I've learnt basic english with computer games, pirated movies and TV shows (with english subtitles). But to master the language you have to move to a place where they use it. Otherwise, it is extremely hard hard.
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> But to master the language you have to move to a place where they use it. Otherwise, it is extremely hard hard.
There are plenty of counterexamples to this. Consider Finland, where most of the population is comfortable with English and admirably grammatically correct (though they never really lose that distinctive Finnish accent), but they have never lived in an English-speaking country, and in fact Finns travel in general less than their Nordic neighbors. Learning English does not seem to strike the Finns as “hard”, and if you ask them about the process you often get the usual claim that English is an “easy language”.
Looking around European nations, the key to good English seems to be 1) English in school taught from an early age and with a serious approach, and 2) subtitles on television and films, never dubbing (or, as in the case of Romania in the early millennium, a very active torrent community downloading American releases).
Yeah and not loosing the accent isn't that strange since Finnish is one of the few non-indoeuropean languages in Europe and compared to English it's definitely not an easy language to learn.
I would argue that learning through games, TV shows, movies, and the internet is very much like living in an environment of that language. It might not teach you the ability to speak in the same manner, but it will teach you writing.