Oh man... my sewing teacher at school really tried too... but a combination of the machines, and gappy tuition really stuffed it for me... I spent lesson after lesson continuously threading some nameless long suffering machine for either the tread to pull back up through its path or to break....
Now I have a beautiful vintage machine (or 2 or so) and have learnt how to rectify most of these sorts of issues and it really helps me enjoy it as a hobby:)
So ask away!