Give a child a cartoon in a language they don't understand and they'll do their best to figure out what's going on. Try that as an adult and you'll think it's a giant waste of time. A child can do that for the entirety of the day, an adult will feel completely exhausted after an hour, couple of hours tops.

I am confident that was the key difference amongst my pre-Internet generation. I had access to Cartoon Network, therefore I feel very comfortable with English. Some of my peers had access to German TV channels, therefore they speak German. Lucky ones had access to both.