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

IELTS 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?

As we always hear and say, the globe is getting smaller and flatter, encouraging more and more people to move to another place, or even another country. Some argue that living in a country speaking another language can cause many problems, both social and practical, while others disagree. As for me, I partly agree with the former, but these problems may not be so serious.

To start with, one thing you can’t avoid when living in a foreign country is culture shock, since language closely links to culture. People growing up in different cultures vary a lot in addressing problems. Once you deal with a problem in a way you see fit, but not appropriate to foreigners, it may lead to some unnecessary problems. Besides, if people in two countries don’t speak the same language, it is very likely that their customs are different from each other’s. The larger the differences in language, the greater the culture shock will be. Although we can learn about foreign customs in advance with the help of internet and books, we can’t obtain every detail we may need in real life.

What’s more, language barrier is really a problem in efficient communication. To live in a foreign country means you have to get every trivial thing, from installing network to getting health care, well arranged in a foreign language, which can be a badly painstaking job if you fail to have a very good command of that foreign language. On that occasion, daily life may be full of unexpected troubles.

To conclude, to live in a country speaking another language is not easy, and may cause some social and practical problems due to different culture background and failure of efficient and accurate communication.