Of course practice is the best way to improve. Some ways to practice: - Get your favorite book in English and read the passages out loud as if you were acting them out in a movie. - When you study learn phrases and sentences not just the vocabulary words. Don't be worried about grammar understanding. - Make friends with other English learners and teachers on social media such as google+, twitter and italki. - Also be patient and consistent with the amount of practice you do. Speaking a foreign language is like learning to play an instrument, time and routine are your best friends. I'm sure you've heard all this before so I hope it's a good reminder. Good luck!

Bob is the brother of the mother or father.

Remember to say Onegaishimasu to anyone you want to do something for you. This goes a longer way than saying please, Kudasai.

You can check out my article about articles at http://chromatic-english.blogspot.jp/2013/01/articles-friend-of-foe-part-1.html I write about a friend who misuses 'the' in a sentence and some ways to determine when to use 'the' or 'a' in a sentence.

This sentence refers to 'sitting alone'. James always sits on his own = James always sits alone. Because is the reason he sits alone, in this case to read the newspaper so no one will bother or talk to him. Very good question.

We'd use to say the phrases 'uptown' or 'downtown' when stating a direction we were going depending on what part of town we lived in. Recently English speakers have dropped the 'up' all together and usually state everything as being 'down' even if you our literally going up (North) to a place. Using 'down' in this way is a type of slang that replaces the use of other prepositions when going somewhere. Down to the corner, down to my house, down at the store, down to Canada (Maybe no one says this one though.)