My achievements at 28<s> years</s>

A list of random things that happened or were realized during my last year in this world and in this mind:

- thank God I lived with my family during the lockdown or probably I would never have survived in my dream of an English flat (with tea bags);

- if I think a guy is funny as me, there is probably something wrong (how modest!);

- I can "climb" a "mountain" without losing my teeth (maybe not forever?);

- I can achieve a good level of English, but the words "thought" and "her" will be always be the hardest words the pronounce;

- I still don't know how people can pronounce correctly the letter "r";

- or they can eat healthy without forcing themselves;

- okay, I eat broccoli and this "stuff" but come on guys, they are disgusting;

- <s>having</s>" - experiencing a "happy New Year" with couples in a mountain house is not so bad (even though you have a statue of a Madonna in your room looking at you. "Is it a sign? Thank God");

- you can be hired (with a permanent contract) during a lockdown while you are wearing your home clothes;

- carbs never lie and they will never leave you (literally);

- Frank Sinatra once said "you're riding high in April, shot down in May, but I know I'm gonna change that tune when I'm back on top, back on top in June", good for you Frank, but I am not you and I think I will wait until next year to get back on top (if I am in a good mood);

- I can book a room with my own money;

- I still drive as bad as at my first lesson (scared, without knowing what I am doing and hoping that people can get out of the car without parking);

- if something doesn't suit you, you can't force it, at least, unless it's not a dress, in that case, as I did, i just add a piece of cloth, clever, isn't?! (Double punctuation leaves your reader worried!)

- you can go to cinema alone without paranoia;

- I applied the eyeliner for the first time at the age of 28;

- I had my first Spanish call with my Spanish friend;

- I do like when people say that they think I am younger;

- It was nice seeing some people that made my days when I was in the UK;

- I found out I like theater in another languages even though I spend most of the time thinking "oh my God her/his is pronouncing is so well, why I am so bad?!" (they were English/Spanish mother tongue);

- If you are not as nice as me we have a problem;

- Kobo and I spend good time while people socializing close us at the lake; (I don't understand this.)t

- Now that I am into Spanish, I like to close a lot of things with "adios", so adios.

If you had read your text out loud to yourself before posting it, practically all my corrections in bold would have disappeared. With a little more attention, you can do well. Depending on what you want to do, maybe I can help you as I'm doing with many others in Italy, China, Brazil and a few dozen other countries.

Day 5 - 6 YEARS USING ITALKI

Today I’d like to talk about Italki itself. I joined this website almost six years ago. I have that date clear in my mind because it was also the moment when I made up my mind to learn English, and since then I have been learning the language on and off, sometimes with high motivation but other times just reading something in the language and not doing much. So, I can’t complain about my progress because it has always been in accordance with the amount of effort I’ve put into learning the language.

Nevertheless, I have a clear memory of all those with whom I’ve interacted throughout these years, unfortunately, most of them have left this website or have abandoned their studies. I remember as well those who have helped me here by correcting my texts or answering my questions, with most of them I’ve never established a relationship but I have always tried to express gratitude for their help and support.

Fortunately, I’m not one of those people who dwell on the past. I say this because I’ve read some comments in the forum of people complaining on how the website works nowadays and mourning for some users who have left. In my opinion, this website has always been like this, I don’t see much of a change. In fact, I remember six years ago some threads in the discussion section complaining about the same. “Where are the interesting topics” “Where are the old users” and threads of the like have always existed. It reminds me of those elderly people complaining about youngsters. Actually not so long ago archaeologists found an ancient scroll of a merchant complaining about his son and about how the youth didn’t follow the customs anymore. So, the moral of the story is, as Bruce Lee said “Be water my friend”, if you can’t change something then it’s always better to adapt yourself to the current conditions instead of living in the past because the past is gone.

We are always learning new things in all our languages. Congratulations on your efforts and evident success. I wonder if you were writing on Lang-8 during that period. I've been writing mainly on Lang-8 until it disappeared a few years ago and occasionally on italki. I'm still learning Spanish big-time but doing more listening than anything else as my eyes aren't that good anymore. It was really was a pleasure reading your text. Keep writing!

