You can’t find Language Partners in italki.com Hello guys! I want to consider the main question I have to this site. Why can’t I find Language Partners on this site? If you have good or bad experience in it, please, write it in your comments, I appreciate it. I think italki.com very good site and there are so many good people on it! If you write article or ask the questions, they will help you immediately. But it will change if you try to find Language Partner. Why? So, that may be some reasons. Reason 1. Blank profile I started from setting up my account. I downloaded the photo, wrote some paragraphs about me. Everyone can write me a message or invite me to be a friend. No any restrictions in my profile. I shot introduction video and attached it in description. Thus, I think it’s not for that reason. Reason 2. Weak activity I prepared welcome letter with information about me and my intention. I sent it to about 200 users. In response I had only 4 messages. No one of it led to Skype conversation. Reason 3. Inconvenient time I am working hard and able to speak only from 18:30 UTC to 21:00 UTC. It’s noon time in Canada or USA. But I didn't have any suggestions for a conversation at another time. Reason 4. A few Russian learners and many English learners But I sent my invitation only for people interesting in Russian. I think I have covered everyone who wants to learn Russian. Reason 5. Unattractiveness in having a conversation with me It's possible, however, I don't see a big difference between myself and other users profiles. Reason 6. People aren't ready to talk live Maybe people are embarrassed to talk live. But the name of the site “I talk i” [emoji] So, what do you think about this situation? Am I doing something wrong? What is your opinion? Don’t hesitate to write it, maybe add some new reason or discuss mentioned one. And don’t forget to check my writing, it’s so helpful for my learning!

Warm thoughts, Shabby country, Loving family Evening. The sun shines on the other hemisphere. I'm heading home. I'm exhausted and in a hurry. It’s dark. Warm thoughts I think about my lovely wife. She is waiting me. My cheerful children is playing right now and asking is dad will be soon. Soon, very soon I will be there. The warm bath and hot tea I am dreaming of. Someone checked my italki notebook and I look forward to the time when I can see the answer. Shabby country But it’s so bad weather around. Drizzle. Sticky cold water around me, on my hat, on my coat. Gusts of wind penetrate my coat. The nearest Metro station is broken, so I have to go long way to the next one. Lonely drunk man is holding on the tree. He is looking at his vomit under his feet. His friend is sleeping next to him and drops are flowing down his cheek. I turn away, so I don’t see it. I am in a hurry to go home. Elevator doors is creaking for ages, this sound means that the working day is over. Loving family I am closing the door and switching on the light. The children are hugging me at the door. I feel my favourite dishes in the table and my wife is looking at me with joy. She gives me a shy kiss. My familiar books are waiting for me. Home, sweet home. So, it will happen again tomorrow. I will be appreciated for checking my writing. It’s a complicated task for me, I am not sure about tenses and grammar.

The greatest IT-companies impact in word today Today I want to talk with you about big IT corporations that operate with our data. For instance, Alphabet and Apple know what do you looking for and what sites you like the most, where do you live and what the places you prefer to meet. Amazon knows what do you buy and Facebook knows your friends and what you talk and write. This article isn’t about the fear of surveillance and refusal to use devices. I just want to discuss with you the trends and try to guess our future. It’s overwhelming the first time you realize how much they know about you. For instance, YouTube give you the videos the most appropriate to you. If you watched some video about travelling, it will give you more videos about travelling. But the most incredible thing is that now YouTube is able to guess your preferences, even if you haven’t watched these videos. Maybe you just searched through Google some travel agency sites. Even more, you could just went to a travel agency and Google has found out you through Google Maps. Some time ago I red the 1984 book by George Orwell. And now I feel we are much closer to the word that he describes. Orwell imagine a device, he called it “telescreen”. There was devise with screen, microphone and speaker. These devices are used to show people the information they “need” and to monitor how they react to it. “Telescreen” too close to smartphone nowadays. So now we have device to give you sorted information. And it is used to obtain data on how we respond to this information. We know, the information is the power. What do you think, how big companies will use this information in the future? How it will change the World? Write it in comments. And don’t hesitate to correct my writing. I will be appreciate you.

