Yes. And honestly, it seems like it's not that hard, nowadays. Really, just watching (a lot) of TV shows in the target language does the trick, in terms of understanding and pronunciation.

I guess that wouldn't provide jobs for teachers, though! 

I agree. Even the educated French who read and write English well often have a terrible pronunciation that makes my ears bleed.

Efficient verbal communication should be a priority when learning a new language. 

teemupleb

alter_native

I NEVER heard of this way to learn a language , but it seems to work great

Signal312

I should have mentioned this in the original post, but in my head, I'm contrasting him (spoke English really well) with some of the other French people I know, who completed high school and maybe even university, but have a terrible accent, and aren't fluent at all. But his gaming habit really did wonders for his English.

I think the system of teaching English in France must be pretty bad. People who go through the school system in places like Germany or the Netherlands seem to end up speaking English quite well. 
 