English Pin

Two days ago, I started using an app called 'English Pin'. It's an app for practising speaking English speaking, but it's different from other apps.

Unlike other apps, it helps a user to not only practice speaking efficiently, but also to not be afraid of just talking with people from other countries. It has many other interesting functions, too.

I hope I can be confident with conversing with native English speakers without being concerned about my mistakes :)

Great job! No major mistakes here, but I still wanted to give you some suggestions. 

* I took out the word "just" from your second sentence, but I get what you were trying to say. I think it may be better phrased, "Unlike other apps, it helps a user to not only practice speaking efficiently, but also to simply not be afraid of talking with people from other countries."

I think when you say "just", it makes it sounds like the app's only purpose is to make you not afraid of talking with other people, which you made clear is not the app's only purpose! "Simply" works a little better in this case, because:

"The app helps not only X, but simply Y" means that it helps with X, but more fundamentally helps Y. In other words, it's great for X, but even better, it helps with Y.

Your writing was really great with no noticeable mistakes, so I'm really nitpicking here :) Great job!

Journal #51 Perfume: what your smell says about you

[Summary]

According to Roja Doves, who is a perfume designer, there is a very deep psychological connection between our personality and the kinds of smells we like. The smells we experience when we are very young can have a big psychological impact on us even later in life, and odorants can act as the trigger for a particular emotion. Our scent can give off a message about the kind of person we are, and the one particular scent gives the impression of being very strong in business. A woody, mossy scent suggests that you are not someone to be messed with. Roja says we shouldn’t underestimate the power of smells.

[Conclusion]

I hardly ever wear any perfume. But I agree with the idea that smells can act as the trigger for a particular emotion. For example, the sweet smell of daphne let me reminds me of my grandmother. There were many daphne flowers in my grandmother’s garden, and I often played at in her garden in my childhood. When I get this smell, I feel nostalgia and get warm feelings.

Really great writing! Your English sounds very professional and natural. Here are a couple notes:

* "According to Roja Doves, who is a perfume designer, there is..." It's perfectly fine to include "who is", but you can also leave it out. I think in writing, it's more natural to leave it out. In speech, I don't think it's necessarily more natural.

* In writing, try not to start a sentence with "and". The words "for/and/nor/but/or/yet/so" are used to connect sentences, but not to start them. Remember them with the acronym F.A.N.B.O.Y.S. :)

A tired tiring day

Today is was a tired tiring day.
I took part in a linguistic experiment as a test sample this moring morning. After wearing putting on a special cap with more than 60 electrodes, they asked me to identify some characters and then make a judgement whether these expression were right correct or not.The cap is was so tight that I can could hardly make any facial expressions. Besides, the test object need to keep relatively static required that I keep relatively still and actually I didn't sleep well last night, which resulted in my unconcentration inability to concentrate, and I almost fell into sleep asleep several times while testing.
After I came back from the gym (I strengthed strengthened my muscles there), I felt I have like I had exerted all my strength, and now my body is just like a pile of mud.
My eyes ached form from overuse. I spent too much time in front of the screen, so I think I need some rest now.

Great writing! Here are a few of my notes:

* "tired" vs. "tiring": "Tired" is a state that someone (people, animals) can be in. "Tiring" is an adjective to describe something that makes someone tired. For example, "Running is tiring. It makes me tired." is a good use of those words. But, you couldn't say, "Running is tired."

* "wearing" vs. "putting on": This is a subtle difference, but the way you phrased this sentence sounds a little weird to English speakers. "After wearing a special cap" sort of makes it sound like you wore it, and then you already took it off before the test began. "After putting on..." is more natural in this case.

Another example of this: When a woman comes home from work, she might say, "After wearing high-heels all day, my feet are tired." (She's already come home and is about to take the high-heels off). Another example of "putting on" would be, "After putting on high-heels, I feel so much taller." because she is describing how she feels now that she is wearing them. 

Sorry I wrote so much here! It's really a very subtle difference.

