing from school when it comes to English 🤷

Yup, i can absolutely relate.

First is accurate. Second for me is books, especially warhammer ones. Picked up a horus heresy book and I find a new word every 2 or 3 pages

English language media is like America's cultural victory in civilization

meanwhile native english speakers whose native or even only language, can’t even manage homophones… your/you’re, their/there/they’re, its/it’s, to/two/too, could/would/should…. have not of, etc

Can confirm. Yes, I have a lot of deliberate achievements through deliberate efforts, but the majority still came from my experience of molesting the fuck out of people on VRChat and Discord VCs throughout the years. The English they teach here in Japan aside from basic grammar is egregiously incorrect in the vast majority of cases so almost none of it worked. The only level of grammar I learned from school is something I could have easily learned anywhere else online as well, even through just a few YouTube videos.

It’s really true!!! And I recently had watched Stranger Things! I love itemote:free\_emotes\_pack:feels\_good\_man

The amount of "me" i see in this makes me nauseous

i learned english as a kid by watching the looney tunes during my weekends with my dad, so i got very good at listening and shit at reading/writing in school (until i started reading one direction fanfiction that is)

Shoutout to both NFS Underground 2 from the PS2 and Markiplier for kickstarting my ability to learn and speak English.

"English that I learn from corn"