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In evaluating my English I first think it is important to define how I am going to assess myself in regards to writing, reading, listening, and speaking. Since I don't know what it is that you as the reader find important all I can do is write what I think is important in evaluating my English. I put them in order of difficulty, writing being the most difficult and speaking be the easiest, with my definition of each skill in the beginning of each evaluation. 
	 Writing seems the easiest to assess because I feel there is so much work to be done in developing my writing skills. I will start with the positive parts of my writing since I feel they're so few. I can express my thoughts and emotions in informal writing to my family, however I have very little self confidence when it comes to formal writing for school or business. I try to follow a standard form but have difficulty seeing the mistakes I have written grammatically. It is the commas, the 's and when to have them that I become confused. I also have a very casual written language similar to how I speak. I would like to develop my formal writing, punctuation, grammar, and spelling. I write very quickly and think that it is mostly laziness that causes the spelling errors. I hope to build up my confidence efter this course so that I can write to friends without feeling that they are going to see all my writing errors.

I have chosen to assess my reading skills in relation to comprehension and analysis of books. I understand most of what I read and if I don't I read it over and over. However my ability to interpret or analyze books is not very good. I don't remember how or what to look for in regards to critical assessment of a book. I enjoy reading but I don't know how to differentiate what is the most important thing that a book is trying to say. Moreover, when I read for the sake of pleasure I don't necessarily remember the names or the details of a book. I am not especially interested in descriptions of flowers, trees and small details and can't remember people's names. There are many things I would like to develop in my reading such as, what I bring as a reader to a book, understanding why the author chose the narrator to tell the story, and how to interpret or analyze a book. These are a few of the things I look forward to learning in this course. 
	In assessing my strengths and weaknesses in listening I am forced to step outside myself and see me from a second persons perspective. What is it that makes me a good or bad listener? What are the qualities I like or dislike in other listeners, that I might posses. Empathy when listening is very important and I like to believe I'm sympathetic. I would like to assume that I have good timing when it comes to feedback, I know when to give a response that I am listening or understanding what the person is saying to me. Eye contact is something I appreciate when talking to someone and I try to do the same. I tend to interrupt sometimes to early when listening to someone and that is one of the things along with objectivity that I would like to develop.
	I can easily express what I am feeling and I like to converse. That is one of the enjoyments of learning a different language, is that it opens up the world so that one can talk to so many people! I like to discuss different ideas and I am able to find the words, for the most part, to formulate what it is I am trying to get across. However I do feel insecure with formal speech and would like to develop my speaking vocabulary. Although I may understand many words I would like to be able to use them as well. 
	Learning language whether it's your mother tongue or not is like taking a music appreciation class. You think you know a lot about the subject but then you discover that you didn't know anything at all, it was just a drop in the ocean. So, despite the fact that I think I can English, I think I will soon realize how much more there is to it. I therefore want to develop and learn as if I didn't know anything at all and build up a proper foundation for English. Listening to music isn't the same as knowing what to listen for how or how to listen. You can hear music everyday but you may still not be able to sing, play an instrument, or compose.
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