There is a very inspirational quote often attributed to Einstein (but it’s a common mistake):
Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.
"Don't translate Russian phrases into English word by word. It's the most common mistake" – that is absolutely, completely, totally, utterly, entirely, unreservedly correct!
I hate to say it, but your suggestion proves exactly otherwise…
Let’s see it and please, don’t take it personally.
“I believe that we have lots of so-called Speaking Clubs in Kharkiv” vs.
”I hope there are lots of Speaking Clubs in Kharkiv” – both are correct grammatically and linguistically, but you are trying to change somebody’s thought, two sentences have slightly different meanings: the first one conveys more certainty, the second one reflects some kind of doubt. So your correction was unnecessary.
“Most of them work at English language schools” – well, it doesn’t make sense and that’s why: “to work at/in school” usually refers to a person who does a job at/in school, never to an institution/club/organization which is affiliated with or related to or run by any particular school, college, etc.
Moreover, the preposition “
at” in the context is out-of-place. In conjunction with “school” it means “physically, literally be present inside a school building, while “
in school” means a process – a person is studying in general.
Watch this:
When it comes to a job (let’s say it's about a teacher) it gets trickier: “He works
at school” – general description of profession, but if it refers to a particular place/institution then another preposition is used – “He works
in the school No. 4”
Therefore,
”Typically they are organized by...” is correct both grammatically and linguistically. You also can say school-based, or school-run, or school-affiliated clubs, just to mention possible variations…
“It's much better to improve your English there comparing to chatting on forum” - there is much to say about:
1. In such sentences gerund (“comparing”) is never used. You either use perfect - “compared to” or noun – “in comparison to”. See
Тільки зареєстровані користувачі бачать весь контент у цьому розділі
2. Probably, “compared to” is not in place in this particular context. Preposition “to” (“compared to”) is used when we want to highlight similarities, when we need to underline differences, “compared with” is the proper expression. See
Тільки зареєстровані користувачі бачать весь контент у цьому розділі
Since the suggestion that one way of improving English is better than another, it seems that we are talking about differences, thus – “compared
with”.
3. If you use a comparative ( “much better”) then “compared to/with” shouldn’t be used, that’s grammatically incorrect. See the first link.
Thus, either “a good way to improve your English compared to chatting on forum” or “much better way to improve your English than chatting on forum”, no mix of two.
Overall, the original version “they are way better to improve English than chatting on Kharkovforum” is absolutely correct both grammatically and linguistically.
Ну зачем оно выползло из своего русского торонто?
