Speaking! My main difficulty in English is speaking. I'm such kind of person who prefers run than fight, so I'm trying to avoid speaking as much as I can. I suppose, I don't want to feel stupid and I try to be perfect or something like that. I'm participating in language marathon right now. It lasts 12 week, and now is the week number ten, and all this time I even haven't tried to find someone for conversational practice. I wrote the notes here, on italki, did some grammar, worked on pronunciation and a bit expanded my vocabulary. I even made a few videos when I was practicing English by answering the questions. And it's great, a big amount of work was done. But I don't feel much progress, because I didn't face my main fear, I didn't work on speaking and it's still the most frightening thing for me. There are three weeks left and I'm going to fix it, to do my best and start talking to a native speaker or anyone who would like to help me with that. P.S. if you are that person do message me, please! =)

My favorite doll [Describe an item you were incredibly attached to as a child. What became of it?] When I was a little girl, I had a doll. My favorite one. I don't even know when my parents bought it for me, it looks like we were together forever. It was the red-haired boy doll which I named Ryjik (it means 'red-haired boy' in Russian). I loved him so much! I had plenty of other toys, but Ryjik was like a real child for me. Years went by, I got older, my boy doll became a bit dirty and bold. He lost his eye once, so I made him another one from plasticine. In fact it made him even more scary. One day I understood that I hadn't seen Ryjik for ages. I started searching him, but couldn't find. Finally, I asked my mum where Ryjik was and she answered, that she threw my doll away, because he was old and scary, and she thought I didn't notice it. It was the biggest grief in my short life! I cried and suffered a lot. When I think of him now, I get a warm feeling spreading through my heart. I still love you, Ryjik! P.S. It's me and Ryjic on the photo.

Social media At first glance, I don't feel addicted to social media. I have accounts on Facebook, LinkedIn, VKontakte and Instagram. But I use them from time to time. Getting information is more important for me than sharing one. Some psychologists say that it's not really a good approach, especially for your self-esteem. It's better to be a 'content creator'. Because scrolling through all these nice pictures of someone's life and comparing yourself with them, may lead to emotional problems or even cause depression. But I think you can avoid these problems if you are reasonable, modest and don't let it become an addiction. You should filter your groups, acquaintances and other sources of information, if you want to take profit from social media. Information should teach and inspire you, be useful and valuable, and lead to personal development. And quality of information is my biggest problem in these self-isolating times. It's really difficult for me to stop being online and searching for new information. I'm working remotely now and straight after my working hours I just close my working laptop, open my personal one and lose track of time. So many important and useful things remain unresolved, my flat is neglected and finally I feel stressed. Yes, I do it because of my anxiety, because I'm not able to get accurate information from official sources here, in Belarus. And finally, I do that because I just want to find something positive, some kind of magic advice that will make me calm down and resolve all global problems at least =) I need to face the truth, the best option for me now is just to stay at home, be careful and positive, and keep doing routine that allows me to calm my mind and keep my hands busy. It depends on me, it's my contribution to my family well-being and it allows not to lose the ground under my feet.

If I was a man.. [Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a member of the opposite sex? What do you think life would be like?] When I think about it, I hesitate between two options. At first, I wonder how could my life have turned out, if I was a man. I could live in another country. I could have more freedom, make more money, have another social circle or even political views. But then another thought pops into my head. What if all these dreams and ambitions don't depend on gender? What if I don't change my life drastically only because I'm afraid of change? Maybe I don't want to rush into it, because I appreciate my current way of living: my family, job, friends, appearance. Or maybe I believe that changes will require a lot of efforts, much more than I can provide today. So, if leave aside all other variables like character, health or parents' social and material standing, I'm coming to understand that my life doesn't really depend on my gender. Most likely I would make the same decisions, communicate with almost similar people, choose the same profession and finally become practically the same person regardless of sex or gender. And I like it.

Our life in 2116 Our life in 2116. What can it be? I think that the foundation for future inventions has already been laid and tomorrow will provide us just the new ways for developing today's thoughts and trends. I think that our morality will change that will lead to changes in the whole human being. For example in future we will see more transhumans or posthumans: maybe cyborgs or genetically-enchanced people. Some of them will not have bodies at all, they would be just consciousness downloaded into worldwide network. We will use biochips connected to our brains and provided 24/7 access to all information in the world. So educational system should be changed: new professions will appear and many people will work remotely. Many diseases will be defeated by genetic engineering, people will live longer. But traditional values will change too. We wouldn't have today's families with two adults and several children. I think the structure of family will be different because of increasing life expectancy and overpopulation. Maybe there will be limits on the children number per family in all countries or people just start giving birth less. I hope we will manage the problems of global warming, wars and environmental pollution. Mankind will be interested in space again to gain resources or explore new areas for human habitation. And I really hope that we will finally have flying cars or some kind of portals for fast traveling and instant commuting =)

Should the state retirement age be raised? A few years ago the state retirement age in Belarus began to raise. It wasn't a sudden change. A gradual increase will take place over several years. It started in 2017 and will end in 2022. The total increase will be 3 years. Age limits for working people will be extended up to 58 years for women and 63 years for men. The main idea is to prevent the shortage of human resources and avoid the budget deficit due to the burden of pension. But I think that these measures are not completely right. For some Belarusians the living standarts in recent years has become higher, but only for a small number of them, and mainly for young people. The old ones mainly struggle with health issues or they are even partially disabled. They've been working hard all they live, losing all they savings after the collapse of the Soviet Union and a series of financial crises and recessions. They also manage to help their adult children and I believe these people totally deserve the respect and their money! As for people nearly my age, I think that we shoul completely change our pension system, develop a safe and mandatory funded pension system for each person and leave only a small amount of social and state pensions. Funded pension should be inherited and each citizen should be able to decide when he wants to retire. Everyone should feel responsible for their future and happy old age.

Translate into English using must in all of its possible meanings 1. I must work hard this week. 2. Marta saw them. She must have told you about that. 3. He must get there before 8 o'clock. 4. She lit the fire and said "Sit down! You must have been frozen!" 5. I must wash all the glasses. 6. As he moved away from the door he noticed that he was standing on the letter that was lying on the doormat. It must have been delivered some time after his return. 7. "We will have a tea earlier, - Katie said - You must be starving".

Translate into English using can in all of its possible meanings. 1. Can you translate this text? 2. This book can be purchased at any store. 3. He could have done it last week. He wasn't so busy. 4. He couldn't show us the calculations because they weren't ready. 5. Room is dark and I can't find my stuff. 6. She couldn't be wrong! 7. Could they wait for us all this time? 8. You can't be sent to me. I have nothing to do with that. 9. Can I have a cup of tea? 10. He said we could go. 11. I can return by bus. 12. I could have returned by bus. 13. Morris stared at the letter: "Where could it be sent from?".

Please check my pronunciation - HP and the Philosopher's Stone Hi folks! This week I was studying some English phonetics and was training my pronunciation. Could you please listen to my recording (just 3 minutes) on google drive via link https://drive.google.com/file/d/15oScxne1QHYXlfOaFfJVbGfDqsuY-HBj/view Please, write down all my strong and weak points in pronunciation so I could analyze and practice them later. Thanks a lot!