Today my wife told me a story. Her girlfriend was in Patriot Park with her family. There's a military museum, a street exhibition of military equipment, and a big two-story Orthodox temple in the park. They walked around in the park and went into the museum and the temple. It started raining, but people were walking out of the temple despite the rain. Four people (one woman and the three men) walked out of the temple, and one of them opened an umbrella and all four of them ran under it. It’s unclear why they didn’t wait for the rain to stop on the porch of the temple under the roof. All of a sudden, lightening struck the umbrella, and they fell to the ground. When the ambulance arrived, one of the men had died right on the spot - not because of the lightning strike, but because he hit his head on the asphalt. The paramedics couldn't save him. Another man was taken to intensive care; his tennis shoes had been burned by the lightning strike. The girl and the remaining man walked away unscathed and didn’t need any medical attention. In that situation, Russians say: “They were born in a shirt”. Those people had gone to Patriot Park from another town for the first time. It all happened in front of my wife’s girlfriend's eyes and she was freaked out. How could something like that happen!?
It's good that you're writing stories. That's the best way to practice language in my opinion. Good job!
title: Lightning Strikes an Umbrella
By the way, in English, the words "girlfriend" and "boyfriend" usually refer to an individual's romantic partner. You probably meant to say, "My wife's friend." :)
A girlfriend is also a woman's female friend.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/girlfriend
I agree 100%. Listening and watching movies are passive. Speaking and writing are active. You need to create your own content to learn a language. Input theory doesn't work because output is more important.
Unlike Russian, strike doesn't require preposition. Молния ударила в зонт - Lightning struck un umbrella. I noticed that English requires more specific verbs - Молния ударила в зонт - Lightning struck un umbrella Я ударил его - I hit him
I believe input is just as important as output — you can't put out what you didn't put in: https://www.joshesl.com/the-importance-of-input-and-output-in-second-language-learning.html