I don't think the guy understood what he said. None native English Speakers use more than 12 years to learn English and that is 6 years in Primary school and 6 years in Secondary School or College and in University or higher degree again. The major problem for the third world countries in English is the structure (syntax).
All these procedures are for persons that want to learn it as a profession.
Not actually true, we learn English in primary school, secondary and no matter the course you want to study in the university in Nigeria the first year you are going to learn English and it’s all compulsory.
In fact if you fail English in your secondary school final exam (WAEC) no university will offer you admission in Nigeria, this shows how important it is.
In my country which is Nigeria which I believe you are also from Nigeria, we go through all this process not because we want to use it as our profession but because we want to be perfect in speaking English.
The only people that take English as profession in my country are those that go to the university to study only English and linguistic.