9 / 10 월 Writing 기출 예상 문제 (필독)
작성자
edm아이엘츠
작성일
2013-09-21 15:09
조회
312
Cam 9에 있는 소수언어 보호문제
As languages such as English, Spanish and Mandarin become more widely spoken, there is a fear that many minority languages may die out. Some countries have taken steps to protect minority languages. What is your view of this practice?
As the world becomes more integrated, the need for common means of communication is becoming more pressing. Inevitably, speakers of minority languages have been under pressure to speak the languages of more dominant groups, both locally and globally. Some people argue that there is nothing to be done to stop this process. I strongly argue that minority languages facing a serious threat of extinction should be helped to survive.
As the balance of power among groups of people throughout history has shifted, languages have arisen, changed, and were absorbed into other ones. For example, many widely-spoken languages in the past - Latin or Esperanto - are considered an extinct language. In contrast, there are examples of communities that have managed to preserve and even revive languages under threat. Irish and Scots Gaelic, for example, have been preserved by government policy on education and broadcast media.
There are, indeed, several reasons why preserving minority languages should be implemented. Retaining the language of a community often means that other forms of different cultures- songs, literature and local traditions can be maintained. These all may contribute to the richness and the diversity in human cultures. Moreover, languages especially mother tongues help communities to remain cohesive and to have a strong sense of identity. This can enable people to be strong against adversity. We have seen many indigenous communities in North America which have lost their mother tongue and have been submerged by dominant languages as well as cultures. This has made native people have low self-esteem, lack of confidence and loss of initiative.
On balance, it is possible and in many cases, desirable to make the effort to preserve minority languages. This can have benefits both for the minority speech community and for society as a whole in terms of cultural richness and diversity.
Cam 9에 있는 학생 봉사활동 문제
Some people believe that unpaid community service should be a compulsory part of high school programmes(for example working for a charity, improving the neighborhood or teaching sports to the young) To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Some educators suggest that high school students should be involved in unpaid community services as part of the school curriculum. Although some students are against this school policy because it can infringe on their freedom, from my perspective, encouraging students to work in the community as part of the school curricula would be desirable as it can provide them with many invaluable skills for their lives.
Some maintain that compulsory activities for their community can make students lose their interest in helping others. This is because the nature of volunteer community service is that the activity is voluntary and not mandated by the school. However, after school, most students tend to waste their time sitting in front of the TV or surfing the internet. For this reason, they need to redirect their energies into more worthwhile activities.
Life skills are very important. By doing voluntary work such as picking up all the litter and trash along a river bank as an assigned class, students can learn how to be in harmony with nature and think about the importance of their environment. In addition, if school authorities gave their students compulsory work activities with charitable or community organizations such as Oxfam, they would be encouraged to do something more creative and productive. Skills gained through charitable work would be an asset to a good member of society as well as increasing their employability in their future career. This would help them to make contributions to their community.
On balance, students’ activities in their neighborhoods would give students a golden chance to enhance their self-esteem and good-citizenship. Consequently, this is a very good idea, and I hope this programme will be put into action for high school colleges shortly.
