Living in a Country Where You Have to Speak a Foreign Language Can Cause Serious Social Problems as Well as Practical Problems – IELTS Writing Task 2
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Contents
In opinion essays, it is usually important to agree or disagree with a certain fact or piece of information mentioned in the topic. Your argument must support one of two opposing views in the essay.
Given below is an example of an IELTS Writing task 2 opinion essay. Let’s understand how to frame the essay from the ideas we have.
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?
Outline
Essay Type
Opinion Essay (Agree or Disagree)
Introduction
Sentences 1 & 2: Introduce the topic.
Sentence 3 – Agreed with the notion of the essay.
Body Paragraphs
Paragraph 1 – Not knowing a language in a foreign country can cause communication problems.
Paragraph 2 – Lack of proper language skills may create problems in daily activities
Conclusion
Sum up and state your opinion.
Sample Essay
It is definitely a problem to live in a country where you have to speak a foreign language. Language barriers can cause serious social as well as practical problems. According to me, this statement is true due to several factors that are discussed in the essay.
Staying in a foreign country where one cannot speak their native language will make it difficult to communicate with the locals. At public gatherings, they will often feel isolated since they may not understand each other’s language. Furthermore, normalizing themselves in a completely different culture from the one they grew up in and not having fluency in the language will be fairly difficult. As a result, they usually do not develop good relationships with local citizens and prefer to stay within the confines of their own community. This is a major social problem.
Apart from that, the inability to speak the local language may negatively affect one’s everyday activities in a foreign country. For example, some people may find it difficult to go grocery shopping at the local market or access local transportation. Moreover, at their workplaces, they may have to face a lot of problems. Certainly, it is important for an individual to be able to communicate effectively within an organization. If they struggle with the common language, they may be unable to freely express their ideas, which will hinder their ability to progress in the organization despite their talents. Having trouble establishing good relationships at work can also affect the probability of a promotion, regardless of how hard they work. As a result, these individuals often doubt themselves and feel under-confident.
However, many people say that linguistic barriers are not a major problem as they get easier over time, but one may feel alienated in the beginning and trying to rectify the situation may not be easy.
To sum up, I agree that living in a country with poor access to the local language is challenging both socially and practically.
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Migrating to foreign countries has become a common phenomenon, irrespective of the age and qualification of a person. But many people back off on their desire to migrate as they feel that being unable to speak the foreign language may cause social and practical problems. Fortunately, recent developments in technology and globalization have aided in solving such communication gaps. In this essay, the latter view will be discussed to show that living in a foreign country has become a piece of cake regarding language issues.
To begin with, settling in a country with a different linguistic system and moving to a part of the country with a different language setup has the same issue – lack of common language. As aforementioned, this drift has become quite prevalent nowadays. Due to this, local people welcome international visitors or immigrants with open arms and try to help them as much as possible. In a social setting, the neighbours invite the newcomer to gatherings or parties, if they are interested and accept them as a part of the community. Furthermore, when one moves to countries like U.K., U.S, Australia and others, they have to prove their language skills in a global language like English. So, even before moving to the country, people are already fluent in the common language that will enable them to communicate.
Apart from that, applications like Google Translate and Maps have become the ultimate solution to these correspondence problems. While travelling, one may not need to ask for directions anymore as they have maps and similar apps to guide them. In case one needs to translate certain words on documents or while interacting, they can definitely benefit from language apps like Triplingo, Microsoft Translate and Baidu, among others.
However, technology does not help when one moves to remote parts of the world without a network for smartphones or apps to work. Sometimes, locals may not even welcome the outsider naturally. But, with globalization, these cases have become very rare as technology has reached greater lengths of the earth, and people have opened up to different cultures and people from various locales.
Therefore, to conclude, it can be said that although few people may face the communion issue socially, if they try to adapt themselves and search for like-minded people, they will definitely enjoy their new lease of life in the new country.
