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My strengths and weaknesses in the four skills of writing, listening, reading and speaking mainly relates to the fact that I am a musician and have loved music since the day I was born. For me, this is a way of mixing all four skills in a interesting, developing and joyful way.
At the age of seven my favourite band was Mötley Crüe and me and my best friend Liza listened to them all the time. By that time we were making up fake-lyrics since we didn't know all of the words. Nowadays I write my own music including lyrics in English. Many people wonder why, since Swedish is my native language, but somehow I find it easier to write lyrics in English than in Swedish. This is the type of writing I do more frequently. When I was younger I used to have a lot of pen-pals from all over the world as well, but as the years have gone by we have stopped writing eachother. Today I correspond mostly via e-mail. It's easy and quick and I can not only get in contact with absent friends but also with "fans" through my personal home page on the Web. So even though my mailbox is empty my "inbox" brings me joy. 
My strenght in writing is that I do write. From the heart and a lot. And the fact that my lyrics often are said to move the ones listening. My weakness is just about the same; I write songlyrics. No formal letters, no essays. Just basic lyrics of the broken-hearted people.

When I was growing up my friend Liza, who was born in South Africa, spoke both English and Swedish at home so I never found the sound English neither strange nor new. I also enjoy travelling a lot, with friends, family or alone, and English is without doubt the most international language. It is to be heard all over (except in France and Germany?). The "main-subject" of my life - music - naturally involves listening as well and I take great interest in other artists lyricwriting. Besides through music I hear spoken English watching movies and the TV (almost) every night. But I do admit that I read the Swedish subtitles...
	My strenghts would have to be that I listen to music a lot and that I have always been more or less surrounded by the English language. My weakness would be the fact that I only watch and listen to what I like. 

At the risk of repeating myself I mostely read - lyrics! In addition I read questions and letters sent to me by people from all over asking about my music. Unfortunately no magazines or books. More of a weakness than a strength, I would say. But, again, starting out at the age of six Liza was a great teacher and we used to tape our "lessons" as I was trying to read, spell and pronounce "dog", "house" and "farm" the right way. Guess I just got old and lazy.

My spoken English has improved over the years, perhaps thanks to the music. Singing in English have created a natural environment for practising without thinking too much about it. I have also experienced that the promotional part, like giving interviews, have forced me to talk as much as I can. From what I've learned an interview is more likely to be "true" (according to me) if I'm the one talking most of the time. Travelling a lot has also helped me get rid of the fear I was stuffed with in school. That is; not to open my mouth unless my grammar was perfect. Travelling alone have made me use the words I know, pick up some new ones along the way and simply do my very best. 
My strenght in spoken English is that I am no longer afraid of making mistakes, instead I just keep on trying. Still I'm frustrated by the fact that my vocabulary fails from time to time. This would be my weakness. The fact that "my generation" is next to bilingual, being brought up in an Americanized world could also be seen as strength, or rather a gift, I would say. This allows us to think of English more as a "second language" rather than a "foreign".

I hope to improve all of my skills during this term and to find my studying more fascinating than frustrating.
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