It means that he learned certain behaviors from "the world's best people" that were supposed to get people to like him or respect him.

To me, saying "was" sounds more natural. Also, "he lived not far away from my place" sounds strange. I would use "his place was not far from mine", "he lived pretty close to me", or "he didn't live too far away from me."

It's better to say "How do I tell him?"

I'm guessing that it's the last part of the sentence that you're having some trouble with but I'll explain the whole thing. "The man knows his television," = He knows about a lot of different TV shows "loves money," = He likes having, spending, or earning money "hates rules," = He doesn't like being told what to do "tells jokes," = He's funny "uses bad language" = He uses words that are often inappropriate or offensive "and is convivial to a fault." = He is so fond of feasting and drinking and lively company that it's a bad thing.

I thought that I was starting to get good at that. I felt like I was beginning to get used to (doing) that. It seemed to me that I was beginning to master that.

"Ignorant" has a more serious (and sometimes negative) implication than "clueless."

"Anticipation" can imply excitement about an outcome, whereas "expectation" is more neutral.

"[They] twist religion to suit their own ends." It means that these men use religion in a way that benefits themselves. This could imply that they only follow some (and not all) teachings of a religion or they interpret teachings however they want to or something else.