Me cojió mucho aprecio

[Alfonso]

Great info, Escarabajo! And I see you self-correct your little mistakes. I was about to do it, but I know they are only typos. I think your Spanish is really good. You use some structures which are not easy. Good!

A little piece of advice: instead of ante mucho conocimiento I would use cuando se conocen mucho... The expression you used is understandable and grammatically correct, but it sounds odd to me and even can be ambiguous, since first thing I thought was about knowledge.

[Escarabajo]

Me da mucho orgullo leer esas palabras de un habante nativo tan educado en su propia lengua y en el mía. ¡Gracias! Es un idioma hermoso y trabajo duro para entenderlo mejor. Y gracias por haberme corregido. :D

[Jane]

Y también, Alfonso, I hold him in high esteem o regard es algo que se dice ante mucho conocimiento, o después de mucho tiempo.

- I met John's sister last week. I really took to her.
- I've known Pablo for five years now. I hold him in high esteem.
- I've been watching that guy's show a long time. He really knows his stuff. I hold him in high regard.

Aunque, en el ultimo caso, I really respect him o I respect him a lot son más habituales.

I agree with Escarabajo.
You can take an instant liking to someone the first time you meet them, but I would say that if someone who´s meeting me for the first time without never having heard anything about me tells me he holds me in high esteem, there´s ever the slightest hint of insincerity/falsehood there.

I mean, esteem says exactly the same thing as respect/high regard.
And that, I would say comes with time and knowledge of the stuff the person is made of.
e.g: She is held in high esteem by those who know her well.:cool:

There´s also self esteem!;)

[Iris]

Self-esteem. It's a really prized possession, but really difficult to achieve, at least for me...

[poli]

Hay un otro dicho muy parecido a takes a liking to que se oye mucho. Es takes a shine to. Este dicho es un poquito menos formal que takes a liking to. No es nada vulgar, pero (igual a takes a liking to) puede implicar algo románicoo un gusto magnético. Una persona puede take a shine to una otra persona, pero tambien una idea. Me gusta este dicho porque es muy ilustratrativo.

Les invito corregirme. Gracias.

[Tomisimo]

Very true Poli.

Nota:
hay otro dicho muy parecido ... (sin "un")
les invito a corregirme

[Alfonso]

Hay :bad: otro dicho muy parecido a takes a liking to que se oye mucho. Es takes a shine to. Este dicho es un poquito menos formal que takes a liking to. No es nada vulgar, pero (igual que takes a liking to) puede implicar algo romántico, un gusto magnético. Una persona puede take a shine to :bad: otra persona, pero tambien a una idea. Me gusta este dicho porque es muy ilustrativo.

Les invito a corregirme. Gracias.
.....