* "right" vs. "correct": Using the word "right" is okay here, but I think it's better and little more natural to say "correct" in this case.

* "unconcentration" is not a word. I wrote the sentence as close as I could to your original sentence, but it would be even more natural to say "I didn't sleep well last night, which made it difficult to concentrate."

* "Strengthened my muscles there" sounds a little weird. I think it's a bit too obvious, because "strengthening your muscles" is generally what you do at the gym, so I feel like you're telling me something I already know. Maybe "I did strength-building exercises" would make more sense. When you phrase it this way, it sounds more like you did strength-focused exercises as opposed to stretching or running.

My essay:

There is no doubt that the problem of air pollution is becoming increasingly severe. People may believe an international car-free days can improve air quality efficiently, but I will argue that other policies, including public transportation, needs need to be implemented.
On one hand, prohibiting the drivers to use their vehicles may reduce the air pollution directly since cars and motorcycles do produce massive amounts of contaminants. However, this is [not] the most efficient way because there are a lot more factors that contribute to the bad air quality, including toxic gas produced production by the petrochemical industry and by chimneys of factories. With the industrialization of the modern society, the thorny problem becomes harder to tackle.
On the other hand, other strategies are to should be implemented by the authority. One possible solution is to improve the public transportation. With more subways or and bus stations, commuters are encouraged to use these facilities and thus decrease the use of their own cars. Also, the government should rise raise the standards of gas emissions which force factories to spend more money on filtering the air. Last but not least, more efforts should be made on the scientific research of air cleaning or and reduction of pollution. This may would not only create new technologies that can control the damage, but also save our environment effectively.
In my opinion, the fundamental cause of air pollution is the lack of environmental awareness. One option has to be is to teach everyone the importance of protecting our mother nature and raise public consciousness.
In conclusion, there are several solutions to the problem of the air pollution. While it may not be possible to find a complete solution, any action should probably involve encouraging greater use of public transportation and education about environmental protection.

Great job! A few notes:

* "Thorny" at the end of the first paragraph sounded really weird. Maybe a better word would be "delicate" or "complex."

* Second paragraph, first sentence: I think it might sound more natural to change "authority" to "government."

nice to meet you:)

I am native korean. and I was born in Seoul thirty six years ago! I have been studying for over twenty years, but I can not speak english well. so I want at least to at least have a bit of enough communication skills like so I can free talking talk freely or solve IT issues because I am a software developer. haha. also I also want to be a role model to my daughter who was born on in March, 2018 by showing her my effort. thank you:)

Great work! I think the only thing you may need to work on is starting your sentences. You tend to start sentences with "and," "so," "also," etc. Sometimes it's okay to leave those words off, and just start the sentence without them!

Past Indefinite, Past Continuous, Indirect speech

1. A knock at the door aroused Martin. He was thinking about Joe and wondering where he was, as he told the one, standing behind the door, to come in.

* Punctuation is weird, but the grammar is good! Good job.

* You should remove all the commas in the second sentence to make it more correct. The phrase "standing behind the door" is better without the commas in this context. As for the comma after "where he was," remember F.A.N.B.O.Y.S. The words "For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So" get a comma before them. "As" does not need a comma before it.

2. She said that no one knew she was there. Martin asked her what she had said. She repeated her words and added that she had saw seen him come in, waited a few minutes and came into the room too.

* This one either needs to be "she had seen" or just "she saw". Either is fine, but I'll go with "had seen."

3. Martin said that he hadn't changed since her mother had broken their engagement. He hadn't become [even] a bit more eligable eligible for Ruth, and she hadn't even bothered to visit him when he had been starving.

* You don't necessarily need to add the word "even," but I think it sounds a little more natural here, though.

* The other rule that applies to F.A.N.B.O.Y.S. is that you shouldn't start a sentence with them, so I would connect the last two sentences with a comma. (In conversation, it's totally fine to start a sentence with "for and nor but or yet so," but in writing it is bad practice. Sometimes authors will do this for effect, but in formal writing this is not good.