I am brazilian. The official language around these parts is portuguese, not english. Sure, many people know other languages, but at daily life we pretty much use only portuguese. It was among the first things I learned, right there with eating by myself and walking and whatnot; I began studying english at 11, almost a decade later (I am 21 now). When I turned 6, my dad gave me an SNES, bundled with Super Mario World.

I played through it in complete ignorance of the minimal plot and the in-game details. I knew Mario, but Bowser was just a nameless evil turtle and Peach was just a nameless princess in a pink dress; I didn't know many things about video game lore back then. Next, I turned my attention to Donkey Kong Country 2. It was a lot like Super Mario World: creatures showed up and I smashed them. Donkey Kong kidnapped? Clueless about that. The games I played at this point required no knowledge except the ability to press games like Super Mario Kart, Super Street Fighter 2, Super Bomberman - not exactly rocket science.

When I was 11, I began studying english (grammar only) a