All excellent advice so far. (Pitts... if you ever find that you can live off of Super Noodles and you've got all the shoes a man can reasonably need - surely two pairs is enough for any man? - and you open your flying school, drop me a PM if you need an instructor!)
One thing to add, though, is to arrange a visit to an air traffic control unit. Partly to see what goes on up there.... but also to realise that the voices on the other end of the radio are just people. If all else fails, try talking English to them, and there's a reasonable chance they'll understand you. They know that "oh" means "zero", they almost certainly don't say "decimal" (or even "deysimal") anywhere near as much as they ought to themselves, and they like to believe that they are there to help, not to intimidate.
Good luck with the rest of your flying!
FFF
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