Plz correct my diary ver.2(04/07/07)

[baek]

Today I want to write about My home stay family. My homestay family consists of Marian, Nada and me. Marian is the owner of the house. And she is the homestay mom. She was born in Australia and she speaks native Aussie English but when I asked her whether or not she is thinking herself as an Aussie or a dutch, she told me that she thinks herself as a dutch person.

Because she has the parent from Holland. Her parent came to Australia in 1950's when they were in their twenties and have been living here for over 50years. She has two daughters, who are not married, yet but already have their fiances. One is engaged with a pilot of Qantas airline and the other one is engaged with a prison officer. I couldn't see her daughters as they were all independent nowadays., but i was able to see them by the photos that Marian had and they were looking good.

I don't know why but she is devorced 20years ago or so and has lived alone for 20years. She's very kind to me and a very good woman. And she has the approximately same age with my mother., so I really feel her like my mother. And she is a manager of a Petrol station in the Perth city.

Another person, Nada, is half croatian and half Yugoslav woman. And she answered she doesn't think herself as an Aussie too.She said that she thinks herself a Yugoslavian. Actually her mother was from Croatia and father was from Servia. She told me that if she were in Servia or Bosnia or somewhere, she would be killed because she is a mixed blooded person.

She is devorced too just like Marian, but she hasn't been very long since she divorced like Marian. She cooks very well that she always makes me to expect her supper. Anyway she is very king too and very good woman too except that she sighs so many times.

[Pete]

Here are some suggestions:

Today I want to write about My home stay homestay family [Note: the word "homestay" appears to be used by one specific organization; I had never heard it, but using it the way the Homestay organization means it would seem to be OK.]. My homestay family consists of Marian, Nada and me. Marian is the owner of the house. And , and she is the homestay mom. She was born in Australia and she speaks native Aussie English but when I asked her whether or not she is thinking thinks herself as an Aussie or a dutch, she told me that she thinks herself as a dutch person.

B She feels this way because she has the a parent from Holland. Her parent came to Australia in 1950's when they [Now I don't understand; did one parent come, or did both parents come?] were in their twenties and have been living here for over 50 years. She has two daughters, who are not married, yet but already have their fiances. One is engaged with to a pilot of Qantas airline and the other one is engaged with to a prison officer. I couldn't see her daughters as they were all independent nowadays., but i was able to see them by the photos that Marian had and they were looking looked good.

I don't know why, but she is devorced divorced 20 years ago or so and has lived alone for 20 years. She's very kind to me and a very good woman. And she has the is approximately the same age with as my mother, so I she really feel her feels like my mother to me . And She is a manager of a Petrol station in the Perth city.

Another person, Nada, is a woman who is half croatian and half Yugoslav woman. And she answered she doesn't think herself as an Aussie too either. She said that she thinks herself a Yugoslavian. Actually her mother was from Croatia and father was from Servia Serbia. She told me that if she were in Servia Serbia or Bosnia or somewhere, she would be killed because she is a mixed blooded person.

She is devorced divorced too, just like Marian, but she it hasn't been very long since she divorced, unlike Marian. She cooks very so well that she always makes me to expect look forward to her supper. Anyway she is very king kind too and a very good woman too except that she sighs so many times.

[baek]

Hi pete!!:)
could you plz answer my question?

Today I want to write about My home stay homestay family [Note: the word "homestay" appears to be used by one specific organization; I had never heard it, but using it the way the Homestay organization means it would seem to be OK.]. My homestay family consists of Marian, Nada and me. Marian is the owner of the house. And , and she is the homestay mom.

*Why do i have to use comma before the word 'and'?
Won't it be fine just using like '~owner of the house and she is~'?

She was born in Australia and she speaks native Aussie English but when I asked her whether or not she is thinking thinks herself as an Aussie or a dutch, she told me that she thinks herself as a dutch person.

*Why couldn't I use the word 'thinking'? I meant how she was thinking at the moment when I asked her. So won't it be fine using like '~she was thinking~'?

B She feels this way because she has the a parent from Holland. Her parent came to Australia in 1950's when they [Now I don't understand; did one parent come, or did both parents come?]

*Why do I have to use the article 'a' than 'the'? I think Using Article is one of the most hard part of English for foreigners.

*Doens't the word 'parent' mean both my mother and my father? Why do I have to write like 'parents' to refer to both of my father and mother?

were in their twenties and have been living here for over 50 years. She has two daughters, who are not married, yet but already have their fiances. One is engaged with to a pilot of Qantas airline and the other one is engaged with to a prison officer. I couldn't see her daughters as they were all independent nowadays., but i was able to see them by the photos that Marian had and they were looking looked good.

*Aren't the words 'yet' and 'but' have the same meaning?
*Is the phrase 'be engaged to' a collocation?
*Can't I say like 'they are looking good?' Should I have to say like 'they looked good?' I can't understand the difference between these two


I don't know why, but she is devorced divorced 20 years ago or so and has lived alone for 20 years. She's very kind to me and a very good woman. And she has the is approximately the same age with as my mother, so I she really feel her feels like my mother to me . And She is a manager of a Petrol station in the Perth city.

*Can't the verb 'divorce' be used as passive?

Another person, Nada, is a woman who is half croatian and half Yugoslav woman. And she answered she doesn't think herself as an Aussie too either. She said that she thinks herself a Yugoslavian. Actually her mother was from Croatia and father was from Servia Serbia. She told me that if she were in Servia Serbia or Bosnia or somewhere, she would be killed because she is a mixed blooded person.