Boring Things I

Coronaviruses are a group of viruses covered in little protein spikes that look like a crown. There are hundreds of known coronaviruses. Seven of them infect humans, and can cause disease. The coronavirus SARS-CoV causes SARS, MERS-CoV causes MERS, and SARS-CoV-2 causes the disease COVID-19. Of the seven human coronaviruses, four cause colds, mild, highly contagious infections of the nose and throat. Two infect the lungs, and cause much more severe illnesses. The seventh, which causes COVID-19, has features of each: it spreads easily, but can severely impact the lungs. Coronaviruses transmit best in enclosed spaces, where people are close together. Cold weather keeps their delicate casing from drying out, enabling the virus to survive for longer periods<s> between hosts</s>, while UV exposure from sunlight may damage it. But because no one is yet immune to the new virus (except me and approximately 6 million people), it has so many potential hosts that it doesn’t need ideal conditions to spread. In the body, the protein spikes become embed in the host’s cells and fuse with them enabling the virus to hijack the host cell’s machinery to replicate its own genes. Coronaviruses store their genes in RNA. All viruses are either RNA viruses or DNA viruses. RNA viruses tend to be smaller, with fewer genes, meaning they infect many hosts and replicate quickly in those hosts. In general, RNA viruses don’t have a proofreading mechanism, whereas DNA viruses do. So when an RNA virus replicates, it’s much more likely to have mistakes called mutations. Many of these mutations are useless or even harmful. But some make the virus better suited for certain environments - like a new host species.

Your interesting writing style is intriguing. You seem to be well informed in a field I've followed since last December. I was kept up on a daily basis with my daily talks with China and I simply still can't understand how Europe and the U.S. didn't figure out that the coronavirus was going to hit them just like it did in China. Even today, the Americans aren't yet taking it seriously and as a result, the number of new cases continues.

372 - Documentaries

A few months ago I discovered the pleasure of watching a good documentary. Not only is it a good way to improve my listening skills in English, but also to learn something new. There are many different documentaries regarding topics I'm very interested in, and the more I watch them, the more I want to know. I crave knowledge and this is a good way to meet my needs. After finishing watching a documentary I usually realize how many different topics I can delve into related to what I've just seen. This is a virtuoso circle and I won't stop it for any reason.

Tonel, you express yourself very clearly and concisely plus writing with care. I'm sure you read your text at least once or twice before posting. It's a good habit. Maybe you might be interesting in exploring new books and concepts not often mentioned in mainstream media. Try pdfdrive.com and you'll have over a hundred million books to choose from and they are all at the same price, just download them.

My struggles with English

<s>My struggles with English</s>

I have been trying to improve my English for so long, but unfortunately I focused on improving my slang, my speaking skills and getting the right accent more than anything else. <s>for now</s> Currently, I think that my accent is 70% or 80% correct but my writing skill is getting worse each day. I know that no one could help me with that except myself. I know some of you will say ( read more as a first step ) but <s>it's also didn't</s> it doesn't work with me. The issue that I face<s> with</s> while reading something in English is that I don't really understand all the words and after finishing reading, I always notice that I highlighted almost all the<s> whole</s> pages of what I read, and it's really hard to translate them in that case.

I have always tried to compare myself with people who are fluent to motivate myself, and that made me unsatisfied for what I do. <s>and also</s> It caused me a phobia for not posting anything written in English on social media . <s>So</s> <s>that</s>, Consequently, I decided to start from here (our lovely Italki ) and post this as a first step in my 1000-mile journey.

I tried not to use google translate, but I used it only 3 times haha..... thanks for your valuable time for reading this.

You are doing well. Sometimes just reading your text out loud before sending alerts you of weaker sentence construction. Review the following link on when to use capital letters.

<a href="https://www.englishclub.com/writing/capital-letters.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.englishclub.com/writing/capital-letters.htm</a> You'll do well if you keep at it. You know you can do it.

The prepositions

May you tell me if I used the prepositions correctly in these sentences?

1. I live in 9 Harvey Street.

2. I live in a very big city.

3. Alice goes to the park every day.

4. The boys go to the movies.

5. Some of the boys live in the city.

6. Many of the girls live in the United States.

7. These girls live i my street.

8. My brother works in an office.

9. We bring the books to school.

10. Everything is on the table.

Here are a few links that might help you a little

<a href="https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/prepositions-at-in-on-time.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/prepositions-at-in-on-time.htm</a>

<a href="https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/prepositions-place-at-in-on.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/prepositions-place-at-in-on.htm</a>

Good luck!