Will English replace all other languages? At all times people have used different languages for international communication. For example, it was Latin earlier. It was used by scientists, philosophers and priests. But its time is gone. There was French after that. Educated people learned French to communicate with citizens of other countries. So, we had international languages in all our history. Nowadays the most common language is English. It’s enough to compare the number of people who want to learn English in italki.com with the number of people who learning or know another language. Huge number of people know English above advance level and it’s raised dramatically. For me, as a Russian speaking person, it’s hard enough to find a person to communicate with. It’s because everyone wants to learn English, but no one wants to learn Russian. Even though the Russian language is among the five most popular languages on the Internet. In addition to the reasons mentioned, English is now doesn’t seem like the international languages before. Early international languages were used in narrow spheres: cultural, scientific, religious or medical. Thus, one language has never involved in all spheres of human life. This circumstance didn’t allow to the international language to spread everywhere. But it’s not applicable for English. It’s so strong because we can use it in all situations. In meeting, business writing, private conversation, scientific research, medical lecture, IT programming, etc. It is used everywhere, by everyone. Will it change all other languages in the future? I don’t know. But I’m sure it’s going to be stronger in the next 50 years. Every language is beautiful. If some disappears, it will be a loss for all people. I believe that we should protect and develop our native languages. But how? If we use our native language in everyday communication, it will be protected. If good writers and translators write books in our native language, it will be developed. What do you think? Please, write you opinion in comments. And don’t hesitate to correct my writing, it would be very useful for me.

There is only one way to improve your writing, you should write a lot The first step to improve your writing is understanding your writing goals. For example, I typically write letters for e-Bay or Amazon sellers, sometime I report about bugs in software applications. And it's all. I've never sent mails in English for working reasons. I dread writing letters for working purpose. My grammar isn't good, sometimes I don't know the certain meaning of words, sometimes I mix prepositions or articles. So I feel I'm not ready to use writing skills. For writing better, faster, in more official way I've decided to try pass the IELTS General exam. There are two types of writing tasks: a letter about some official reason and an essay about general themes. Therefore I need to practice this kind of writing skills. I found a lot of typical IELTS essay themes and decided to write one essay or one letter per day. But I don't know who will correct me... Maybe you can recommend me something? I will be appreciate your advice. Thanks for your attention and don't hesitate correct this writing or write a comment, please do it, I need it a lot.

How much do you pay for others health? Many people believe that health care should be free for everybody. Do you agree with this? What do we mean when call health care “free”? Do doctors, nurses and other health workers deserve salary for their work? Do people want to be tested using the most modern and accurate equipment? So, medicine is an expensive service, and someone must pay for it. There is free health care for everyone in my country. Let’s look at our health system from two sides: from working person, who earn enough and benefit recipient, who isn’t able for some reasons to earn enough money for treatment. In my opinion a working person isn’t very happy to pay for a service he doesn’t use. When you work hard you can’t afford to waste time on your own treatment. So, you see the therapist a couple of times for ten years. If you don’t have “free” health care you will pay around 3500 rubles for these two visits. But if you have one, your costs will be about 1 million rubles, which have accumulated over ten years from your income. It’s too much for couple of visits. Let’s look for situation from benefit recipient. Elderly people and people with disabilities need good treatment. But have they? No. They have old equipment, long waiting time, wrong diagnostics, low quality drugs. This is because centralized management isn’t effective way to spend money. I believe that health care should be paid by people. And people should choose clinics and doctors. Such systems used in some countries. In addition, each working person should pay a small contribution to the health fund. And authorities should use it to return people some part of their health cost. The amount of return should be determined by the level of income. Poor people should get 100% refund and reach people much less. What is your opinion?

What is "To a tunnel of its own" does mean? I found very good songs for learning English. It's called Windmills of your mind. I think songs it's very good way to learn language. Especially if you like it. https://youtu.be/WEhS9Y9HYjU This song is simple to understand. Noel Harrison has clear pronunciation. So everything is good, but one question haunts me. In this sentences: Like a tunnel you can follow To a tunnel of its own Down a hollow to a cavern Where the sun has never shone What "to a tunnel of its own" does mean? I can't catch the meaning of this sentence. I try to translate it word by word, try to use google translate, but nothing. I understand every word in it, but I can't catch the meaning.