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For as long as I can remember, the English language has been a part of my everyday life.
When I was little, I used to read comic books: not just Swedish translations of American originals, because after a little research in the local news shop, I discovered that the original comics always were a few months (sometimes years) ahead in the story line, compared to the Swedish versions. Since I was (and still am, in some ways) an impatient child, eager to know what was going to happen to the comic-book heroes before my friends did, I started to buy (actually, my parents bought them for me. Thanks mom & dad.) the original comics. At first, since I knew or little or rather no English, I was just looking at the pictures in them: This however helped me understand a lot of what was going on. But another thing happened at about the same time that further paved my way into the sometimes rather bushy territory that is the English language.
My father is a sports journalist. With such a profession, he needs (or perhaps feels the need would be more appropriate when speaking about my father) to keep himself up to date with whatever goes on in the world of sports. In both career and lifestyle, he is what you might call a sports buff. When I was about nine years old, he bought for our house a satellite dish, so that he would be able to get the very latest (sports) news instantly when they happened. This purchase of course also came of use to me. I soon found out that the comic book heroes also lived on the TV screen; every Saturday until noon you would always find me in the family room, glued to the television set as the American "inked soaps" came forth from the screen.
Television not only provided me with many valuable hours of entertainment; after a few months in TV-land I realized that I actually understood most of what was said on the tube. Television is for me, as I would suspect it is for many others in my generation, the basis of my English skills.
English in school was a breeze for me all the way up through upper secondary school. Instead, I found my linguistic challenges elsewhere. 

As I grew up, my interests changed (naturally). I read a lot of books, and just like before with the comics, I found it more appropriate to read what the authors had written in their original language. Since I mostly fancied American authors, this was not a problem. I went through the Hemmingway period (doesn't every young man have such a phase?) which lasted up until a few years ago and now my favorites include Jack Kerouac and Joseph Heller. 
I also became very interested in music, taking after my mother, who is a singing teacher. 
When I was about twelve years old, I started to learn percussion, and after a while I found myself almost obsessed with a few artists; Frank Zappa was (and still is) my hero, and his often tricky lyrics (which often took some time to interpret) gave me a bit of knowledge of American society as well as improving my listening skills.
As I've stated earlier, I believe that television has been my best English teacher. From TV, I learned to interpret spoken English as well as my speaking skills improved; At first, I was sort of a parrot mimicking what it'd heard, later, through reading and watching more advanced material, I became fairly independent as an English speaker. Still, I feel that this is the particular discipline of the English language that I will have to work the most with (although the teacher reading this might think otherwise). I need to get rid of the uncertainty I sometimes feel when speaking English (or any other foreign language). This might be an impossible task, but I'm going to give it my best. The other major problem I have with my English abilities is the writing part. I'm pretty pleased with what I've written in this essay, but since I've had so little opportunity to practice writing (if I remember correctly, only once in upper secondary school), I look forward on honing my skills as a writer of English during the A1 course.
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