I came across this in the exercises of my Japanese text book:

「自分の気持を上手に人に説明する事が出来ない事がよくあります。」

My current unsure translation would be:

"There are often times when I am unable to explain my feelings to other people very well."

Is that way off the mark?

Things that lost me:

- In '上手に人に説明する', isn't 上手 being used as an adverb? If so, why is it not placed before the 説明? Could it be done either way?

- Translating my above english back into Japanese I'd probably use 人々 rather than 人. Is the original referring to one person only, or is my choice of 人々 incorrect?

- The two '<verb>事' clauses in a row seem like a clumsy way of saying this. Would you actually prefer this kind of construction in real speech, or is my book just using it to illustrate the possibilties? Perhaps it just seems weird because I'm not used to it yet...

I think your translation is quite correct, but the wording does indeed sound very contrived. Maybe something like:

「自分の気持は他人にうまく説明できない事が多い。」

would be more natural. I doubt 人々 would be an appropriate replacement for 人 (or 他人 as I suggest) in this context, because it tends to refer to a limited, specific group of people rather than "people in general." Compare, for example:

引っ越してから、町の人々と仲良くしようと思ってたけど、冷たい人間だな。
When I moved in, I tried to get along well with the people in town, but they're not very friendly.

彼女はとても優しくて、人と仲良くしがちですね。
She's very kind and tends to get along well with people.

Come to think of it, I've seen 人 used that way plenty of times in the past, just not in my learning material.

Well, I'm happy now I know I've understood the grammar at least. ありがとう、>>2さん.