Hi, friends, I am very lucky that I have received a very good and makes me very touched English lesson by Mr. Wilson. I do think it is not only very helpful to me, but also very meaningful for all of the friends who are learning English. So, I would like to publish it here and hope you enjoy it.

I do appreciate Mr. Wilson and all of the friends who are caring for, helping and supporting this little web site...

If you have any questions, comments, suggestions and advices, please write to shirley@ebridge.cn, you are welcomed.

--Shirley
Written and Edited On Tues., Nov.1, 2005



Hi again, Shirley:

It is a little strange, however, to see me called "Mr Rodney" ! (Maybe I can call you Miss Shirley :-) .)

In English we use titles such as "Mr", "Miss" and "Mrs" only with surnames, not with first names. Also, you used "Mr." with a dot, which is an American convention, not an English one, but I suppose you were taught the American way. (In English we put a full stop - Americans call it a "period" - after an abbreviation only if the last letter of the abbreviation is different from the last letter of the full word, but Americans do not discriminate, and put "periods" after all abbreviations.)

I looked at your new Xieyi painting. You are a very capable artist, Shirley! And I read the accompanying text, and make the following comments: ;-)

This is my 52nd Chinese Xieyi ? freehand brushworks
It is only one brushwork (even though it is one in a series) and so you should use the singular form, not "brushworks"

I painted it in my art lesson on Wed. night.
This is technically correct, but not really idiomatic. You should say "during my art lesson" rather than "in ..." Also, abbreviations such as "Wed. night" seem to be common in Chinese English writing, but they are not so common in native English writing, except for brief commercial communications, text messages, and the like. An English speaker would have written it out in full, as "Wednesday night".

There are many ways to paint a Chinese Xieyi picture. :-)
This lesson, I learned to paint the lines of my flowers with brushes ...
"This lesson ..." --> "In this lesson ...."
The difference here is that the lesson was about painting lines, rather than specifically about painting your particular picture. So you can say "In this lesson" when talking about the technique of painting lines, but "during this lesson" when talking about the particular painting that you produced as a result of the lesson.

I learned to paint the lines of my flowers with brushes directly at the first, then, to color it instead of painting it directly with colors.
"... at the first" is not correct. A better way to say it is "I learned to paint the lines of my flowers with brushes firstly, and then to colour it in, instead of .." (I use a different spelling to you for "colour" simply because I use English, not American language.)

After I completed the flowers, my teacher was satisfied and asked me whether I wanted to continue to pain a bird for my picture ... Only one error, the spelling of "paint".
for being a little bit worrying I destroyed whole of the picture in case I painted one wrong brush on the bird. Then it falls to pieces :-( . It is better to start this as a new sentence: "He was a little worried I might destroy the whole picture if I got a brush stroke wrong on the bird." If you say the teacher is being a little bit worrying, then it means he is causing the worry, not that he is feeling it. If you use the phrase "in case", then you have to put it in front of the whole scenario, not just in front of your action that might cause the scenario. E.g. "... worried in case I might destroy the whole picture by getting a brush stroke wrong on the bird."

But I wanted to try. :-) I had painted few hundred birds with a pen directly during I was in my trip in Lijiang, Dali and Kunming, Guilin and Yangsuo last year. "painted few hundred" --> "painted a few hundred"
But then you say "with a pen". Painting is normally done with a brush, not with a pen. Perhaps, instead of "painted" you meant "drew".Your phrase "during I was in my trip" ... The word "during" must take a noun, or a noun phrase. So the correct way is simply to say "during my trip". Then, instead of "in Lijian, ..." it would be better to say "through Lijiang, ..." You could have used "in" if it was entirely within one place, but not for a list of places. Even if it is in one place, but you are moving about within that place, it is still better to use "through", although it is possible to use "in" in that case.

I felt that I could paint it out directly with my color brushes.
-->"I felt I could have painted it directly with my brushes."

So, now you have seen a little bird on my picture. :-)
Your bird is "in" your picture, not "on" it.

I do feel its tail should be a little bit lifted. :-) Do you think so?:-)
The word order is a little odd. "... tail should be lifted a little bit".

Please do not hesitate to ask me if you don't understand any of my corrections or suggestions. If you think this is useful, I will write again at other times about other pages on your web site. I should say, however, that generally your English is good, and even if the expression is a little unusual at times, we can still understand it. :-)

Cheers

Rodney