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>>Thank you for mentioning the update. I would have missed it.
>
>the part arguing to get at the root of the problem instead of looking for locking was tongue-in-cheek, but I am certain the direction is valid.
>
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>>>>I thank you very much for your input! (another thing, I am so impressed of the fluency of your English. How do you people do it?!. I have been learning Spanish for 30 years and I am not even close to your fluency in English. I take my hat off).
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>>>a combination of buying english books in school times, being friends/doing small time biz with some GIs stationed over here during puberty plus soldering TV to receive AFN when it was transmitted over here - also around these times ;-)
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>>Of course all there external factors helped but I am sure your personal dedication and hard work on learning mattered a lot too.
>
>no, I specifically tried to create situations where learning was a side effect due to other rewards. Pure drudge work is very hard for me (seldom had to do it/often found shortcuts), even if I can be very tenacious and or bull-headed, but only on topics interesting me directly or sports. Hitting vocabulary books just for good grades did not work for me, I had to read Heinlein, Herbert and even authors starting not with H in the original to soak up enough words en passant to frighten my English teacher ;-)

Then it is simply God given talent :)