Pollution is now one of the world's biggest problems, especially in developing countries, such as China. The economic growth may be to blame. With the rapid economic growth, China is now the second largest economy in the world, and at the same time pollution, a byproduct of the development, has accompanied the growth to come. People are now so familiar with the environmental pollution, such as air or water pollution - the sky is no longer blue; the rivers aren't clear any more.

Beijing, the capital of China, has suffered such annoying smog.  People living there are so concerned about the situation that they are trying to find an answer to the problem. Just as you know, air pollution could cause or exaggerate lung disease, such as lung cancer, asthma.  The car exhaust fume and the waste gas from the factories may account for the worsen air quality there.

I'm glad that the government is trying to limit the pollution from the cars or the factories or plants. At least, the authorities have realized the problem and been trying to do something to help improve the environment. Any violators are subject to severe punishment. I hope the sky will be blue again and the rivers will be clear as used to be. 

Please don't plagiarize!

I've recently noticed so many bloggers plagiarizing, which means they were copying and pasting things from the Internet, such as photos, text or articles, poems or song lyrics, etc. I know most of the time they were doing that accidentally - they may not have been doing that intentionally. They may not have known what is plagiarism or may have been totally unaware what they were doing was illegal. 

Why is the plagiarism taken so seriously here? Big deal? You should know the Internet is not an open domain, which means you are not allowed to copy anything from the Internet without a proper citation. If we are found copying things from the Internet without proper citations, we'll be punished and even our site MyEC will be "flagged". That will be such a serious consequence. So, if the mod or admin find you're coping things or plagiarizing, your blog will be flagged or deleted. Please let us know the photos are taken by yourself, not copied from the Web, when you're trying to include any photos or pictures on your blog.  Be careful, sometimes we even flag or delete a blog just because the blog is too good or polished to be written by her/him. 

Hope you can get it! 

I was born in China, so China is my homeland. Just as you know, China is a big Asian country with thousands of years of history. China, as one of the new emerging economies, has seen such a fast economic growth that it's now the second largest economy in the world, only second to the USA. China is still a developing country, though. Although China has made great progress in developing,  and even has succeeded in sending astronauts into space and a moon rover on the moon, and even topped the Olympic medal count/table, and so on, China still faces some big challenges - large population, pollution, corruption, etc. China is now one of the most popular travel destinations, where you can enjoy Chinese food, the natural beauty and the history, and much much more. 

I've lived in several different cities in China.  I still miss my hometown that is far away from where I live now. I'm kind of homesick or nostalgic - I wish I were still living in my hometown.  When I was studying or traveling abroad, I missed my homeland - I hate the feeling of being trapped in another country far away from mine, though I love to travel abroad. But home is where love is - anywhere can be home, you never know. I could have lived abroad if my son had succeeded in finding a job and having a family in another country. 

China is still trying to learn more from the developed countries. That's why so many Chinese students are still studying in America, Canada, Britain, Australia, France and some other countries. That's why we're so eager to learn English. 

My friend nida - one of our active members here on MyEC - just asked where all the blogs about Gaza are and if I have deleted all of them. I thanked her for asking and told her I didn't deleted the blogs. But I also told her that anything that may cause fights or hatred between MyEC members can be flaged or closed by the system, which means you can't see the blogs any more. 

I understand the subtlety of the situation in the Gaza Strip. I'm so sorry that so many lives there were lost. The question is when we'll have true peace or when we don't need to fight or kill any more. I know it's a long story or history. I think people around the world have already noticed the situation there and there are a lot of places on the Internet where we can discuss the problems. Let's pray for the peace and hope for the best!

MyEC is intended for being a place where you can learn English and make friends, so it can be so improper to post anything that may spark a serious argument. You may argue that it's also related to English learning - we're discussing in English:))

Sorry if you don't agree with me. What do you think of that?

Just in one week, we lost three planes in Ukraine, Taiwan, and Mali, and hundreds of lives were lost immediately. The safety of planes is now the major concern of people around the world. I wonder if it's still the safest way to travel by air - though there are always plane crashes, the airplane/aeroplane/plane has been considered as safest way to travel. 