Vocabulary
- Practical
Meaning: of or concerned with the actual doing or use of something rather than with theory and ideas.
Eg: “Always think in a practical way before taking any important decision.”
- Communicate
Meaning: to share information with others by speaking, writing, moving your body, or using other signals
Eg: “Did you communicate your needs with the manager?”
- Isolated
Meaning: separated from other persons or things; alone; solitary
Eg: He was isolated from his family at birth.
- Fluency
Meaning: the ability to speak or write a language easily, well, and quickly
Eg: His fluency in the language is quite impressive.
- Confines
Meaning: the limits or borders of something
Eg: The prisoners remained in the confines of the room for more than 15 years.
- Organization
Meaning: a company or other group of people that works together for a particular purpose
Eg: Our organization aims to help people with problems in immigration.
- Promotion
Meaning: the act of raising someone to a higher or more important position or rank
Eg: Her family was thrilled to hear about her promotion.
- Under-confident
Meaning: lacking in confidence
Eg: The fresher was under-confident when he joined the job.
- Linguistic
Meaning: of or relating to language or linguistics, the scientific study of language.
Eg: He is a professional well-known for his linguistic skills.
- Alienated
Meaning: to cause someone or a group of people to stop supporting and agreeing with you
Eg: Tom’s friends alienated him as soon as he was accused of murder.
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Janice Thompson

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8 Comments
do pham bao thu
Posted on Jun 7, 2022
It is obvious that living in a foreign country,where you have to use foreign language can bring in many social problems,as well as practical ones. To my way of thinking, living in a different country can cause many troubles. In this essay, I shall explain my point of view.
It should be first noted that one of the most significant obstacles for individuals moving in a new country is language barrier. They will find difficulties in communicating and getting on well with local people. Moreover,another problem related to this is racial discrimination due to differences in nationalities,cultures and mother tounges. For example, when a person want to find a job in foreign countries,they might be disrespected by the local employers or being turned down by companies,thus result in umemployment . Besides, another issue is the misunderstanding of cultures. For instance, a person who vistits a different country does not understand about that country’s culture and he might offend it accidentally.
Additionally, not knowing the local languange make it harder for immigrants to find a direction,read noticeable announcenments or buying things at local shops or markets. Sometimes, foreigners might be ripped off by the local individuals. Not knowing the foreign language can cause many unwanted social and practical problems.
With the advancement in technology, problems such as language can be easily overcome with automatic translators applications namely Google Translates or iTranslate atc. However,due to the diffrences in contexts, these apps are not often accurate and they might cause misunderstandings.
In conclusion,there are many serious troubles arosed form living in foreign country. It is recommended that before moving to a different country, people should make their best effort to learn the foreign language and gain basic understandings about the local cultures.
Reply
kasturika
Posted on Jun 8, 2022
Band Score – 6
Concentrate on the correct usage of articles, prepositions, verb forms, subject verb agreement and punctuation.
Pay attention to spellings and word order in a sentence.
There should be proper space between words.
Use C2 level of words.
Rekha Chaudhry
Posted on May 11, 2022
It’s very helpful
Thank you
Reply
Devanshi
Posted on May 6, 2022
Residing in a nation in which you must communicate via a different language than the person’s native lingo might generate significant social and practical considerations. On a larger note, I consider that expressing your thoughts in a foreign language might turn into a barrier sometimes. Moreover, my perspective will be explained further with a striking illustration.
The predominant reason for my opinion is expressing feelings and thoughts through the medium of a new language is not effortless. Due to reason that the individual needs to prepare the structure of sentences and keep the grammar in mind while conveying their message. Moreover, in social or public gatherings the people find themselves isolated from the other communities due to linguistic barriers. Moreover, living in a totally different culture make them homesick as the traditions and beliefs do not match. As a result, the foreign residents find it a quite difficult task to build up their relationships in the neighbourhood.
