Tammy's avatar
Tammy

Feb. 23, 2024

1
Spring Lantern Festival

Tomorrow is our Spring Lantern Festival in China.

We traditionally have lanterns, sticky rice dumplings, and fireworks on this special day. If I am still in my hometown, we'll celebrate it in our house with family, but I'm in Shanghai right now. Luckily, there are several lantern shows in this city.

I'm going to visit one of them. It's in a small town, a little far from downtown Shanghai.

In this case, I will spend four hours going there and back tomorrow. It would be tiring, but I believe it will be worth it.

Time should be wasted on beautiful things.

Happy Spring Lantern Festival.


元宵节

明天是我们中国的元宵节。

在这特别一天的传统里,我们会玩赏灯笼、吃汤圆、放烟花。若是还在老家,我会跟家人一起在自家屋子里过节。但我现在上海,所幸上海有几个元宵灯会。

我将去逛其中的一个离市区有点儿远的小镇灯会。

如此一来,明天我就会在路上花四个小时了。可能会很累,但我相信是值得的。

时间可不就应该浪费在美好的事物上么?

元宵节快乐呀。

---送一首写元宵节的宋词给看得懂中文的朋友们(因为不晓得怎么翻译成英文哈哈):

《青玉案·元夕》
宋 · 辛弃疾
东风夜放花千树。更吹落、星如雨。宝马雕车香满路。凤箫声动,玉壶光转,一夜鱼龙舞。蛾儿雪柳黄金缕。笑语盈盈暗香去。众里寻他千百度。蓦然回首,那人却在,灯火阑珊处。

Corrections

Spring Lantern Festival

Tomorrow is ourthe Spring Lantern Festival in China.

We tTraditionally we have lanterns, sticky rice dumplings, and fireworks on this special day.

If I amwere still in my hometown, we'll would celebrate it in our house with family, but I'm in Shanghai right now.

Luckily, there are several lantern shows in this cityhere.

I'm going to visit one of them.

Alternative:
I plan to visit one of them.

It's in a small town, a lbittle far from downtown Shanghai.

"a little far" sounds unnatural to me. I changed it to "a bit far"

In this caseThat way, I will spend four hours goetting there and back tomorrow.

It wouldill be tiring, but I believe it will be worth it.

Time should be wastedShouldn't time be spent on beautiful things.?

Your original text in Chinese posed a question here.

time wasted on beautiful things: this doesn't make sense, so I changed it to "time spent on beautiful things"

Happy Spring Lantern Festival.

Tammy's avatar
Tammy

March 20, 2024

1

Thank you for your corrections!

Have a nice day!

If I amwas still in my hometown, we'll would celebrate it in our house with family, but I'm in Shanghai right now.

Two very small corrections, please don't be disheartened by the large amount of text below.
"If I am still in my hometown" seems to imply that you are currently in your hometown and there's a possibility that you could still be in your hometown during the lantern festivals, but there's also a chance you might have left by that time. Since you are already no longer in your hometown, I feel changing it to "If I was" because that implies that you are talking about the past when you used to live in your hometown. So it's saying, you used to live in your hometown, but you no longer do.
"we'll celebrate it" would fit with "If I am still in my hometown" meaning you still live in your hometown and if you haven't moved by then, this is what you would do "we'll celebrate it." However, since you no longer live in your hometown changing "we'll" to "we would" (or "we'd" to keep using a contraction) implies that this is what happened in the past, but isn't going to happen in the future since you no longer live in your hometown.

Luckily, there are several lantern showfestivals in this city.

Note: This might be a correction that only makes sense in the Northeast United States
Festival can be used to imply a certain timeframe (possibly days) where a holiday celebration takes place. Festival can also be used for a location and time when a celebration of that specific festival takes place. Yes, it's confusing. There can be many festivals (outdoor/public celebrations for a specific festival) happening for a single festival.
An example might be "Fall Festivals", those can take place in many places, at many different times, with a variety of different activities, but they are all celebrating the single event of the start of Fall.
However, there are some celebrations, like in the United States the Fourth of July, where we'll call them celebrations instead of festivals, and if we're talking about the Fireworks in particular we call them "Firework shows" not firework celebrations or firework festivals. It's really arbitrary and if I knew how we decided what word to use when I'd tell you, but I don't know other than exposure. It's also possible it varies regionally. If I had to make an educated guess, I would say a festival or celebration includes more interaction on the attendees part, meanwhile a "show" there aren't really activities, you go to watch something like a movie or someone else light up a bunch of fireworks. In those cases there aren't any structured activities. Whereas festivals usually involve crafts and celebrations usually involve food.

