Her photo wasn't quite real.

I've had quite an awkward experience lately. It's not a secret that we try to put the most beautiful photo in our profile, but I'd never have thought that the difference could be so big.

My co-worker's sister works as a travel agent and he suggested to contact her because I wanted to go to Egypt. So I did. Her profile's picture swept me off my feet, I liked it very much. Later, I found out that she was attending an English school where I'd been a year ago, so I decided to go to this school once again just to have an opportunity to meet this girl. You might think that it was kind of childish, why didn't I just ask her out for a cup of coffee?

Anyway, when I finally met her, I was shocked and kind of startled. It wasn't the same girl that was in the picture. I was frustrated and angry. What the fuck have I done? I paid a lot of money for these useless courses and now there's no value in it.

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Your English is very good indeed. It seems those expensive courses have been paying off. ;P

Is my English strange?

I prefer summer over winter.
冬より夏の方が好きかなぁ。
This is because in Japan it's already dark by 5 oclock/pm during the winter.
だって、冬の間は日本は5時には、すでに暗くなるから。
In the summer however, it is not even dark by 7:30.
夏はだいたい7:30分頃まで暗くならないよ。
However, my favorite season overall/my overall favourite season is autumn.
でも秋が一番すきかなぁ。

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Coz = Because

It's a good idea not to get into the habit of using slang at this point, it's best to stick to the full words whilst you're learning.

Good job, keep it up!

腰痛と肩こり！

I had a backache 2 weeks ago.
It was very painful, however it has gotten better.
I often get backache or neckache because my posture is bad.
My shoulders are always tense.
I do stretches/stretching exercises every night before I go to bed. (your sentance was perfectly acceptable, it just sounds more natural this way)

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Your English is going well, good job! :)

Ooooops

It's definately not an easy thing to make a true friend through the/on the internet.
I mean, after all, we live in the totally different environments.
It has been tough enough to find a true friend in real life, let alone in the virtual world.
Maybe it's a little negative to think like this, but i guess that's the reality in this unreal world.

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Sorry to add another correction when there are so many good ones already, I just noticed a couple of things that I thought worth tweaking, primarily "it's definately" instead of "definately it's" :)

Any yes you're right, true friends are definately easier to make (and better) in person. Aquaintances over the internet is cool and all, but it can't compare to having your real friends round and stuffing your face with pizza.

Good English, keep it up. :)

I Have No Idea What To Write And My Skills Are Bad

My last Chinese notebook entry I wrote at the end of September and after that I was busy with writing an English scripture that contains 87 sites. The scripture is finished and I am proud of my work but somehow I have no idea what to do next.

Also, when reading my scripture I also was able to see that my English might not be as good as I thought. Despite the fact that after I’ve finished a chapter I read it to correct mistakes, I was still able to find new mistakes, even though the correction reading was already done on all six chapters. I just hope that the people ('persons' is acceptable, but we really don't use it much nowadays) I've been sending it to will understand it. However, I am still ashamed of myself, after all I have a certificate in business English from 2009, in which I received/scored 27 out of 30 points in oral English! My points in writing were 79 out of 100 but I guess that is okay too. All in all, I was the best out of all my classmates in oral English.

That's why I dislike myself for still making mistakes. I mean, according to all my experience and having already worked in jobs where I used English, my skills in writing should be much better by now. They should look as if English were my mother tongue, but it doesn't look like that! Can I ever be on the same level as a native speaker? My listening is excellent; I can watch an English movie and understand anything that is said in it (last one was "13 Families: Life after Columbine"). I also play English video games a lot and can also understand everything. My English can't be that bad! When I talk to myself in English I also don't think that my spoken English is worse but I feel that my written English still is! Don't be fooled by my notebook entries on Italki because I have always checked them always with MS Word before publishing them.

And To make it worse, I have no idea what else to write, Neither in English nor in Chinese. I wanted to be an active member of Italki but right now I feel like a silent junk of data (chunk of data? Piece of junk data?) on this website. I don't want to continue translating small Garfield comic strips, plus I have no new ideas for my short 'Chinese 3 Kingdoms' stories. There is also no special food that I have cooked so I could share it here either. I also have/get the feeling sometimes that it is getting harder and harder to know what topics are allowed to be written about on Italki and which aren't, because many entries from many people have been deleted, even though they were not insulting or anything. :(

Anyway, all my friends here just remember that I'm still alive and I still visit Italki daily, I just don't have any ideas right now.

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Don't let things get you down man, your English is fantastic. To reach the level of a native speaker is obviously very difficult, but the more you practice the closer and closer you will get. It may get frustrating at times, but you should never let it get to the point where it's genuinely getting you down. Language learning should be fun!

At any rate, your English is looking very good, so keep going. :)

Excellent day, isn't it?

Good morning guys!! I've just woken up. I think I should probably clean my room, I have gone months without doing it haha...
I've been talking with an American, it is really nice (Y) but I need more english conversation in order to improve. It looks like the people on this website are not interested in talking with an Spanish speaker to practice. We're all here to learn, so let's put the differences away. Ok?

Your English is going well, keep it up. :)

Which one is correct? Please help me :)

Have a great weekend for you both OR
Have a great weekend, both of you.

You could also say:

"I hope that you both have a great weekend."

:)