Отправлено: 26.10.09 22:12. Заголовок: ЭССЕ на проверку: HOMESICKNESS

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People who travel around to another country to live, work or study for a period of time often suffer badly from homesickness.
Why is this?
What are the best ways to reduce this problem?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your experience.
Write at least 250 words.

Спасибо за участие!

 Отправлено: 27.10.09 16:26. Заголовок: Essay on the topic "Homesickness"

It is general knowledge that staying away from one's motherland on job or educational purpose may provoke homesickness. In my opinion, sickness for home is more common for young people who can hardly live alone due to the lack of life experience, that is why in this essay I'm going to touch upon the problem of students' homesickness.
It's widely believed that foreign, to be more exact, european education is the best as it gives profound, comprehensive knowledge and much more opportunities to get a well-paid, splendid job in any country of the world. For this reason, nowadays, very often, parents decide on sending their children to study at the University outside their home country, notwithstanding the fact that children are certain to feel homesickness.
I, personally, can identify several reasons for feeling lonely while studing abroad.
First of all, it must be incredibly unbearable not to have opportunity to communicate daily with close people, parents, friends - those, whom one trusts thoroughly, with whom one can discuss any life situations he occurs in and is likely to find the best solution of the problem, as a matter of fact, some children, even at the age of 18 or older, are unable to overcome difficulties without their parents' helping hand.
Besides, it might be not easy matter to follow the customs of a new country. One is obvious to sick for some traditions typical for his motherland. It's a well-known fact that people, who live in some particular area, get accustomed to the style of clothes, type of food, the way of celebrating events, the studying process, therefore, it must be rather difficult for a person to adopt to the new customes and, moreover, to regect his own.
Due to all the points mentioned above, students from the same country are eager to live together and create their own community where native traditions are kept in order to avoid felling lonely living far from home.
As for me, I don't feel homesickness at all while staying abroad, because there are a lot of places to visit, things to learn and people to communicate with, so that I don't have time for feeling lonely. But, I should admit, I did felt it during those several weeks which I spent in one of Sweaden schools, as a matter of fact, being an unexperienced young girl, it's rather difficult to cope with all the responsibilities of living alone. Lukely, I managed to do it, because of my strong-willingness, detrminess and reasonableness. Moreover, I consider this experience to be one of the crucially important points in my way to self-perfection.
To sum it up, living far from the native country, close people, therefore, feeling homesickness, is obvious to improve one's wiil-power and ability of adjusting to a new enviroment and capability to overcome various hardships and setbacks.So that, one should be strong-willed enough to overcome homesickness if he wants to be successful and to have guarantee for splendid future in his life and career, as foreign study experience provide great chances for it.

P.S. I understand that the essay is too long. I, personally, consider the part which includes the descriction of my own experience to be extra, though it was written in the task that we should give the example from our own experience. So, is it possible not do itI mean, describe our own experience, at all?

 Отправлено: 27.10.09 21:19. Заголовок: Essay

To begin with, I would like to say that nowadays a lot of people from all over the world have to move to different countries for their personal needs such as work or study; therefore the period of time, they spend far form their home is likely to be protracted, especially in cases when they leave their country for another one to live there.
However, various problems are believed to be caused by this move. Unaccustomed environment, an absence of relatives and friends as well as the lack of some special noises together with the lack of food to which people got used to, make them most homesick. Owing to the fact that changing the place of living is really a stressful process in itself, it’s evident that there is a risk of finding immigrants’ moods in deep depression. To make matters worse they may face some difficulties at their new work or at the university that, in turn, increases the probability of depression.
Consequently, all the aforementioned facts raise such crucial question as: what can be done in order to solve this problem? In my opinion, if you suffer from homesickness, appeared as a result of your move to another country, you should remember that there are numerous methods to rectify the situation. Firstly, it is strictly recommended for the newcomers to broaden the relations with local people, both with colleagues at work and neighbors, just to prevent sufferings from loneliness. Moreover, it will also be very helpful for mastering your speaking skills in the foreign language and for quicker adaptation to the new atmosphere. Secondly, the purchase of a lap top will make it possible for you to stay in touch with your friends and to be au courant of their affaires either by using ICQ or by utilization of Skype. Furthermore, I suppose that it’s worth trying to find cafes and restaurants which are specialized in traditional food of your home country in order to have an opportunity to eat food you are accustomed to. In addition, I suggest installing satellite television to watch your native channels and to feel as if you are at home.
In conclusion I want to say that even despite the fact that people are likely to suffer from homesickness it’s worth trying to live in another country if such opportunity arises as it can be a cherished experience and they will keep it in memory for the rest of their lives.

