■ DirectionYou have 20 minutes to plan and write your response. Your response will be judged on the basis of The quality of writing and on how well your response presents the points in the lecture and the relationship to the reading passage. Typically, an effective response will be 150 to 225 words.■ QuestionSummarize the points made in the lecture you just heard, explaining how they cast doubt on the points made in the reading

Topic ▼

Many students choose to take a gap year before starting university, to travel or gain work experience. Do you think this is a good idea or a waste of time? Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

In modern society, many college students believe that taking a break time before they start their courses as to work or travel can be effective way of gaining various social experience. I personally feel that this kind of time can be necessary for their life not only acknowledging new information or tip but also coming across unknown world by interacting a lot of people.

To begin with, as the most population over the world live in a capitalism society with so much competition, young students have been challenged socially and academically from society to get better jobs and improve academic performances. Besides, when they try to get a job after they graduate college, the companies require them to have classifications such as speaking foreign languages, learning professional skills and gaining various work experience. That is reason why many students in South Korea try to go overseas during college years to learn languages and gain social experiences. Many researches processed in South Korea about this phenomenon tells that more than half of students satisfied with their gap year because they earned the time to think about their career or study in the future and are able to reach the goals whatever they have been aimed to. This shows that the gap year is really having a significant role on their life before they make important decisions during their college years.

Moreover, knowing and experiencing the difficulty of working as a society member in advance would be definitely beneficial for the young’s life. Many students have not had any work experience before they get into adulthood, and they possibly have no idea how to deal with financial crisis or debt. Once they start taking courses at university, many of them have to get student loan for the school life and have difficulties of paying off bills to keep the personal life. To become more independent financially and mentally, they should work even as a part time to make money so that they can figure out how challenge is instead of getting financial assists from their family. More importantly, the time and the budget they have gained can be the important source for continuing college years.

In conclusion, although it is undeniable truth that many students just wasted their time and money by taking years off since they do not know how to effectively spend, I believe that it cannot be  meaningless and futile for their life because they absolutely had time to think about their future as well as getting precious life tips from society.