IELTS Writing Task 2 – In many countries today there is insufficient respect to old people
In many countries today there is insufficient respect to old people. What are the
reasons? What problems might it bring to the society?
You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
You should write at least 250 words.
IELTS Writing Task 2/ IELTS Essay Sample
Sample Answer 1:
It is irrefutable that because of advancements in science and technology, we have a
greying society today. These demographic changes have brought up the topic that
there is less respect for the elderly who are now in great numbers. In this essay I
intend to delve into the causes and effects of this trend.
There are many reasons for lack of respect to the aged. In the workforce, creative and
energetic young people who are able to work under a lot of pressure are preferred. In
the techno-savvy world of today, the elderly feel out of place. They are not earning
and so the youth hold the reins of the economy. Secondly, the old have problems
adapting to ever-changing lifestyles and lag behind the times and so receive
insufficient respect. The elderly are like a frog in the well and want their young ones to
follow their professions. The youth, however, want to walk on the un-trodden path
and find new avenues for themselves. Furthermore, the elderly suffer health problems
such as hypertension, diabetes and arthritis, which make them physically weak and so
they lack respect.
Another big reason for the elderly receiving less respect is the fact that they find it
very difficult to let go. The young belong to the global culture and their elderly
constantly nag and criticize them for their ways. This is not taken in the good light by
the youngsters and they start ignoring them. The young also belong to a 24/7 society
where competition is very stiff and as a result find it irritating and frustrating to find
time to care and respect their elderly.
Less respect to the elderly has already caused many problems in these countries. The
most noticeable is that people are indifferent to each other, and individuals tend to
feel agitated, worrying about their own old life in the future. As a result, the whole
society is not as harmonious and vigorous as the ones where senior citizens are
treated with courtesy and respect. This situation has also led to a mushroom growth
of old-age homes in the cities.
To sum up, it is our duty to respect the old people and the youth should not forget
that they will too age one day. But, the elderly should also learn to keep-up with the
times and be flexible with their youth.
Model Answer 2:
Senior citizens are the backbone of every society. Therefore, there is no doubt the elder people should get their respect in every country. But, this is not the present scenario. In contrast with the past, senior citizens are treated very rudely, almost in every country. There are many reasons why senior people are not getting their adequate respect and attention. But the most important reason is career aspirations.
Nowadays, young generation is more careers oriented. That means people are spending more and more time towards their aspirations, where they are closely involved with their job, study and business. Many times, these people are required to travel out of their city and country, for their work. Therefore, the work balance is not healthy enough for this generation. On the other hand, due to this busy lifestyle young people are losing their culture are unknowingly they are neglecting older people.
Secondly, today’s people think elder people are back dated. Hence, a healthy interaction between these two generations is very tiny. Due to this generation gap, young people think older people are not going to understand modern thinking. Subsequently, the attachment is getting thinner and as an outcome, young people are behaving in a sarcastic way with the older generation.
Undoubtedly, the society is encountering many issues due to our negligence towards elder members of our society. Primarily, due to insufficient respect and lack of attention, maximum elder members are counting their days in old age homes. Therefore, we are losing our family bonding. Additionally, joint families are divided into nuclear families. Secondly, our next generations are not getting the love and affection from their grandparents. And subsequently, we are losing out culture and customs. For instance, I have spent much healthy time with my grandparents and they make me aware about our cultural values and customs. Whereas, our next generations don’t have the opportunity to spend quality time with their grandparents. Hence, they have to sacrifice valuable moments.
To recapitulate, in every family, we respect our senior members due to their contribution and unconditional support. The same way, we should respect senior members of our country, for their enormous contribution towards the nation. Hence, we should pay attention towards elder members of our society. On the other hand, we should provide an opportunity for our younger members to spend happy moments with their grandparents.
Model Answer 3:
It is true that the contemporary world setting has resulted in less respect being shown to the elder. There are several factors contributing to this trend, which has various effects on our society.
