You miss a bit, but you get most of it. Many people use them successfully to watch YouTube videos, read articles, etc. You can usually find what a meme means by

You miss a bit, but you get most of it. Many people use them successfully to watch YouTube videos, read articles, etc. You can usually find what a meme means by googling it. A lot of American culture gets through to people who don't speak English. To the point of even adopting English expressions in their daily lives. A lot of it has to do with the fact that the internet is currently not as split up as you propose. Heck, before I spoke English I'd play Ultima Online with people from the US. I managed to join a guild and interact with them in the 90s, with bad internet, bad translation software. Just by figuring out the game, picking a word here and there. I've seen people who don't speak Japanese interacting in Japanese communities by just using translators. When people have a shared passion or objective, language is really not a barrier.