Why are people so concerned about the safety of planes? Thanks to planes, the world is now seen as a village - people can travel from one country to another so easily by air. I can't imagine a world without planes - you can take the train or bus if you take a short trip, but what if you need to travel to another country that is far away from where you live? 

Then, who is responsible for the safety of planes? Lives mustn't be allowed to lose so easily - actions must be taken to protect the lives on the planes. Do you think so?

I was warned that somebody posed as me (Expector) in the chat room a few days ago. That's so annoying and intolerable. I wonder why they did that - they may have found it's fun to pretend to be someone, or they did it on purpose - just to cause trouble.  I've noticed that so many members complained about the situation in the chat room. Some members even left MyEC since they find some trolls' (or bad apples' or bad guys' or whatever you call them) misbehavior in the chat room is so unbearable. Sorry for an otherwise perfect chat room. That can be a problem. Thanks for all of those members who helped bring the problem to the admin's attention. In fact, some members have already assisted in finding a solution to it, which I appreciate so much.

As you know, I've never visited the chat room. That doesn't mean I don't think the chat room is a good place to practice English. I just need to find time to chat with you there. A chat room can be a great place to improve your English, but can also be a nightmare when there're some unpleasant guys flirting or harassing around. 

Let's help the admin to tackle the problem and make good use of the chat room.  

Are you enjoying the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics? I hope so. Are you satisfied with the performance of the athletes of your country? Do you think it's an opportunity for us to pick up some sports English words while enjoying the games? What's your favourite winter sport?

One more question: Do you think the countries should be ranked by all of their medals or only by the gold ones on the Olympic medal count/table?

Check out the Yahoo medal count and the BBC medal table, you'll find the difference.

People here in China think what really counts is the gold medals. China topped the gold medal table of the 2008 Beijing Olympics with 51 gold medals (the United States 36 gold medals), but the total (including silver and copper medals) for the US was 110, while China 100.

China is not really good at winter sports - they've only gotten 3 gold medals so far in Sochi. But China is going to bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Hey, don't get me wrong or try to put words into my mouth - I didn't mean that you don't need to study English hard. I mean that you don't need to speak or write a perfect or too polished or flawless English. I know you have reason to be fluent in English, but it really takes a lot of time and effort to be so. You should be proud of your English if you can understand what I just said or what I mean by saying that. 

Be proud of your English

I can tell you have already learned English so hard and for so many years because you can write a blog post and you can understand what you just read and can even leave a comment on it. I know a little French and Japanese, but I can't make even a very simple sentence with French or Japanese, let alone write a French or Japanese blog post. I wish I could but I know it's not a piece of cake to learn any foreign language. So, forget it. Let's talk about English learning.

Try to learn from the mistakes

"Don't be afraid of learning other learners' mistakes." Some learners here may argue what if they can't spot the mistakes and learn them.  But you should know mistakes are everywhere - I doubt there is no mistake in English textbooks. In fact, we all make mistakes - even native English teachers. So, I'm not so sure if it's so reasonable for you to read only what native speakers write.  You should know you make mistakes even though you are writing something in your first language or mother tongue. Our advanced learners here, such as noaslpls, Anele, Mickey, nida, etc, always try to read as more blog posts as possible. Sure, they may have been reading the mistakes but their English has imroved so much. That's the way they find suitable for them to learn English. And, it may not be so fun to keep correcting each other. So, enjoy the learning and learn from the mistakes you/they may make.

Don't set your goal too high

Some learners may try to sound like a native speaker. Chances are you'll never be that fluent, no matter how hard you've tried to learn it - people can tell you aren't a native speaker just from what you write or say. I know a Canadian who can speak Chinese so well and is so popular in China. You can't help but wonder how could he speak it so well  - even better than average Chinese. But I know there must be some subtlest differences or tricks in the words that he may fail to fully understand. So, why try to pursue something you can't achieve - you should know how much we envy you what you already grasped in English learning.