The foremost reason for this trend is the ever intensifying competition in the modern society. Teenagers have to devote the bulk of their time to striving to secure a place at universities, while young adults are forced to work long hours by the determination of maintaining their competitiveness and employability. As a result, little time is left for the younger generation to spend with their elders, hindering them from developing authentic respect towards the old. In addition, the material driven world people are living in is making them put less value on the meaningful relationships between individuals. This in turn leads to the situation that older people receive less respect not only from their juniors but also from their same-aged counterparts.
The problems caused by this trend are twofold. Firstly, as people are less motivated to establish mutual respect with both their seniors and their cohorts, they are likely to develop a consciousness of insecurity, meaning that they cannot bestow their thorough trust upon others. Secondly, showing insufficient respect to older people implies that this group of people receives inadequate care, which can result in both psychological and physical problems that make them suffer. The consequence of this is that the health level of the general public would deteriorate, indicating that more financial resources are needed for medical care. As seen above, the sense of insecurity and the decreasing public health level deriving from insufficient mutual respect among people can have negative influences on people’s lives and the economic development of a society.
In conclusion, the busy modern lifestyles and people’s rising material needs are two main reasons for the shortage of respect towards aged people. If proper measures are not taken promptly, decreasing level of mutual respect among social members can cause more serious problems affecting the well-being of the public and the economic growth of a society.
Model Answer 4:
Respect is one of the most important things that a successful person possesses. Respect is something that we show towards a person depending on his personality. If the person has a good personality, than he will have great respect. But if the person does not have a great personality, he will be given the respect that he deserves. Respect does not depend on wealth. A poor person also have great respect, even more than a president. Another point that should be taken care of is that you can only expect respect from a person if you give respect to him. “GIVE RESPECT, TAKE RESPECT”.
But as you know that we are to respect our elders but these days insufficient respect is shown to elders by the young ones. They have become stubborn and arrogant. This is all because that todays parents pamper the child, however this is not how the world used to be. Technology also has a big hand in this. Before the time of these technologies, the work was done by our own hands and children used to help. And when the children misbehaved or became stubborn, the parents used to give them a spanking. But it is not like this today. Today children are given freedom.
There are many problems caused by this. Children get a negative perspective and they begin to harm people and things. They become mischievous and get into bad habits. They do not respect anyone whom they come across and this gives a really bad impression on the futures of them. Furthermore, it also affects their academics and they have to face the problems in the future. If they would have no studies, they would have no job and they would be left a beggar. This is why respecting and listening to the warnings of the elders is important because they have also gone through the same age and they do know the dangers. They are much more experienced than you.
So the parents should stop pampering their children and teach them some laws of how the world works and to respect elders. This will benefit the society as well as their future.
Model Answer 5:
In many countries today insufficient respect is shown to older people, even from their own children, and this can be seen as more old folks home had been build nowadays. Thus, I will be writing about what I think the reasons may be and the problems that might cause in society.
Firstly, the reason for this may be due to the old-fashioned thinking that they have, which makes it a problem for their children to communicate with them. This will result in the relationship between them to turn sour and as time goes by the respect to their parents will be lesser. Secondly, it may be due to the troublesome that the children feel to take care of their parents who are sick or have problem taking care of themselves. Thirdly, some may even think that they are old now, and they have become useless, hence, there is no point wasting time on them.
The problems that might cause in society are firstly, there will be more older people being sent to old folks home. Secondly, there will be more older people especially those retired looking for jobs such as cleaner to provide for themselves. Thirdly, the society will turn into a place where there is no warmth and compassionate, a cold and heartless society. Fourthly, the problem will be recycled again by the next generations, as their children will follow what they did to their parents, showing little respect to them and not taking care of them. Thus, as time goes by the society will be a place where there is no respect and discipline. One of the real life example I encountered was, a young man sitting at a priority seat on the train when a old lady was just standing beside him, and he was pretending to sleep instead of offering her the seat.
In conclusion, I think the government should come up with more events that require the parents and children to participate, as this will help to bond them together. This may help to reduce the problems as there will be more communication between them.
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(Collected; Source: Internet)
