Thread: Looking for language exchange

I’d like to comment on the word “зато” a little more. As I just looked up, it is used for balancing the bad and the good.
Like in my example “Я не постирала белье, зато я разморозила холодильник.” I denote a bad thing for me in the first clause and I am balancing it with a good thing in the second one (what about my tenses here?) You can look the English equivalents up. I keep feeling amazed (?) at the way we use so many words correctly without even knowing what they express, but only feeling that.

As for my comparison of our previous life here with our present life.
In the soviet time we used to live a satisfied and safe life in material regard. But at the same time it was a dictatorship, which I hated. I’m of a rebel frame of mind, you know. Now the life is much harder. Nevertheless it’s a life of freedom and big possibilities for everyone. I do think if you are talented and hard-working you can achieve if not everything but very much.