Oh yes! Well I was getting some basics at school, but absolutely not on the needed level. At the time, Russia wasn't localising The Sims and they had it purely in English. I believe it was translated to Russian around the time the Seasons were out
but I loved the game - my uncle gifted it to me. So I was kinda forced to learn as I went - doing something, seeing what's happening and learning what it meant. So yeah, not exclusively by Sims, but it was a huuuuuge part of my learning for sure
And I was also playing with a lot of added objects that I was downloading from all of those forums...that were again in English, so I was forced to teach myself