In this case, I will spendit's four hours going there and back tomorrow.

A more concise way of saying this would be "it's going to be a four hour roundtrip" or "it's going to take four hours getting there and back" the reason I'm using "getting there and back" instead of "going there and back" is because when you use "getting" it emphasizes that the action is completed. So once you finish getting to your destination and returning from your destination it will be four hours. By using "getting there and back" you are implying that this is travel time only, and not talking about any time you actually spend at your destination.
I hope that makes sense, I had to look up the difference between getting and going myself. I know what "sounds right" but don't always understand why.

While you are spending time traveling there and back, if a person is "spending" something it usually isn't about the time, it's more about an action, like "I am spending money to travel to this event" or "I am spending time with friends" I suppose you could say "I will spend four hours traveling there and back tomorrow". "Going" doesn't work here because it's too vague. If you're simply talking about how many hours it will take to do something we use the word "take". "It will take X hours to do Y" Since the idea here is that you are going to be sitting on a train or bus to your destination you aren't really doing anything during that time other than waiting for something to happen "the bus or train to reach your destination." In that case you talk more about the time being taken away from you since that's really all that's happening. You wouldn't say "I'm spending time waiting for my friend" you would say "I'm waiting for my frend" because that's the action that's happening, you are actively waiting for something. I have no idea if I explained that correctly.

It wouldill be tiring, but I believe it will be worth it.

"will" implies this is going to happen in the future.
One could argue that "would" works if you were talking hypothetically, as in, you aren't actually going to do something, but you are creating a scenario where if you were in a situation to do that "In that case, it would be tiring, but I believe it would be worth it." However, since this is something you plan on actually doing in the future, we use "will" instead of "would."

Time should be wasted on beautiful things.

This is very poetic, if you mean for it to be poetic then it's perfect.
Wasted has a negative connotation, which is why it makes this sentence more poetic, because "beautiful things" are a positive thing, everyone loves beautiful things (we all interpret what is beautiful in our own way, it doesn't mean it has to be visual. Acts of charity of a scientific discovery could be seen as beautiful things) By contracting a negative term "wasted" with something positive "beautiful things" it creates this contrast. That is why I say how you phrased it is poetic.

If you mean to be less poetic, I would change it to be "Time should be spent on beautiful things." That is a more direct way of saying it. Which can be helpful when people with people who might see poetry as being "dramatic".

Feedback

This is really well done, especially considering all of the tenses that were used in this writing piece. You're doing great!

Tammy's avatar
Tammy

Feb. 24, 2024

1

Thank you for explaining so much for me!

I'll try to do better.

Tomorrow is ourthe Spring Lantern Festival in China.

We tTraditionally, we have lanterns, sticky rice dumplings, and fireworks on this special day.

"As is tradition" type of phrases are usually introduce before the subject verb object bits. Traditionally have is something that is said but is less natural in context.

IfWhen I am still in my hometown, we'll celebrate it in our house with family, but I'm in Shanghai right now.

If makes it sound like you don't know but you do.

I'm going to visit one of them.

I'm planning to visit one.

would sound more natural to me but what you wrote is not wrong and if you like it better it's fine.

It's in a small town, a little far from downtown Shanghai.

so "a little far" is a great descriptor in general because it's almost contrary to itself but I think I would reword it to something slightly different like
"and a little far from"
or
", far from"

leaving out the word "little".

In this caseAs such, I will spend four hours going there and back tomorrow.

you didn't introduce a case so you need a different conjunction

It wouldill be tiring, but I believe it will be worth it.

small mistake to make one time but if you find you make this many times it may be worth investigating

Time should be wasted on beautiful things.

This is not wrong but there are more natural ways to express this ideas that are sort of classics in English.

"Time is never wasted on beautiful things" is a negatively word positive sentiment that many people would find more compelling here for example.

Happy Spring Lantern Festival.!

Happy X! type statements feel like a threat without the exclamation mark.

Feedback

This is very close to what I think you wanted to say. Most adjustments I want to make are to the style rather than the content so I think you can try writing longer or more challenging sentences if you want to.

