1. Use of past simple tense: The answer uses the past simple tense ("came," "made," "corrected," "realized," "noticed") to describe past experiences, which is appropriate for talking about childhood.
2. Use of conditional and result clauses: The answer uses "when I was polite, people treated me better," showing cause and effect. Also, "so I made an effort to keep it up" uses a result clause to explain the outcome of the previous action.