^^^^^^^Well said.^^^^^^^^^

I think NZCYM used a rather brilliant way to illustrate the mimic way verse regular way of learning English.
Take me for example, if I am going to have a short trip to France just for sight seeing, I think the mimic way to learn French will be the easiest way for me at least not getting lost in Paris. (You know the French people don’t speak English very well.) I will be there shopping for perfume, jewelry and underwear so my broken French won’t be a problem, well, not likely to be a problem since I am a tourist. You don’t expect much from a tourist, taxi driver or a senior to speak any language other than their mother tongue too well because they do not need to. A tourist in a sightseeing place means money, the French people don’t care how broken your French is or how many grammatical mistakes you made, because you PAY those people to serve you, in another word, you are the BOSS.

On the other hand, if the purpose of my trip to France is a business trip other than just sight seeing, I need to negotiate with some international enterprise CEOs for a big contract, then, certainly my fluency of French does MATTER.

Summary:
If you just want to be a tourist, taxi driver or you are a senior, the mimic way to learn English probably okay for you.
If you want to be anything else, try the hard way.