What really matters is practice

I tend to say MyEC is just like a swimming pool. In the pool, you can see a lot of swimmers. Some can swim so well or so nicely while some are just beginners or newbies. However awkward you may be as a beginner, you deserve a compliment or praise because you can be called a real swimmer. Anyway you are now in the pool practicing. Hopefully, the experienced swimmers will help or teach you how to master the swimming skills. With more practice, one day you may be surprised to find you can swim so well, while some of the people may still hesitate and sit on the pool side - they may fear that other people may make fun of them if they can't swim that well. They should know they'll never be able to swim if they just keep watching. Unfortunately, most of our learners here may be just like what I just said - they never write a blog post or leave a comment; they just keep watching. They may succeed in saving face but they'll never succeed in learning English.

So, you don't need to be that fluent in English. Admit that you're just a learner and don't be afraid of making mistakes. What an enviable achievement - now you can read and unsterdand such an English blog post and you even can write in English. You earned it yourself and you should be proud of you. Keep it up and good luck in your English learning.

You may have noticed the Tags when you were publishing a blog post. Tags are just some of the key words from your blogs. Some members may add “correction” or “corrections” to the tags, which means they will appreciate corrections made by other members (usually, English teachers, native English speakers or advanced learners).

Some members, however,  may find it embarrassing to be corrected that way (in public) - they may send their blogs to a teacher for correction (in private). 

I just tried to make some corrections to some of the blogs (writing challenge) - knowing most of the members would appreciate it. Most of the members agree it's one of the most effective ways to learn. We may keep making the same mistakes if nobody points them out because we may be totally unware of the mistakes. We all make mistakes. Making mistakes is just part of the learning. Don't feel ashamed of making mistakes or of being corrected by others. 

We must take our hats off to all the spambusters who've helped to make MyEC a pleasent place. They are active members here. They read all the blogs by other members and always try to leave a comment on what they just read. When they find an inappropriate blog by a spammer, they will try to go to the spammer's page and click "Report Member", and they will warn other members of the spammer. I really appreciate the excellent job our spambusters have done so far.

Tara just came back from her vacation, and she thanked all the members who helped look after MyEC when she was on vacation with her family. It's so great to see her back and I hope she enjoyed her vacation in the Unite States. She just added something important in the spambuster group for all the spambusters - please go and check it out!

Many thanks to all of our spambusters! Keep up your great work here!

I've noticed that some of our active members are so tired of unpleasant things or members here and even considering leaving MyEC, or rather, some of them may have found MyEC was not so good a place to stay put and already left. That's so bad for MyEC itself and for those who loved and had to leave it - I'm so sorry for that, too.

So many members here find MyEC is one of the best English-leaning places and they may have said to themselves that "MyEC is just the site I've been trying to look for." when they first sign up here. They may still agree that MyEC is so helpful for their English learning, even though they don't agree with some of the bloggers or whoever is doing or saying indecent things in the chat room. Yes, such things happen, and, anyway, we are here to learn English. Do we need to be so worried about the few "black sheep"? Can we work togher and try to help make MyEC a decent and nice place? But, members here should know:

1. MyEC is not the right place for you to talk about religion,  patriotism, or sex.  I know you are probably trying to show that your country is the best or your religion is perfect, or you're so interested in sex or pornography or erotology. There're plenty of sites for such things, but not here, so you should refrain from expecting such things here.

2. MyEC is not the right place for you to quarrel with or insult each other. You've got a lot of sites where you can use any bad language or insulting expression, or you can even call somebody names.

3. MyEC is not the right place to plagiarize. You're allowed to share something nice, but if you're trying to share something by others (not yours), you should make sure you're not plagiarizing - you could share a link to the original website.

So, you see, MyEC is just such a decent place, the right place for you to learn or teach English, for you to make friends, for you to admire or respect or cherish each other.

We've already got tens of thousands of members here on MyEC. But it seems we've got only a few active members here. Then what makes an active member or what does an active member look like?