Apart from that, speaking in a different language can also affect a person’s regular activities. As the individual need to buy their survival items such as groceries or access the public transport makes them communicate effectively. To illustrate, if a person needs to purchase groceries from local stores then, they require to talk in the nation’s local language. As it may be possible that the vendor or shopkeeper may not understand the international language too.
However, in the world of the tech-savvy generation, it is a bit straightforward to use their smartphones to overcome the language barrier along with the worldwide information of events organized around them with a click. Consequently, they can make new local friends which can help them in difficult phases.
To sum up, it can be stated that inhabiting a nation where there is a need to speak in a language which is not the individual’s native can affect them socially and substantially in everyday life as the local people may only understand their native language and can generate largely effective problems.
Reply
kasturika
Posted on May 7, 2022
Band Score – 6
Concentrate on the correct usage of pronouns and punctuation.
Some sentences are incomplete or lacks clarity. Learn error-free sentence formation.
Avoid repeating common words or linkers and using first person and second person narrative. Use third person instead.
Use C2 level of words.
Thạch Mỹ Ngọc
Posted on Feb 17, 2022
It is sometimes argued that tourists from overseas should be charged more than local residents to visit important sites and monuments. I completely disagree with this idea.
The argument in favour of higher prices for foreign tourists would be that cultural or historical attractions often depend on state subsidies to keep them going, which means that the resident population already pays money to these sites through the tax system. However, I believe this to be a very shortsighted view. Foreign tourists contribute to the economy of the host country with the money they spend on a wide range of goods and services, including food, souvenirs, accommodation and travel. The governments and inhabitants of every country should be happy to subsidise important tourist sites and encourage people from the rest of the world to visit them.
If travellers realised that they would have to pay more to visit historical and cultural attractions in a particular nation, they would perhaps decide not to go to that country on holiday. To take the UK as an example, the tourism industry and many related jobs rely on visitors coming to the country to see places like Windsor Castle or Saint Paul’s Cathedral. These two sites charge the same price regardless of nationality, and this helps to promote the nation’s cultural heritage. If overseas tourists stopped coming due to higher prices, there would be a risk of insufficient funding for the maintenance of these important buildings.
In conclusion, I believe that every effort should be made to attract tourists from overseas, and it would be counterproductive to make them pay more than local residents.
Reply
Thạch Mỹ Ngọc
Posted on Feb 16, 2022
Many people immigrate into another country where they are unfamiliar. I completely agree that this situation can cause major social and practical problems when these immigrants have to familiarize themselves with a different language and culture.
Living in a foreign nation is always challenging because a minor mistake or conflict in manner can cause some social issues. Firstly, body language can be diverse in various places. For example, a nod of the head may be considered as either an agreement or a disagreement in some cultures. Therefore, without thorough research into a host country, the same gesture can confuse new immigrants with a totally distinct meaning which leads to misunderstanding and can even provoke arguments and violence. Another reason causing these people trouble is legal and regulatory systems which may be sometimes opposite to those in their home country. Consequently, they can easily break the law and commit crimes.
In addition to cultural diversity, language barriers and discrimination can be seen as other obstacles when living abroad. Lack of language ability obviously makes new citizens in a foreign country hardly introduce themselves to local people. Besides that, language barriers can make them find it hard to have a job or make new friends. In daily activities, they need to communicate effectively with many people to make sure their basic needs are met, but otherwise, they may have a sense of isolation from the rest of the world. One more thing is that in reality, many immigrants become victims of discrimination due to their skin complexion, which prevents them from socializing with their community.
In conclusion, I totally believe that without adequate preparation for different customs and languages before living overseas, immigrants can face many social and practical problems there.
Reply
Janice Thompson
Posted on Feb 17, 2022
Band score: 5
Concentrate on word order.
Use “c2” vocabulary.
SInce this is an opinion essay, iti s required to write one line of contrast after the two opinionated paragraphs.