More personal language learning history

I can’t remember when I was first able to actually communicate in English, but I do know I was around 12 years old. Always hearing my father speaking English on the phone made me getting used to the language. I remember getting annoyed by subtitles in movies around the age of 14, while everybody else still needed them. I guess I was confronted with a different language earlier in life than most kids. At secondary school English was considered an important subject. It was noticeable, because of the workshops we got and several trips, including one to London. This stopped in 4^th grade. From a more informal way of learning English, suddenly we started learning from reading and listening assignments. I thought these assignments were quite boring, but again I think my level at that time was higher than most kids. When I was 18 I stopped attending the classes and this was a good choice since I still easily passed the class. The more serious way of learning English in high school did not suit me. That was definitely a negative point, but it was entirely personal. What was being thought, I already knew. One negative point that has resulted from this is that I can’t explain grammar. I don’t know what the past continuous is and I can’t explain it. When writing in English, I don’t think about grammar. I just write what feels right and this usually works out fine. This is a positive and a negative point at the same time.
   When going to the University of Groningen, I did not expect to have an English learning class. The reason I did not expect this, is because of the program I followed last year. I studies Economics and Business Economics in Utrecht, which is an English program as well. There was no English learning program at that program, which is the only reason I did not expect one in Groningen. I do like the English learning program. I know I can speak English properly, especially informal conversations, but when entering the business world I know the English is going to be very different. Sometimes when I read or hear my dad’s work I have no clue what it is about. There are so many words I still don’t know, but the biggest problem is the Business language. An expression like p2p businesses (peer to peer business) is an example.
   The things I really like about this English class are the cases. It’s a good interactive way to learn the proper vocabulary and improving teamwork at the same time. A negative point on that is that you don’t learn to interact with the newly learned vocabulary, since nobody is using them.
   When I moved to the USA, I had to do the TOEFL (test of English as a foreign language) test to get into college as an international student. My score came close to the maximum score, which was 120. I scored 107. I did not reach the maximum score because of some stupid mistakes, but it was clear was not performing well on the reading area. And I still notice that today, for example the intermediate test I had a couple of weeks ago. I did not score well on the reading part. Its something I really do need to improve since I’m studying IB&M. Its not that I don’t understand the things I’m reading, it’s the part when I have to look up information. I’m not good at that.
   After college I would love to work for a big international firm. I’m really into other cultures and working abroad. The next three years are going to be hard. I underestimated the amount of time I would have to spend studying when I first started. IBM consumes a lot of my time, and I’m still working on how to be more efficient when it comes to time. I have no doubt I will figure it out. So my advice would be, don’t underestimate the amount of work that has to be done.