For me, an active member is active in writing blogs and leaving comments on blogs by other members. They find MyEC interesting and enjoyable; they feel so comfortable with MyEC and will sign in on MyEC first thing tomorrow; they seems to really enjoy writing blogs and leaving comments - they take the time to read blogs and always try to leave a nice comment on what they just read. Last but not least, they are confident and so popular here. We love them.

So why do you need to be such an active member? Being an active member means you really want to practise and improve your English, and also means more opportunities to communicate with English learners and teachers worldwide. You'll make more friends and learn more about different cultures. Or whatever I just failed to mention.

I've noticed that so many members here titled their blogs with "My first blog" or something like that. It doesn't matter whether it's your first blog or not. You could simply write something or share something - you don't need to write something lengthy or perfect. Some of the featured blogs were just a few lines. You might find this blog helpful: Tips on writing blogs.

I don't think it's a good idea to keep writing blogs but never leaving any comments on blogs by other members. And if other members have left some comments on your blog, you'll try to reply back. Try to take the time to read and leave an encouraging or inspiring comment on other members' blogs. Are you expecting any comments on your blog?

You can be our next active member!

You may have learned English for a very long time, but chances are you'll still find yourself having problems choosing a proper or suitable word to use. That can be a big problem for learners.

Both in conversation and in writing, learners often hesitate when they are trying to choose or use a proper word for a situation. They may find there are a lot of words with the similar meaning, and they have to choose only one from them to express themselves in the context. They may find it difficult to differentiate between "may", "might", and "could", or between "fight", "quarrel", "dispute", "conflict", and "confrontation", or between "sorry", "appologize", and "regret". These are all common words which may cause problems for learners. If only there were only one suitable word for a situation! But what if you forget the only word, then how do you express yourself? So we may need more words even though it can be a problem for us to choose one from.

It may not be an uncommon problem for learners, though. Sometimes, they do understand what other people are trying to convey, but they just can't find the right word to respond. So, only too often, they may fail to have a good conversation or to write a suitable comment on a blog post or an article. That can be so frustrating for them. So, they may be good at reading, but bad at speaking or writing.  In fact, we all need to choose a suitable word from time to time, even though you are a native speaker. The differences between American English and British English could make it even worse, not to mention the subtle differences between synonyms.

         As you know, billions of Asians are celebrating the Lunar New Year (Some people call it "Chinese New Year" or "Spring Festival" in China). People in Korea or Vietnam or some other countries may celebrate it in different ways.  But, one thing's for sure, they all wish themselves or others a happy and lucky new year.

        I myself sent a lot of text messages on the New Year's Eve to wish all of them every happiness, a fortune, prosperity, success, health, a dream come true or something like that in the new year . Yes, there're so many rituals or details you need to observe on the eve and the first few days of the new year. You should be very careful when you do these because if you do something wrong, you might not be so lucky or even unfortunate in the new year. It may sound like superstition. In fact, I found myself a little superstitious about saying wrong or doing wrong when celebrating it, even though I'm a doctor and not really believe in God. You may say you see no reason to be that careful , but there is a lot of  uncertainty about the future of our world. Tomorrow may be a good day or a bad day. There could be wars, natural disasters or fatal accidents in which thousands of lives would be lost.

      Yes, it's also true, in the new year (this year is called "the year of the snake"), everything may be going very well for you or you might find a good job and make a fortune or even fall in love with someone. You never know:))

Many people may agree that English is a relatively easy language. How about this English sentence: "I love you." ?  Don't you think it is easy to learn or understand? But English may not be that easy as it may seem to be. Even popular "small" words such as "in", "at", "on", or "the" can cause confusion - mistakes related to such small prepositions or articles are not uncommon, not to mention English idioms or phrasal verbs or collocations or the differences between British and American English.   Even though you have learned all the basic English grammar rules or even though you have learned English for a very very long time, chances are you'll still hesitate or even make mistakes when you try to use the language (e.g. try to wirte or say something in English).

The problem is that you may have to use this language. English may probably be the most popular second language in the world. You may have been very familiar with American music, songs, movies or news, which are all in English. English seems to be so suitable for a "global language" (like Esperanto). It is most likely that people from different cultures with different first languages will communicate by using English.

