LESSON TWELVE

A comma is a slight pause between two parts of a single idea. In this case you really have two separate thoughts. The first one is that you are tired but studying, and the second is that you want to speak English well. I would therefore either separate them with a semi-colon as shown, or possibly even split them into two separate sentences.

I would also change the second part by adding the words that I've highlighted. Why? Think about what verb you want to do well. To LEARN well might involve paying attention in class, doing homework or assignments and so on. However that's not the thing that you actually want to do well. What you want to do well is not the learning process, but rather speaking the language. Therefore you need to add those words to say that.

I'm studying English because I will have to take an exam of in English. ; I'm a university student, studying sports sciences.

In this case the two facts (why you're studying English and what you're studying at university) are separate enough that they should really be separate sentences. Also when you are describing what you do, the syntax in English is quite different to Italian. As you know in Italian you can say either fare + the definite article (eg faccio l'insegnante) or essere without an article (sono insegnante). But in English you must use the equivalent of essere with an INdefinite article. That is, I am A university student, I am A teacher, I am AN electrician, etcetera. Unfortunately that's one that you just have to remember.

I like sports., I like football but my favourite sport is judo; I'm a judo teacher.

Again it's better to break out the first clause into a separate sentence to prevent it from carrying on too long. Separating the fact that you're a judo teacher from the fact that it's your favourite sport is fine; it carries on naturally from what came before it. The only thing is... and I know that this is painful for purists to hear... if you're travelling in a country where calcio is not the principal game (that is, many places outside of Europe) "football" will be taken to mean something else. If you were visiting the US for example and said "football" they would think that you are referring to American football. In many other English speaking countries it may well refer to Rugby Union, Rugby League or in parts of Australia Australian Rules. Even in England it's probably more commonly called "soccer" than "football". In other words when speaking in English "soccer" is probably the better word to use though serious calcio fans will hate you for doing so.

I would like to visit the United States, I would like to speak and understand English.

I moved this paragraph down because it didn't follow naturally from the paragraph above it. The first paragraph talks about learning English, then the second talks about visiting the US, then the third goes back to the subject of learning English. Moving it to the end means that the paragraphs relating to how you are learning English and why are grouped together. The second part of the paragraph is really repeating the point that you made in the first paragraph; specifically that your objective is to learn to speak English well. It was therefore unnecessary because you had already covered that.

Bye Massimo

LESSON TWELVE

LESSON TWELVE

Nicely done Massimo! 

LESSON TWELVE