I think slang is less important than informal expressions. However, a lot of Americans, English people or Canadians will use coquailisms to describe a thought, expression or feeling. A bad joke example would be the expression 'Come on man! Your bustin' my Balls!' when negoiating. I think thought that when dealing in International Business English that the native speaker of English should avoid expressions to avoid confusion. When you begin to use slang in a business deal, it makes the business deal much less formal and often lowers your position when bargaining I feel. If you are neogiating a divorce or large contract between major companies for example, they will rarely say "Yo dude! Lets get this deal done already snizzle! I got a hoe I got to meet in 15." the other people in the negoiation will have to lose a bit of respect for you.

I think the best idea would be almost to try to arrange some way for them to be together on that day or spend more time alone. Perhaps do something like prepare dinner for them with candles and then go out to a movie with your siblings so they would be able to be home alone in the house?

How many people live in Xi'an? Does it have an international airport? What is the average cost of living for one month in your city if you want to live a moderately wealth lifestyle?

Well, its a bit difficult for a lot of english speakers to form that sentance though easy to speak it as we don't have to worry about grammar :). Generally, a sentance is suppose to be '1 complete thought'. A complete thought ideally in english should have an action, a subject and an object. For example 'I kicked the ball'. I is the subject, kicked is the verb and ball is the object the verb happenened to. Now, if you want you can have more than 1 object or subjectin a sentance. To do this, you need a list. For example: I kicked a can and a rock or Sarah and I kicked a soccer ball today Now sometimes you might have a complex thought, two thoughts that share a similar meaning or are related to eachother. These sentances can be combined with 'and'. For example, if you wanted to say that you went to the mall and ate pizza, you could say the following. I went to the mall and I ate pizza That is a proper sentance because they are related as its a list of actions you did today. However, if you have two seperate thoughts such as about your likes or dislikes, those should be seperate sentances. The following sentance is BAD grammar. I went to the mall and I like cats because they are soft, fuzzy and warm. Cats being soft, fuzzy and warm is a sentance not related to that you went to the mall. So they should be two sentances. This would be better grammar: I went to the mall. I like cats because they are warm, fuzzy and soft. Now in the case of your sentance, you have two seperate thoughts but related to eachother. The first thought is 'I strolled downtown'. The second is 'I was hungry and exhausted'. The easiest way to say this with proper grammar is ''As I strolled downtown, I was hungry and exhausted.' This sentance structure is called a conjunctive preposition. A preposition meaning 'to come before' and conjunctive meaning 'requires another peice'. You can tell 'As I strolled downtown, ' is not a complete sentance. When combined with ', I was hungry and exhausted' it makes it a full sentance. Its a complete though where the two ideas are related and combined into one sentance. This allows it to flow smoothly as its logically correct and opposite ideas are not being force together with a conjunction such as the mall/cat example above. If you don't want to use the word 'As', you could correct the grammar in this sentance by using a ';'. A semicolon is used to connect two sentances to a sentance + subjective clause that are connected to eachother without a transitional word like 'while'. So it would be grammatically correct to say: 'I strolled downtown; feeling hungry and exhausted'. It would be probably even easier to say: 'While I strolled downtown, I felt hungry and exhausted'. I hope these detailed grammatical lessons help :) Also, I would to let you know that the following sentance is in a way a bit incorerct grammar: I strolled downtown, hungry and exhausted. This implies a list of objects. It implies 'I strolled hungry. I strolled downtown. I strolled exhausted'. You can't really 'Stroll hungry', can't 'run hungry' or 'jog hungry'. People would say it in spoken english exactly the way you almost said it. However, if written they would need to use a ; instead of a , One thing you'll learn about english, is that it is easier in many cases to speak than write. When we speak, we don't have to think of or really take into concern written grammar like if we just spoke a , or a ;

Its an interesting question. I think the land of dreams lies within. I have always been one who personally believes happiness comes from within and not from without. A big screen tv will temporarily bring you happiness, but eventually there's a bigger better big screen tv or your big screen tv's bulb burns out. Similar, you can spend your life chasing antique cars. It will bring you temporarily happiness like when you buy the new car but not while working to pay for it :) Wouldn't the land of dreams to be waking up in the morning and feeling happy? not rushed? looking forward to spending the morning with family/friends and then going to a job you enjoy doing rather than one you don't enjoy doing but pays well? To return home to a rewarding life knowing today you did a job well done? I think to me, that's the land of dreams. However, I am sucker who dislikes my job sometimes ;) but it pays well. I also have a big screen tv and all the eletronic toys :$:D so who am I to talk?

I think one of the best ways to learn english is to first learn sentance structure. This way you can learn how to place the words in the right order. Memorizing sentance patterns is a decent way to start. Next build vocabulary. To speak to others, you need to know the word you wish to say first. The better your vocabulary, the more smoothly you'll be able to speak. You can learn grammar from reading/writing but need vocabulary to increase the number of ideas you can express. Once you got the vocabulary down pact, try making sentances in your head. Instead of saying in Chinese, 'I am going to be late!' think to yourself in your head in English, 'I am going to be late!' If you keep practicing speaking to yourself every day, you'll improve pretty quickly. I also recommend sometimes while working maybe? listening to an book on tape or cd. That way you can listen to spoken english to practice listening and build vocabulary slowly. Often books on audio tape or cd have very good pronounciation and if there are several 'characters' you'll get to hear several different voices or accents.

I think one of the best ways to learn oral english is to first build vocabulary. To speak to others, you need to know the word you wish to say first. The better your vocabulary, the more smoothly you'll be able to speak. You can learn grammar from reading/writing but need vocabulary to increase the number of ideas you can express. Once you got the vocabulary down pact, try making sentances in your head. Instead of saying in Chinese, 'I am going to be late!' think to yourself in your head in English, 'I am going to be late!' If you keep practicing speaking to yourself every day, you'll improve pretty quickly. I also recommend sometimes while working maybe? listening to an book on tape or cd. That way you can listen to spoken english to practice listening and build vocabulary slowly. Often books on audio tape or cd have very good pronounciation and if there are several 'characters' you'll get to hear several different voices or accents.