Summer School Holidays (in Italy)

Having children, in Italy, during summer time it's not so easy! Are you wondering why?
It's simple: summer holiday are a nightmare for every Italian working mom (and dad).

The problem is that summer holidays are really very long (at least in Italy).
My oldest son (8 years old - attending elementary school) stays at home almost 3 months (from June 10th to September 15th). My 4 years old daughter is on holiday from the first day of July!

Me and my husband work all day; we have only two-three holidays' weeks so we have to find a way to let our children spend their free-time. They have attended a summer camp for three weeks (but they are very expensive) and (lucky us!) have spent some time with their grandparents in their countryside house.

Furthermore my son doesn't want to do his homework and he's forgetting everything he learnt at school!

[I posted the same text in the "discussion" section of the site but nobody answered ... So I copy it here, maybe someone would correct my mistakes]

I would be delighted to do so. There are very few mistakes here, and one I'm not even sure was a mistake so much as a slip of the fingers on the keyboard.

1)This is almost right, but it should be 'holidays are'. From the quality of the rest of your work I assume this is a typo.

2) The actual rules that make this a mistake are tricky, but you can structure his sentence one of two ways. Either your 'daughter is two years old', or she is your 'two-year-old daughter'. The rules themselves are complicated and I'll try to explain them to you if you like, but that's one of the few cases you're likely to have to worry about it.

3) This one is simple, holiday can be both a noun and a verb, so it can either be a thing, or it can be used to describe a thing. In this case as it is placed immediately before the word 'week', it is an adjective and so doesn't not need the plural '-s' on the end of it. The plural '-s' only needs to go on the word 'week-s'

I hope that was helpful, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

The future of voting system, the power of the Internet.

I have read an article about inefficiency of the current voting system in the United States. Voters need to find the name of the candidates they want to choose and make a small mark next to it. In this case, there is a possible thread that people with poor eyesight might make a mark next to the name of candidates they are not choosing, especially when there are some similar names next to each other. If we introduce digitalized tablets instead of papers, it makes it possible to create popup messages on the screen to make sure the voters are choosing the correct name by saying "You are about to choose XXX. Are you sure?". Nowadays, computer technologies have a lot of improvement to be friendly to use. By making this digital system as simple as possible, we can cause the result of these mistakes lesser and lesser

1) The word you probably mean was Threat, which is something that puts another thing in danger. The word Thread means a long thin strand of something, such as string or cotton.

2) This isn't actually incorrect, though it should be 'improvements', not improvement. Most English speakers would prefer to word it as 'Nowadays, computer technologies have a lot of improvements to make them user-friendly.'

3) This part of the sentence is confusing. I think you meant to say 'we can make these mistakes less and less frequently.' or 'we can cause these mistakes to happen less and less frequently.

Generally however, very well written. The whole work feels quite formal, which may have been the tone you were aiming for. If it wasn't the tone you wanted, try using more abbreviations, such as it's and we're, which are used more often in informal speech. The full forms (it is and we are) are used along with stressing one of the words to emphasize in everyday speech, but are expected in formal works, especially academic ones.

The following is a small lesson on suffixes, which you may find interesting, or may wish to ignore. 

There are two comparative suffixes, which are suffixes used to show the relationships between two things. The first is the comparative -er. This is used to say that something has more of the attached quality than what is is being compared to. For example this cat is smaller than my cat. The first cat has more of the 'small' quality, and of the suffix -er  is added. The other suffix is called the superlative, which is -est. This suffix means the thing that is being described has the most of the quality the suffix is attached to. For example, 'This cat is the biggest cat I have ever seen.' So out of all the cats I have seen, this one has the most of the quality 'big', and so is the biggest. I should also note that -er can be used on verbs to describe a person who does something, such as runner or swimmer. These are called vocatives.

Please help me to correct this writing, thank you.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to express my deep concern in connection with the news about the Beijing International Airport’s redevelopment plan which is was reported in Beijing Daily yesterday. I am Guangyu and I have been living in Dongheng residence for more than ten years, which is only 5 kilometers away from the airport.

Airplanes could cause numerous noise during taking off and landing. Especially induring the night, S sometimes I could not fall asleep until 1:00 or 2:00 am when is air traffic is lighten somehow. As I know, most people who live in our neighbourhood are suffering the same problem as mine. Secondly, there are heavy traffic jams in the highway which connect the airport and the city centre in the morning and evening. It will take us an extra one hour to struggle to go to the office or go home.

I understand that airplanes could bring us lots of convenience and help us save time, but living in such a noisy environment can really cause much harm to our health, such as hearing or nervous system diseases. What I am worrying about is that the redevelopment plan of the airport could make the situation even worse, so I object this plan.

Before the government takes any further decision, I suggest that a comprehensive environmental affection research must be done in advance. It is the responsibility of media to appeal the government to make more efforts and take more measures to let make our living environment better and better.

Thanks and looking forward to your response.