*Why can't I use the word 'too'?

She is devorced divorced too, just like Marian, but she it hasn't been very long since she divorced, unlike Marian. She cooks very so well that she always makes me to expect look forward to her supper. Anyway she is very king kind too and a very good woman too except that she sighs so many times.

*Why can i use the word 'divorce' in passive form in this sentence whereas i can't above?
*Will it be fine if I write like 'She always makes me expect her supper'?

[Pete]

I've inserted my replies into your quoted comment below:

Hi pete!!:)
could you plz answer my question?

(I'll try to write my replies in blue. I don't know what browser you are using, but from the quotes of my replies, it appears that you did not see where I used the ST code to strike out text that I was replacing. Is that true?)

Today I want to write about My home stay homestay family [Note: the word "homestay" appears to be used by one specific organization; I had never heard it, but using it the way the Homestay organization means it would seem to be OK.]. My homestay family consists of Marian, Nada and me. Marian is the owner of the house. And , and she is the homestay mom.

*Why do i have to use comma before the word 'and'?
Won't it be fine just using like '~owner of the house and she is~'?
-- It is standard to put a comma before the coordinating conjunction that separates the two main clauses of a compound sentence. When both clauses are short like this, it is possible to omit the comma, but I can't think of a good reason to do so. My main point here was not to have two separate sentences with the second beginning with "And".

She was born in Australia and she speaks native Aussie English but when I asked her whether or not she is thinking thinks herself as an Aussie or a dutch, she told me that she thinks herself as a dutch person.

*Why couldn't I use the word 'thinking'? I meant how she was thinking at the moment when I asked her. So won't it be fine using like '~she was thinking~'?
-- Think here is being used in the sense that is almost always non-continuous. The continuous (progressive) aspect (i.e. the "is thinking" form) is used to limit the time that the statement is true. If you used "is thinking" here, you would imply that if you asked her at another time, she would probably say that she thinks of herself as Australian. I didn't get the feeling that that is what you meant.

B She feels this way because she has the a parent from Holland. Her parent came to Australia in 1950's when they [Now I don't understand; did one parent come, or did both parents come?]

*Why do I have to use the article 'a' than 'the'? I think Using Article is one of the most hard part of English for foreigners.
--If you meant both parents, you would say, "… because her parents are from Holland." If only one parent came from Holland, you would say, "she has a parent from Holland." You would only say "the parent" when you are talking about a single parent who has alread been identified or who will be identified in an immediately following phrase.


*Doens't the word 'parent' mean both my mother and my father? Why do I have to write like 'parents' to refer to both of my father and mother?
-- A parent is a person, either a mother or a father. If you are referring to two people, the term is plural, i.e. "parents".

were in their twenties and have been living here for over 50 years. She has two daughters, who are not married, yet but already have their fiances. One is engaged with to a pilot of Qantas airline and the other one is engaged with to a prison officer. I couldn't see her daughters as they were all independent nowadays., but i was able to see them by the photos that Marian had and they were looking looked good.

*Aren't the words 'yet' and 'but' have the same meaning?
-- You could have used either "yet" or "but"; putting both words there doesn't sound right.
*Is the phrase 'be engaged to' a collocation?
-- Yes.
*Can't I say like 'they are looking good?' Should I have to say like 'they looked good?' I can't understand the difference between these two
-- Because the continuous aspect (are looking) is used to indicate that the duration of the verb is limited, to use it with a phrase like "looking good" makes it sound as though you think that at other times they do not look good. That is probably not the impression you want to give. With another adjective, it might be more appropriate: "She was looking sad when I saw her." (But we can assume that she became happy a bit later.)

I don't know why, but she is devorced divorced 20 years ago or so and has lived alone for 20 years. She's very kind to me and a very good woman. And she has the is approximately the same age with as my mother, so I she really feel her feels like my mother to me . And She is a manager of a Petrol station in the Perth city.

*Can't the verb 'divorce' be used as passive?
-- Certainly. You could have said "She divorced 20 year ago" or "She was divorced 20 years ago" or "She has been divorced for 20 years." The present tense "is" in your original sentence did not fit with the time indicator, "20 years ago".

Another person, Nada, is a woman who is half croatian and half Yugoslav woman. And she answered she doesn't think herself as an Aussie too either. She said that she thinks herself a Yugoslavian. Actually her mother was from Croatia and father was from Servia Serbia. She told me that if she were in Servia Serbia or Bosnia or somewhere, she would be killed because she is a mixed blooded person.

*Why can't I use the word 'too'?
-- I'm not sure why, but "too" doesn't sound right to me when it is comparing something with a negative statement. "Either" just sounded better to me.

She is devorced divorced too, just like Marian, but she it hasn't been very long since she divorced, unlike Marian. She cooks very so well that she always makes me to expect look forward to her supper. Anyway she is very king kind too and a very good woman too except that she sighs so many times.

*Why can i use the word 'divorce' in passive form in this sentence whereas i can't above?
-- Actually, in this sentence, "divorced" is an adjective; this isn't a true passive sentence. As I said earlier, the problem with your earlier sentence was the tense. I merely gave one of several possible changes to make it correct.
*Will it be fine if I write like 'She always makes me expect her supper'?
-- This sentence doesn't make sense to me. If I guessed wrong before about what you meant, I have no idea what you are trying to say. I suppose that by cooking supper every day she makes you anticipate (expect) that she will continue to do so, but this doesn't seem likely to be what you are trying to say.