How I Learned More English From Watching Anime Than 15 Years Of School

I started learning English in kindergarten when I was 3.

At 18, after 15 years of learning English at school, my English still sucked. I couldn't hold a proper conversation with another person.

Today (10 years later), my English is still bad but I speak fluently and I use English as my main language.

In 2013, at 20 years old, my English skills skyrocketed after this single decision:

I couldn't wait for the French subtitles of my favorite anime.

You could watch the new anime with English subtitles a few days earlier than the French version!

So I tried and it was a lot easier than I thought.

The animation and my understanding of Japanese words I subconsciously picked up after watching tons of anime made understanding anime easy even if I didn't completely understand the subtitles.

I started feeling noticeable improvements in my English.

Then my English leveled up again with this second decision:

I couldn't find French translations of my favorite manga.

So I started reading manga in English.

I couldn't understand everything but the images and Google translate made it easy.

After a few days, I could read manga in English without Google translate.

Then my English went from baby level to almost native level after this third decision:

I started reading light novels in English. (basically books with manga-style stories)

I couldn't understand anything in the beginning but I didn't care.

I skipped the hard descriptions and tried to understand the main story.

After some time, I was shocked I could understand English articles on the internet and talk fluently with complete strangers.

Conclusion:

Are English lessons in school useless? Not if you study and use the language unlike me.

Can you learn more English from watching anime than going to school? Yes.

Practice makes things perfect.

It's easier to practice if you have fun at the same time.