Amazing story! It get close to home for me because I have a rather similar story, although mine also involves the internet halfway into learning English from video games.
I particularly remember playing RPGs like Chrono Cross on PS1 and trying to figure out what the characters were saying with my incredibly limited English vocabulary. And it was really great to slowly but surely build up to playing games without any problem understanding it.
I just hope that kind of learning experience is not gone in today's world where games in several languages are more common.