Short break I've got a short break so I have some free time to write a notebook entry. My current goal is to pass IELTs in a year with a minimum score 7.5. In order to do that I need to improve my grammar, reading and speaking skills, which means I need to spend more time studying English than I used to last couple of years. I'm still struggling with grammar, so I need to buy some books with grammar exercises (I think Murphy is good enough for this purpose) and find a teacher to get explanations and corrections. The other thing I can do to improve my grammar is to write more on Italki and receive feedback from community, it should help a lot. I also think that I need to widen my active vocabulary to make my writings more interesting and diverse, especially for IELTs essay. There are a lot of examples of IELTs in the internet and advice how to make your essays better. Taking those advice would definitely help to improve my writings. The other thing I would like to improve is my business and technical vocabulary. I work as a software developer and sometimes I struggle with picking a right formal word for naming and translations from Russian to English. That's it for now, thank you all in advance for all the corrections you make.

Best way to identify current level? What is in your opinion the best way to identify you level and find out what your weak points are? Is the Oxford Online Placement good enough for this purpose?

Find a language partner is painful. But I won't give up It seems to me that it's close to impossible to find someone here, but I also know that it's not true. Last time I was lucky enough to find a friend on italki who lived in Moscow (hi, Alice, if you're reading this). Unfortunately she moved to Spain a year ago, so I gave up after a couple of attempts. After a long brake I decided to resume, so now I looking for a language exchange partner but don’t hold out much hope though. I think it's so difficult not only because some people are not really serious when it comes to learning languages, but also because there are much more people who want to learn English than people learning Russian. I suppose most of the English native speakers receive tens or even more messages during a single online session and it's very difficult to reply to all of them, but I won't give up. Have a nice day ;)

A couple of new words in use 1) Jim walked through the square and was suddenly conscious of people dancing all over the place. When Alice arrived to office she was conscious that nobody was there. Then she realised that it was a day off. 2) You should not make any excuses about lack of free time for your hobby. Not having sufficient time for it just means that you're not interested enough. If the firm does not has sufficient resources to cover the losses during the crisis it'll have to go bankrupt. 3) He was not certain if he will be able to lift the table upstairs by his own. The last thing I heard from his was: 'I'm certain who made it', and then he suddenly dissapeared. 4) We weren't able to manage all orders, therefore we decided to hire an auxiliary. One of the difficulties Russian learners face is that there's no auxiliary verbs in it. 5) It's difficult not to succumb the temptation when you have just gave up smoking Some people feel a strong temptation to eat when they wake up in the night, though they know it's bad for health. 6) Fred's most strong desire is to own a motorbike. Experience workers don't have desire to work for a small salary. She decided to satisfy her desire for peace and find herself a less stressful job 7) Did you hear rumour about her new boyfriend? Some say he's going to win the award this year The spokesmes denied rumours that they won't provide free healthcare next year. 8) -Here's my precription. How much would it cost in total? If they want to stabialise the economy they should follow the prescription. 9) Learning new skate tricks is challenging. My new job is quite challenging 10) Dmitry was not trilled about repeating the same word over and over again. Stacey was thrilled to death about her new car. 11) Did you see 'Fifty Shades of Grey'? I found it spectacular. (of course I don't, the more stupid example is the more easily to remember :P ) Everyone was discussing his spectacular bankruptcy. 12) I've got a potentially lucrative idea. Let's find out if we can ear some money with it. The contract we have signed seems to be lucrative. 13) It's rather difficult to find genuine food in the modern supermarkets. -Was he nice with you? Indeed, he was huble and genuine. 14) She looked fabulous at the party last evening. He's got a fabolous car. 15) I do not like the idea of moving to another city, but I have to admit it. I admit that I have very poor English skills.