If only the English language were/was easier to use! Then we wouldn't have to spend so much time learning it, and then we could have made many more friends whose first language is English, and then we could understand what they exactly want to convey, and then we could appreciate all the English movies, songs, news, novels or poems, and then...

Hi everyone,

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Time flies quickly, doesn't it? We're now at the end of 2012 and it's time for us to make a New Year resolution for 2013. You may say you have never made any of such resolutions, then you're not alone in saying that. In fact, I find it difficult to stick to all the resolutions, too. So, I'd like to use this expression "I wish I could...in 2013."

I wish I could write many more blog posts, say, one post a week in the new year. I did feel like writing something, but only too often I failed to publish one. It's true I have been too busy at the hospital as the head of ICU (intensive care unit), where you'll see critically ill patients. However, I don't think it's a suitable excuse for not writing so much.

I wish I could read every post by our members and leave a comment on them in the coming year. I failed to do so, but managed to leave a comment on some of them. As a blog mod of MyEC, I'm expected to read as many blog posts as possible. I'd appreciate it if you let me know you really want me to comment on your blog/post.

I wish I could save all the lives in my ICU in the year 2013.  I wish I could save every patient who is in critical condition. Being a doctor in China can be so demanding, but it can also be so rewarding, especially when you are able to have your patients on their feet again.  

Best wishes,

Expector

The 2012 London Olympic Games opened with a spectacular opening ceremony. For most of the MyEC members, however, the Games could be more of a chance to learn some English than just a sport meeting.

The Olympics are just taking place in an English-speaking country this time. So, English is everywhere. Chances are you will pick up some idiomatic expressions if you watch the Games on TV or in person in London. When the Queen opened the Games during the ceremony, MyEC members who were watching may have tried to understand what exactly she was saying - "I declare open the Games of London..." Some of the members might have wondered if the word "open" acted as a noun, a verb or an adjective?

Plus, you could pick up some sport English - the names of the sports, words such as "athlete", "medalist", "stadium", etc. And, you could learn how to report a sport event. I suggest you read the sport news which may interest you on the Internet. Keep reading and you'll get used to the writting style often used by sport journalists - pay attention to the titles of sport news.

You could share an event you read or watched with us here, or you may want to discuss a relative topic (say, "Do gold medals really matter?") with MyEC members, then feel free to ask us to join you in the discussion.  

Enjoy the Games and learn English!

I recently attended a conference in China. Several medical researchers or experts from English-speaking countries, such as the US, were invited to the conference, too. Most of the audience, however, were Chinese. So, you bet there were a few interpreters who helped translate what the English-speaking lecturers were giving into Chinese. Don't get me wrong - I was not one of the interpreters, but I did ask a few questions in English when it was time for the audience to ask.

I asked in English "Dr Rogers, I have a question for you.  I was wondering if you just mentioned that the device was available only in some of the big cities in the US?"  Dr Rogers smiled and asked the interpreter to translate my question into Chinese in case the others don't understand what I just asked. Dr Rogers must have known that most of the Chinese who attended the conference were not good at understanding spoken English. It's quite true that most Chinese doctors are not good at English listening or speaking, even though they may have started learning English when they were in elementary school. They are good at reading, though - they can read English books, newspapers, magazines etc. The reason for that is they don't have to speak English or they don't have to communicate with others in English. They speak Chinese all the time. In China, even medical textbooks are written in Chinese. That can be a problem when they need to communicate in English - though they do learn medical English at university.  

Dr Rogers answered my question and we exchanged some words. He might have wondered "How come this guy's English is so good, while...?"  I bet he may have guessed that I might have learned English in an English-speaking country, but he must have had no idea that I am a moderator of MyEC.

China's first woman astronaut

China's spacecraft returns to Earth

Did you find the "More..." button on a page? Are you using it? I hope so!

I love the "More..." button, with which I can read all the comments or posts I missed. For example, I don't want to miss any comment or post by Tara. I can go to her page and click on the "More..." and I can see all of her comments or posts I failed to read. That's great!

So, try using the "More...".