Andrew

IELTS Cambridge test 1

Writing task 2: Living in a country where you have to speak a foreign language can cause serious social problems, as well as practical problems.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement ?

Nowadays, living abroad is the best experience that everyone wants to experience at least once in their lifetime. However, the problem they have to face is speaking a language which is not their mother tongue. Therefore, I suppose that this issue may cause their lives in society and their daily conversations negatively.

First of all, the problem when they live in a country in which they have to speak a foreign language is language barrier. Obviously, speaking a language which is not their mother tongue, is so tricky for who have never been to other countries before. Moreover, not everyone is also able to become a bilingual or multilingual. Therefore, if they don’t practice foreign languages carefully, it will have a directly detrimental effect on their daily routine. For example, English has become the global lingua franca for many years, so if they never learn and practice English, they will be like an illiterate people and struggle to live in countries which people use English like mother tongue such as America, the U.K, Canada, Singapore, the Philippines and Australia. Secondly, it also impacts on their mental health if they don’t deal with this problem. Not only do they care about how speaking their foreign languages, but they also consider their living expenses, current salary and care of their family. There are too many things and problems to cover, so they definitely have little time to study foreign languages. On the other hand, it also puts pressure on their mind which causes to depression, worry and more seriously to be mental handicap. Thirdly, because of language barrier, mental health and how much little time studying foreign languages, they face many challenges during adapting to new environments, like difficulty in making new friends, comprehending their cultures, working and studying in schools. Therefore, there are a number of people who feel homesickness and come back home at once because they can not adapt to their foreign countries due to struggling to new foreign languages.

Nevertheless, although living in a country where you have to speak a foreign language can cause many problems, it is not extremely serious for everybody and language can not evaluate their intellect and adaption skill. Therefore, if they have a smart method as well as flexible time, they will be able to speak a foreign language as soon as possible and they will be confident in using a foreign language for working, studying, searching and having beautiful daily conversations with native speakers.

In conclusion, it is undeniable that living abroad without being able to speak a foreign language influences their lives negatively, but not making it more severely. They just find ways to practice a foreign language fluently with smart methods, so they use a foreign language in daily life more and more easily.