Tammy's avatar
Tammy

Feb. 24, 2024

1

Thank you so much for your advice. Maybe I can try next time.

Spring Lantern Festival

Tomorrow is our Spring Lantern Festival in China.

We traditionally have lanterns, sticky rice dumplings, and fireworks on this special day.

If I amwere still in my hometown, we'll would celebrate it in our house with family, but I'm in Shanghai right now.

Luckily, there are several lantern shows in this cityhere.

Original sentence is grammatically correct. My correction is to make it sound more natural.

I'm going to visit one of them.

It's in a small town, a little far from downtown Shanghai.

In this case, I will spend four hours going there and back tomorrow.

It wouldill be tiring, but I believe it will be worth it.

Time should be wasted on beautiful things.

Happy Spring Lantern Festival.

Feedback

Well written, good job! Happy Spring Lantern Festival!

Tammy's avatar
Tammy

Feb. 23, 2024

1

Thank you so much.

Have a nice day!

Spring Lantern Festival


This sentence has been marked as perfect!

This sentence has been marked as perfect!

Tomorrow is our Spring Lantern Festival in China.


This sentence has been marked as perfect!

Tomorrow is ourthe Spring Lantern Festival in China.

Tomorrow is ourthe Spring Lantern Festival in China.

We traditionally have lanterns, sticky rice dumplings, and fireworks on this special day.


This sentence has been marked as perfect!

We tTraditionally, we have lanterns, sticky rice dumplings, and fireworks on this special day.

"As is tradition" type of phrases are usually introduce before the subject verb object bits. Traditionally have is something that is said but is less natural in context.

We tTraditionally we have lanterns, sticky rice dumplings, and fireworks on this special day.

It's in a small town, a little far from downtown Shanghai.


This sentence has been marked as perfect!

It's in a small town, a little far from downtown Shanghai.

so "a little far" is a great descriptor in general because it's almost contrary to itself but I think I would reword it to something slightly different like "and a little far from" or ", far from" leaving out the word "little".

It's in a small town, a lbittle far from downtown Shanghai.

"a little far" sounds unnatural to me. I changed it to "a bit far"

In this case, I will spend four hours going there and back tomorrow.


This sentence has been marked as perfect!

In this caseAs such, I will spend four hours going there and back tomorrow.

you didn't introduce a case so you need a different conjunction

In this case, I will spendit's four hours going there and back tomorrow.

A more concise way of saying this would be "it's going to be a four hour roundtrip" or "it's going to take four hours getting there and back" the reason I'm using "getting there and back" instead of "going there and back" is because when you use "getting" it emphasizes that the action is completed. So once you finish getting to your destination and returning from your destination it will be four hours. By using "getting there and back" you are implying that this is travel time only, and not talking about any time you actually spend at your destination. I hope that makes sense, I had to look up the difference between getting and going myself. I know what "sounds right" but don't always understand why. While you are spending time traveling there and back, if a person is "spending" something it usually isn't about the time, it's more about an action, like "I am spending money to travel to this event" or "I am spending time with friends" I suppose you could say "I will spend four hours traveling there and back tomorrow". "Going" doesn't work here because it's too vague. If you're simply talking about how many hours it will take to do something we use the word "take". "It will take X hours to do Y" Since the idea here is that you are going to be sitting on a train or bus to your destination you aren't really doing anything during that time other than waiting for something to happen "the bus or train to reach your destination." In that case you talk more about the time being taken away from you since that's really all that's happening. You wouldn't say "I'm spending time waiting for my friend" you would say "I'm waiting for my frend" because that's the action that's happening, you are actively waiting for something. I have no idea if I explained that correctly.

In this caseThat way, I will spend four hours goetting there and back tomorrow.

It would be tiring, but I believe it will be worth it.


It wouldill be tiring, but I believe it will be worth it.

It wouldill be tiring, but I believe it will be worth it.

small mistake to make one time but if you find you make this many times it may be worth investigating

It wouldill be tiring, but I believe it will be worth it.

"will" implies this is going to happen in the future. One could argue that "would" works if you were talking hypothetically, as in, you aren't actually going to do something, but you are creating a scenario where if you were in a situation to do that "In that case, it would be tiring, but I believe it would be worth it." However, since this is something you plan on actually doing in the future, we use "will" instead of "would."