Yours faithfully,

Guangyu

1) 'Is' is the present tense. It was reported yesterday, so it needs to be 'was' which is the past tense.

2) This needs to be either 'numerous noises' if you mean a large number of individual noises, or 'excessive noise' if you mean just too much noise in general.

3) In is acceptable, but during would be used here by native speakers.

4) This is a part of a conjoined sentence, so it does not need to be capitalized.

5)This is an ongoing problem, so you would say 'sometimes I cannot fall asleep...' and it should be finished as 'the air traffic is lighter' as you are comparing the traffic at 1-2 in the morning to the traffic from earlier. '-er' is comparative suffix.

6) This would more commonly be 'me', but I'm not sure if 'mine' is technically correct or not.

7) Secondly should only be used if there has been a 'Firstly' somewhere in the preceding text.

8) This requires the indefinite article 'an'.

It depends on context. When asking a question (such as 'Can/could you get me a drink') both are fine, and people will accept either. 'I can do that.' implies that you will, but 'I could do that.' means that you're able to, but not specifically that you will. If you mean technically, then 'Could' is the past tense and 'Can' is the present tense. If you have context I might be able to help more.

A good night, it's raining!

Hi everyone,

El Salvador has had a hard climate. I live in Sonsonate city, this city is close to the pacific coast, we have a tropical weather. Recently we have had high temperatures of about 36°c and 32°c. I think the weather is changing around the world. Sometimes I think the sun is torching the roof of my house.

Now the temperature in Sonsonate is 26°c. It's more fresh. I hope a good night.

1) This would be used for an event that is already over, like 'She has had a bad day'. If it is ongoing, like El Salvador's climate, it would just be 'El Salvador has a hard climate.'

2)This could go two ways, either 'we have a tropical weather pattern' which is more formal and technical, or 'we have tropical weather' which is less formal, and more likely in casual conversation.

3) 'of' is a preposition that is required to link the 32 and 36 to the temperature. You could also separate the two sentences, such as 'we have had high temperatures, they reached about 32°c and 36°c.' Also, while it's not a rule, English speakers ten to list lower numbers first, unless there's a reason to do otherwise. 

4) World is spelled with an 'l'.

5) I'm not sure what you meant here. It could be wishing people well, in which case it would be 'I hope you have a good night', or 'I hope you all have a good night.'. It could also be hoping that the night will be good for you, in which case it is 'I hope it will be a good night.'

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

Speed Violation

I got a speeding ticket yesterday by mail. When my girlfriend returns to Japan, I always take her to the airport. I usually keep the speed under 90 kilometers per hour, but this month I was driving over the speed limit where/while the police controlled speeding vehicles. The speed limit is 80 kilometers per hour, but I drove 96 kilometers per hour. I didn't notice there was a speed cop. He set up a bear trap so I couldn't see him. If I had noticed he was there, I would have slowed down my speed. I have to pay about 40 dollars for over 10 kilometers than the speed limit. I can't save money if I pay the money before the police send me the official speeding ticket, so I paid the money today. I could save the 20% of the fine. Have you ever caught for overspeed? How much is the fine for the speeding in your country? In Korea, it depends on how fast the drivers drive when they are caught by the police. Mine was one of the cheapest fines among the traffic violations.

1) You are writing in the third person present singular tense here. I return/you return/ (he/she/it) returns.

2) You need an adverb of some kind here. 'where' would mean 'in a place where the police controlled speeding vehicles', and 'when' would mean 'during a time in which police controlled speeding vehicles'.

3) Control is the present tense. When adding the past tense -ed to this word, you also and another 'l', which makes controlled.

4) A bear trap is a steel trap used to catch bears, which are large forest animals. This may have another meaning that doesn't translate well from your

5) Can't is a contraction of the negation can not/cannot. You probably meant can.

6) This either needs to be 'going over the speed limit' or 'speeding'. Either will work.

7) Korea is a proper noun (used for a specific person, place or organisation) and so needs a capital letter.

The best day of my life ( writing for homework)

It was a bright, clear Monday afternoon at the bus station and I was with my best friend Giselle. We were waiting anxiously for the bus , while we were talking about our first trip to the exotic Brazil.We had the tickets in our hands and our bags were full and heavy, but we don't matter didn't mind. As soon as the bus arrived , we ran quickly into the bus to have the best seats. We stayed in a huge, incredible camp located in Porto Alegre. Our first visit was to a place called Gramado and Canela, I remembered this place with such a joy , because I spent a lot of pleasing moments with my friends at the shopping, and walking through the pedestrian street that was full of trendy shops, galleries, and elegant restaurants . The attractive houses reminded me to of Swiss and German dwellings. We took lots of photos, and we will always remembered this time. Have you ever wondered how it would be to go for a trip with a friend? I recommend this to everyone I know because is an amazing and broadening experience , you can learn deeply one from the other , and that's a benefit for you both as you create a the strongest relationship.

Note: These corrections are only for technical mistakes, and there have been no changes to make it sound like a native speaker would say. If you have any questions, please feel free to message me.