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<title> Evaluation. English, My English! </title>
I first got in touch with the English language when I was ten years old and we started studying it at school. After that I have just found it increasingly fascinating, especially getting in touch with all of the different variations in accents. My interest in English has also made it very easy for me to get good grades on the subject, since I have not really considered it " work" to learn about it. Nevertheless, it is very important to see the difference between "playing" with the language (talking to friends or chatting on the Internet) and serious apprehension of it, if you want to broaden your skills. Rules of grammar, pronunciation, or even the existence of certain words, as I have noticed, may differ a lot. 

Listening
Listening for me has always been quite easy and natural. Since I listen to a lot of music performed in English and also watch many films that are in English, it has somewhat become a part of my everyday life. Obviously not me nor anyone else know all of the English words. But, as a "Swede" I do consider myself fairly good at understanding and absorbing the language listening to it. And after having heard a word in English, I somehow memorise the sound of it to my benefit, but without my actual knowledge. I presume this is why I have never really made an effort trying to understand and learn all of the phonetics that comes with the English language. 

Reading
The reading bit is however a whole lot harder for me. Words may be easy to understand when you hear them in a conversation or in a song. Whereas seeing words written on a paper you can not just read them as they are, you have to be able to pronounce them. And to be able to pronounce them you have to know phonetics, at least a little. (And as I mentioned earlier, I do not know much phonetics.) If you are not able to pronounce words in a correct manner you might misinterpret only a few words in a novel and, just like that, "screw up" an entire story. 
	 Apart from this, there are also the problems of slang and contractions. These phenomena tend to vary indefinitely in the English language which makes your reading even more difficult. For me, however, this is something I find intriguing and even a bit tempting in a book, Swedish or English. It gives me a sense of wit and simplicity that I like in an author.

Speaking
Now we have reached my biggest weakness, the speaking part that is. It really has nothing to with me lacking knowledge. I know how to pronounce words (in general) and I do know a lot of words and some of the grammar that surrounds them too. The point is I get really shy when I am in a crowded room surrounded by people I do not really know. I tend to stutter continuously. And my awareness of it makes it worse. It is really irritating and I often get mad at myself simply for knowing I can do it better. My wish is to get rid of this disturbing flaw as soon as possible since I want to work in advertising, among other things meeting with customers, when I am done studying.

Writing
My writing skills in English do not differ much from my writing skills in Swedish (set aside the spelling part). At least I do not think so. I am not saying that I am a good writer though, seeing that my imagination always goes "hand in hand" with my mood, which unfortunately is not always cheerful and happy. No, I do not exactly think I could make a living out of it. 
	 My most impending problem with writing is that I tend to float away from the main story when my imagination fails me. Instead of taking a break to think of how to continue on the story I have already started, I go off in a new direction somehow forgetting what I was supposed to write about in the first place.

To finish off this short report on my varying talents in the English language, I would just like to say that I intend to improve my flaws and learn more about English throughout the rest of my life. My intentions not being to become a professor in English, but merely to be able to communicate with a wider amount of people. Because this, I think, is the biggest problem of mankind.
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