They teach it in schools and almost everything on tv is English anyways save for a few local channels.

Yet somehow the result of this is the ability to use the English language?

Here the official languages are Spanish and English. It is taught in our schools since elementary and there are some private schools who teach only in English. Even with this not all puertoricans know English well enough to speak it.

I got most of my basic English from school. The rest I learned because of gaming and watching cable TV.

Panama used to have american bases so when I was born, english was taught at my school (though it was just one class, five times a week) and seen or heard in several ways. Movies are shown in english with subtitles and only animated ones or family oriented ones are translated to spanish. Books and magazines in english are aplenty in bookstores and with the internet you get to see it even more if you look around.

In my case, I learnt it through comics. Comics always managed to grab my attention and most of them were in english, so I actually sat on the bed with a dictionary in hand, looking up words I didn't know, just to find out what Spiderman was telling Dr. Octopus. Then we got cable TV and english became more common in my household. Then we rented a room to a danish guy who only spoke danish and english and we practiced a lot. Eventually english, which was my worst grade in my first years of school became my best, with math, chemistry and physics becoming my worst as soon as they introduced algebra.

I had a female neighbor who wanted to learn english just because and she wasn't doing to good at it even with me helping her, mostly because she had no motivation. She got a job babysitting american children and the moment she met her english speaking boyfriend, she picked it up in a jiffy. There's nothing like good motivation to make you pick up any language. :)

Kind of... learning a language the way I did has its limits. Now that I live in the US, I want to go back to school and learn English properly. Nothing replace a teacher. Ah ! I can't believe I said that.

Immersion is the easiest way to learn a language. He was immersed while playing those games, certainly immersion will benefit when you have a background of the actual rules, but even without it you will most likely become passable.

I had english at school but I learnt it from games and movies. Because I needed it to understand to games and movies.

Because I like the sound of the language. Also, its the perfect one for vocals. And I am able to talk to a lot more people with it.

And you can forget about the whole mother tongue / patriotism / different culture / some other piece of shit society stuff with me. I just wanna communicate with people.

Here, english is a mandatory subject when you are coursing primary & secondary education.

That doesn't mean that all spaniards can read or talk english language properly - in fact, in Spain most people is not used to watch movies in their original version with subtitles (!) nor to play games in english (they cry a lot when there's not a translation for a particular good game).

I have always loved to see o.v. movies with subs (dubbings are a real shame, with some exceptions), and i remember to play "Mystic Quest" for the Nintendo Game Boy at the age of 8 with an english-spanish dictionary by my side.

Somehow i can read (Books! yay!) and write (meh..) english. To talk is another story as i'm not used to it.

I think the last time I watched TV was....like...3 months ago

I really see little to no purpose for it anymore

You want news? Go online for it instantly

Movies/shows? Go online

Entertainment? Play some videogames

I can watch many channels on my PC online and yet I have no need for that

Irish, UK, Russian - most channels are terrible, bombarded with ads and show little more than that stupid "reality TV" and Soap operas

But hey, that's just my thoughs

It is rapidly becoming obsolete. That is having a TV is rapidly becoming obsolete. Programming can still have value if it's of suitable quality.

Here in Spain we use TV as a siesta-inducing device. It is highly effective but you have to be extra careful selecting a proper station, otherwise you could end up with a nervous breakdown instead.

LOL Clearly TV is still serious business in Spain.

I have noticed that myself. The only time my TV is on now is to watch dvds or blu rays. I use the IPlayer, 4OD to catch up on the handful of shows i do watch. Things like QI, HIGNFY, Celebrity Juice, Charlie Brooker and the odd documentary are the only things I tend to watch now.

Did anyone catch that Netflix put in a bid for a show? That's right, if they buy the rights it'll be their original programming. TV is dying and good riddance.