English was the first subject in which I really sucked
After primary school it was quite a shock for me to realize that I could actually get a 5 (this is a grade which will force a student to repeat a class if you have more than one on your final grade report of the year).
Later on I was about average if it came to English, I was certainly not good in the subject. I did realize however, that basically English is A LOT easier than German or Latin (my second foreign language) as it lacks quite a number of basically unnecessary rules. Also I never ever had to ask myself "gee, what do I need this for anyway?". I always was aware what English was good for and this impression became even stronger when we got an internet connection (in 1997) and when I grew more interested in subjects which required me to read English books. Furthermore I am not exaggerating when I say that I was fascinated by English and American history even in my primary school days before I could even speak English (the first English vocabularies I learned were all taken from the names of famous native American chiefs: sitting, bull, red, horse, cloud, crazy, horse, rain, face, afraid, low, dog, eagle, crow, big, little, man, etc.
). Therefore I always had a kind of positive basic attitude towards learning English (which did not necessarily reflect on my effort to actually work for it at all times) which is not true in case of subjects which I felt I would never ever need in real live (especially Math in the higher grades).
