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<title> English, My English! </title>
Foreign languages have alwayas been comparatively easy for me, compered to other subjects. Weather I'm good at it I leave for others to decide, but I never had to study hard to pass with the grade 3. For some reason I was mostly satisfied with that. As long as I passed I was happy. However, I found out that with just a little extra effort I was able to get a higher grade and with that a little more satisfaction. In this course, I understand that I'm gonna have to put more than just a little extra effort in to it to pass.

 The first time I felt that I really had use for my English knowledge, was when me and my family was on vacation. I think that I was fourteen years old. All the vacations so far in my life had included my two years older sister. Since she was older than me, it had always been she who had talked English to people in reception desks at hotels and so on. This time she was gonna stay in Amsterdam a week longer than me and my parents. On the morning when we were leaving, we had had a breakin in our car. I had to go with my parents to the police station and do the talking since none of my parents are any good at English. The whole thing went surprisingly good. We got our report for the insurance company in Sweden. My father was very impressed with me. He knew that my sister could speak foreign languages, but he had never given it much thought that maybe even I could speak English.

 When it comes to listening to English, I sometimes find it easier to listen to someone who speaks English than to someone who speaks Swedish. I feel that my weakness is concentration. When I listen to a person who speaks Swedish I don't have to concentrate that much bacause I know the languge. English on the other hand, is not my native language, therefor I have to concentrate more when I listen to it. However, listening to English is something that I do every day. Since I watch alot of TV, and many of the programmes are English or American, I listen to English whitout knowing. It is of course a big help that we in Sweden doesn't dub the TV-programmes or the movies at the cinema.

 In terms of speaking I've improved very much the past three years. In my opinion, I didn't speak enough English in school. That, I think, depending on my laziness. I only answered questions direct asked to me. Often those answers weren't very long. But for three years ago I got a job at Arlanda Parking. The job also contained selling bus tickets at the International Arrival hall at the airport. Almost half of the people buying tickets there were foreigners, therefor speaking English, or in some cases German or French. In the three summers I have worked there, I think that it has become much easier for me to start a conversation whit someone in English. Of course, sometimes I get tounge-tiedness.

 I've never written any long essays or anything in English. Eccept for the small things I did in school. I don't think of those as serious writing. Of course they were, I just didn't think of them as serious bacause I wasn't very serious whit my studies. I knew that I would pass just by writing an ordinary essay based on my inborn knowledge, whitout having to study for it. 

 Before starting on this English course, I had never read a book in English. Now I'm just finished with Nice work by David Lodge. In the beginnig it was hard. The reading was slow, but when I had adapted to English it was very nice to read.

 English has always been pretty easy for me to understand and I have enjoyed studying it. I am aware that I will have to work hard for this course, but I hope that I will learn alot and that it will take my English knowledge to a new level. Hopefully, by the end of it, I will still think that English is interesting.
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