Using "not much" to respond to "how are you?" sounds wrong to my ears. I'm guessing they were confusing "how are you?" with "what's up?", where "not much" is the usual response

My New Vocabulary for Today : Part 51

Hi, I'm trying to make some sentences using the new vocabulary I learnt today.
If there are any grammar mistakes and/or weird word choices, please correct them. Thanks.

1) This procedural is quadruple annoying compared to the previous one.

This sounds very slangy. I wouldn't say it like this, but I could see someone else saying it. However, do you really mean "procedural" like a "procedural drama"? or do you mean "procedure"?

2) I've just thoroughly gotten rid of the trash thoroughly from in the sewerage system.

3) This well water may need to be purified before drinking.

4) Those That impure water goes into a septic system.

"Water" is uncountable

5) You should punctuate sentence likewise.

I don't understand what you're trying to say in sentence (5).

6) In a hindsight, I chose the right way.

Not wrong, but a little weird. Usually, you talk about hindsight when you make a mistake, not when you do something correctly.

7) When it comes to finding a job in another country, skills are more important than qualifications.

8) Lagoons and coral reefs provide diverse benefits to the inhabitants.

A little ambiguous. When you say inhabitants, do you mean people like on an island? or do you mean animals? You wouldn't normally use the word "inhabitants" for non-human animals

9) They barter reef resources such as prawns, crabs, and molluscs.

As a noun, stress is usually negative, but it can also be used as a verb. Eg: "His boss stressed the importance of working as a team" where here stress means "emphasized". This meaning of stress does not have a negative connotation

From my experience with Mandarin, Chinese people will tend to flattery you a lot no matter your Chinese skill, but part of that is because very few foreigners can speak Chinese well, so they have very low expectations. However, in my experience (mostly with Chinese students in the US), they usually don't talk super fast at you, if anything they will often either 1) baby you with 1st day basic language (probably related to the low expectations), or 2) respond in English because they are afraid you won't understand, or want to practice their own English skills. Of course, the second possibility happens less often in China probably because the average Chinese person doesn't have very good spoken English skills

Hmm, it's hard for me to suss out the difference. For one thing, "upon" isn't used very often in modern English, especially not in colloquial speech, so I would probably always say "depend on". The example sentence you give sounds (slightly?) wrong. Working through sentences in my head, I think "depend upon" would normally be paired with a noun like "I depend upon him to help me do my homework".

Summary of "JPMorgan shifts its Chinese operations"

JPMorgan Chase & Co. is reorganizing its investment banking operation in China. In the past, the bank categorized its teams as traditional investment-banking-industries groups (I think this can replaced with "traditional investment banking"). Now, it has created seven new groups which include financial services and technology, encompassing blockchain and mobile-banking clients, and new mobility (I don't know what this means, but it could be jargon that I don't know). The bank is changing its structure to track thoes new emerging business opportunities in China. The co-head of investment-banking coverage for Asia Pacific, John Hall, said the bank also plans to enlarge its Chinese investment banking team in next few years. After the guidelines were released in April that permitted foreign companies to own 51% of its(?) securities joint ventures, JPMorgan applied (applied for a permit to launch...?) to launch a joint-venture brokerage firm(?) in China.

There's a lot of jargon in this summary. It's hard for me to know whether it is being used correctly or not.

That's right. This means the same thing as "three-and-a-half years of travel". The apostrophe tells you that it's possessive, but since it is also plural, the apostrophe is put after the "s"

English writing practice - photo required. Thank you for your time

Hi Miffy,

How are you this week? Still feeling exciting about our trip last week! I am writing this letter to ask you if you have time to make up (I don't know what you're trying to say here) the pictures we took during the trip, and could you please send me the photo that you take for took of the whole lake. (It would be better to split the previous sentence into two sentences because first part has multiple subjects, so the reader has to figure out which one you are using with the part after the "and".  This makes it awkward to read)

I am asking for this picture because it really matches the newly decorated wall of my living room. Because the color of the wallpaper is a special dark blue, it’s hard to find a suitable color of photo to hang (the previous sentence is OK, but be aware that the more common form is "<result> because <reason>" unlike in Mandarin). I have tried many photos, but none are one better than that one.

I also took a similar photo just behind you (do you mean you took a picture from behind him/her? or that you took a picture of the area behind him/her?), but at the my position I stood, the light on the lack lake is was too dark (light can't be dark. Instead, you can say "the lighting was bad" or "picture was too dark", etc..), and I think yours will be better than mine. You can email me several pictures if you are not sure which one is the one I need.

Cheers!

Richard