Originally Posted by
Aviatrix
You can learn Dutch or Swedish that way - but not German. The reason is that it is very rare to find English-language films with German subtitles. In Germany most films get dubbed. Which I think is possibly one reason why, as a general rule, people in Germany don't speak English as well as people in the Netherlands and Scandinavia. Germans, unlike their neighbours, don't hear English on TV.
It used to be rare, and you won't find much that is subtitled on TV or in the movie theaters, but now, with the advent of DVDs, you can do this with pretty much any film. In fact, now you can watch a film first, say, with English audio and German subtitles and then watch it again with German audio and English subtitles.
And, yes, I agree with you--I think that the amount of English Scandinavians hear on TV is related to their excellent English skills (there are other factors, of course, but this would seem to be one).