It wouldill be tiring, but I believe it will be worth it.

Time should be wasted on beautiful things.


This sentence has been marked as perfect!

Time should be wasted on beautiful things.

This is not wrong but there are more natural ways to express this ideas that are sort of classics in English. "Time is never wasted on beautiful things" is a negatively word positive sentiment that many people would find more compelling here for example.

Time should be wasted on beautiful things.

This is very poetic, if you mean for it to be poetic then it's perfect. Wasted has a negative connotation, which is why it makes this sentence more poetic, because "beautiful things" are a positive thing, everyone loves beautiful things (we all interpret what is beautiful in our own way, it doesn't mean it has to be visual. Acts of charity of a scientific discovery could be seen as beautiful things) By contracting a negative term "wasted" with something positive "beautiful things" it creates this contrast. That is why I say how you phrased it is poetic. If you mean to be less poetic, I would change it to be "Time should be spent on beautiful things." That is a more direct way of saying it. Which can be helpful when people with people who might see poetry as being "dramatic".

Time should be wastedShouldn't time be spent on beautiful things.?

Your original text in Chinese posed a question here. time wasted on beautiful things: this doesn't make sense, so I changed it to "time spent on beautiful things"

Happy Spring Lantern Festival.


This sentence has been marked as perfect!

Happy Spring Lantern Festival.!

Happy X! type statements feel like a threat without the exclamation mark.

This sentence has been marked as perfect!

If I am still in my hometown, we'll celebrate it in our house with family, but I'm in Shanghai right now.


If I amwere still in my hometown, we'll would celebrate it in our house with family, but I'm in Shanghai right now.

IfWhen I am still in my hometown, we'll celebrate it in our house with family, but I'm in Shanghai right now.

If makes it sound like you don't know but you do.

If I amwas still in my hometown, we'll would celebrate it in our house with family, but I'm in Shanghai right now.

Two very small corrections, please don't be disheartened by the large amount of text below. "If I am still in my hometown" seems to imply that you are currently in your hometown and there's a possibility that you could still be in your hometown during the lantern festivals, but there's also a chance you might have left by that time. Since you are already no longer in your hometown, I feel changing it to "If I was" because that implies that you are talking about the past when you used to live in your hometown. So it's saying, you used to live in your hometown, but you no longer do. "we'll celebrate it" would fit with "If I am still in my hometown" meaning you still live in your hometown and if you haven't moved by then, this is what you would do "we'll celebrate it." However, since you no longer live in your hometown changing "we'll" to "we would" (or "we'd" to keep using a contraction) implies that this is what happened in the past, but isn't going to happen in the future since you no longer live in your hometown.

If I amwere still in my hometown, we'll would celebrate it in our house with family, but I'm in Shanghai right now.

Luckily, there are several lantern shows in this city.


Luckily, there are several lantern shows in this cityhere.

Original sentence is grammatically correct. My correction is to make it sound more natural.

Luckily, there are several lantern showfestivals in this city.

Note: This might be a correction that only makes sense in the Northeast United States Festival can be used to imply a certain timeframe (possibly days) where a holiday celebration takes place. Festival can also be used for a location and time when a celebration of that specific festival takes place. Yes, it's confusing. There can be many festivals (outdoor/public celebrations for a specific festival) happening for a single festival. An example might be "Fall Festivals", those can take place in many places, at many different times, with a variety of different activities, but they are all celebrating the single event of the start of Fall. However, there are some celebrations, like in the United States the Fourth of July, where we'll call them celebrations instead of festivals, and if we're talking about the Fireworks in particular we call them "Firework shows" not firework celebrations or firework festivals. It's really arbitrary and if I knew how we decided what word to use when I'd tell you, but I don't know other than exposure. It's also possible it varies regionally. If I had to make an educated guess, I would say a festival or celebration includes more interaction on the attendees part, meanwhile a "show" there aren't really activities, you go to watch something like a movie or someone else light up a bunch of fireworks. In those cases there aren't any structured activities. Whereas festivals usually involve crafts and celebrations usually involve food.

Luckily, there are several lantern shows in this cityhere.

I'm going to visit one of them.


This sentence has been marked as perfect!

I'm going to visit one of them.

I'm planning to visit one. would sound more natural to me but what you wrote is not wrong and if you like it better it's fine.

I'm going to visit one of them.

Alternative: I plan to visit one of them.

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