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.