"gentlemen having asked me" - What is the grammatical construction? I began to read in English one of my favorite children's books - Treasure Island. And at the very beginning of this book there is such a sentence : "SQUIRE TRELAWNEY, Dr. Livesey, and the rest of these gentlemen having asked me to write down the whole particulars about Treasure Island, from the beginning to the end, keeping nothing back but the bearings of the island, and that only because there is still treasure not yet lifted". And I don’t understand the combination of the words "having asked". Why not used "have asked"? What time is applied here or what is it a grammatical construction?

Review of the song "Nature Boy" The story of this song is very simple, intelligent man who has seen a lot, gives advice to his friend about what is important in life is to love and be loved. It's definitely a metaphor, the song has a deeper meaning. The author was the son of a Baptist priest and this could not but affect his creative activity. Love is the foundation of our life. The creators of new world religions, such as Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, put this value above all others. They have empirically discovered this law of love and modern philosophers have yet to interpret this construct is in line with our new ideas about life. Indeed, love permeates all our relationships. The love of a man and a woman makes sense existence for both and gives a new life. Parents' love for their children allows this life to continue. Between people there is “friendship love” or, in other words, friendship based on fidelity, absolute trust and sincerity to each other, as well as mutual assistance. In business, there is a own version of friendship, it's called a partnership. I am convinced that without a friendly partnership, no successful business between people is possible. Love is a program that allows a person to successfully implement all the good that is inherent in it. I can say that this song is a differently told biblical story about how, after long wanderings, a man returned to the true, sublime and the only pole of attraction for him.

The starry sky. My parents have a dacha. It is an old country house with a small plot of land in the village, forgotten by the government and God. There are almost no roads in this village and electricity is often cut off. My parents live in the city, but they like sometimes to live in the dacha in the summer. Apparently they are still more rural than urban residents. I consider myself a city dweller, but sometimes I like to be in the dacha. It is quiet and there is fresh air here, and therefore only here I can fall asleep at nine o'clock in the evening. But last night I imprudently drank a cup of strong coffee and therefore I couldn't fall asleep for a long time. I went outside to get some fresh air. It was quite dark outside, and there was no light in the whole village. I looked at the sky and saw a fantastic picture. There were no clouds on it, and the stars shone so brightly that no street lighting was needed. Directly overhead was the Milky Way, part of our galaxy. To the North I saw the Ursa Major, a constellation in a form like a dipper. To the West I found the most bright source of light, it seems to me it was Venus planet. There were millions stars on the sky and the view of the starry sky was fascinating. I was so excited that stood for a long time looking at the sky! I imagined our universe, in which every star is like our Sun and many stars have planets. How grand and boundless this world is, and how small against this background our problems and opportunities seem. Sometimes we have to be outside of civilization to understand who we are, where we are and where we should go.

My method of learning English Today in the Russian section of the site I read Michael's note on the importance of writing in the target language and decided to take regular notes in English too. Recently, I had the opportunity to speak with native speakers, and practice has shown me that I cannot correctly explain my thoughts. In my opinion, it’s bad when you do not know the language well and try to just talk with ordinary people, because almost nobody corrects you. This is the Titanic work that our parents do for us when we learn our mother tongue. But such correction is necessary. So I started looking for a way to improve my ability to speak English. I understand a lot when watching English-language channels on Youtube. (Unfortunately, it’s still difficult for me to understand films and television programs without subtitles and a dictionary). And there I found a channel where an English teacher advised to start learning to write first, before starting to speak. I think he's right. When a person talks to a foreigner and tries to understand what he is talking about, there is always some kind of nervous situation. You have to speak very well to keep the conversation going. On the other hand, when you write, you have time to think about how to do it right. In our time of modern technology there are many online translators that help translate and learn languages and it would be foolish not use them. I also use them, but not in direct purpose. It would be not effective just simply write the text in my native language and translate it using this tools and that would be cheating myself. First I write my text in English and translate it into Russian using Google translator. Then I copy my Russian translation and translate it into English using Google translator too. Sometimes I make small corrections to this translation. So I have two English texts that I can compare. This is a good practice for me because I make a lot of simple mistakes, such as word order or using articles. Online translators like Yandex translator also help me correct my spelling. I think before you post your text on italki it would be better to remove such errors. But no online translator can replace a living person. Therefore, I am glad that there is such a site as italki where people can help each other correct their language mistakes.

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My English (my first note here) I'm native Russian speaker. I have been studing English already more than 30 years. I studied it in shcool, in university and in postgraduate courses. After that I used it on work but not often and mostly to read technical information. And now I must confess, my English level is low... Now English is de-facto franco-lingvo in whole world. People who speak English have additional opportunities in professional career, in travelling, in communication and ability to connect to the world bank of knowledge. The last I like the best, but the real reason for me why I should improve my level is Anton. He is my nephew. He is six year boy who lives in London and speaks with good British accent. Unfortunately, he don't speak Russian although very much understands in it well. I'd like more to communicate with him when he comes to us. So, I have the reason and my challenge is to be able maintain a simple conversation with him after two months. And than I'd like to speak fluently English after one year. This is my the big challenge. This time I will not fall back from learning English as it was before until I reach a good level. There is some difficulties on my way, but about that I'll tell nex time.