I hope i'm not the only one finding it awkward to write English in an actual Arabic site lol, but I might as well.
A lot of people (be it friends, family, people who just met me in Dublin or whatever) ask me how I managed to learn English so well and why I'm so good at it, not to flaunt or anything, but yeah.. I never tell them the full answer honestly, but I'll share it here because I think everyone in true gaming can relate to the same reasons.
The first obviously would be playing video games from an early age, being introduced to games through my brothers. I wouldn't really understand sentences or words but I'd often at least understand the context and that helps. The other big reason, probably the biggest, was me playing an MMO at the age of about 12 (6th grade), I spent A LOT of time on that MMO and of course I had to speak English all the time there so I was forced to use it. I also participated in said MMO's forum a lot too so I had to write proper English there and I would be corrected on mistakes sometimes by grammar nazis.
I played a lot of MMOs after that, one where I put a lot of time into as well, but that was the biggest one.
After that, I started playing Pokemon and kinda getting obsessed with it and discovered smogon, another forum that I went to and was extremely active in (still am), and I had to use proper English there, and the majority of the users are mature so I'd often be corrected or at least called out on mistakes.
I also liked Zelda (the games) a lot and hence I was active in a Zelda fansite and forum, I think that was probably the biggest factor as the forum had a very tight knit community that luckily accepted me quickly and helped me A LOT with grammar mistakes. The forum is kinda dead now but I'm still in touch with most of the then-active members through skype in a skype group and I actually still ask them for help with grammar/English stuff in general because they're native speakers and know the language quite well compared to others.
Other than that, school has helped a lot (surprisingly) with a bit of grammar and vocabulary too. I also went abroad to the UK for a month 2 years ago where I had to depend on myself and my English a lot so that gave me a huge boost in confidence and it actually was when I realized I shouldn't be so worried about my speaking skills.
And, of course, I had a big interest in watching foreign (mostly american) shows and movies with Arabic subtitles, so I picked up a lot of vocabulary from there as well. Same goes for songs. Was never interested in Arabic literature to be honest.
So.. in short, basically it was using the language a lot by playing games/communicating with other people who plays games, being corrected, using English on a daily basis (hell, on an hourly basis) on the internet, and watching English TV shows/movies and listening to English songs.. that's how I taught myself English for the most part, with a bit of help from school.. I also read a few books here and there 🙂