 Отправлено: 28.10.09 00:38. Заголовок: Tatiana, I’m impress..

Tatiana, I’m impressed by your written assignment! It is really interesting to read and shows a perfect command of the English language.

I would still like to make some recommendations.

Please check the meaning of the words below:
1) ‘occur’ – происходить, приходить (на ум – о мыслях)
2) ‘adopt’ (принимать) and ‘adapt to’ (адаптироваться к)
3) 'so' (поэтому, итак) and 'so that' (чтобы)
4) ‘on purpose’ (намеренно) and ‘for … purposes’ (для .. целей)

I’d also recommend substituting some words by other ones. For example, you’d better use:
1) ‘FEEL HOMESICK’ instead of ‘feel homesickness’;
2) ‘DETERMINATION’ or ‘being determined’ instead of ‘detrminess’
3) ‘SENSIBILITY’ instead of ‘reasonableness’
4) THEIR instead of HIS in such sentences as:
‘it must be rather difficult for a person to adapt to the new customs and, moreover, to reject their own ones’.

It would be good to use the indefinite articles in the following cases:
- might be not an easy matter
- at a University outside their home country
- have a guarantee

As for commas, they are used a lot less frequently in English than in Russian. For example, we don’t need commas in the fragment ‘people who live in some particular area’ because this is a defining clause (IT GIVES A DEFINITION INSTEAD OF JUST EXTRA INFORMATION); but if it gave just extra information, we would definitely use commas (e.g., ‘Madonna, who is a singer, is said to be interested in Japanese culture’).

Besides, just remember that we usually need a solution TO (!) a problem and please watch the spelling of the following words: studying; customs; Sweden; reject; inexperienced; will-power; environment.

Upon the whole, I did enjoy reading your essay! As for its size… Well, it is actually a bit too long (more than 500 words instead of 250 ones). So, you could have probably avoided reasoning why parents send their children to study abroad, as there wasn't a task to write about that. As for your personal experience, it is a good idea to describe it. But it would be better if you had done it in a more laconic way .

So, Tatiana, it was well done! Good job!

 Отправлено: 28.10.09 00:46. Заголовок: Tatiana_Schipanova п..

А вот возможной вариант написанного вами! На истину в последней инстанции не претендую:)

Tatiana_Schipanova пишет:

цитата:

It is general knowledge that staying away from one's motherland FOR WORK OR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES may provoke homesickness. In my opinion, sickness for home is more common for young people who can hardly live alone due to the lack of life experience, that is why in this essay I'm going to touch upon the problem of students' homesickness. Personally, I can identify several reasons for feeling lonely while studying abroad. First of all, it must be incredibly unbearable not to have opportunity to daily communicate with close people, parents, friends - those whom one thoroughly trusts, with whom one can discuss any life situations THEY GET INTO and WHO is likely to find the best solution TO the problem, as a matter of fact, some children, even at the age of 18 or older, are unable to overcome difficulties without their parents' helping hand. Besides, it might be not AN easy matter to follow the customs of a new country. One is obvious to sick for some traditions typical for THEIR motherland. It's a well-known fact that people who live in some particular area get accustomed to the style of clothes, type of food, the way of celebrating events, the studying process, therefore, it must be rather difficult for a person to ADAPT to the new customs and, moreover, to reject THEIR own ONES. Due to all the points mentioned above, students from the same country are eager to live together and create their own community where native traditions are kept in order to avoid felling lonely living far from home. As for me, I don't feel homesick at all while staying abroad because there are a lot of places to visit, things to learn and people to communicate with, SO I don't have time for feeling lonely. But, I should admit, I did felt it during those several weeks which I spent in one of Sweden schools, as a matter of fact, being an inexperienced young girl, it's rather difficult to cope with all the responsibilities of living alone. LUCKILY, I managed to do it, because of my strong-willingness, DETERMINATION and SENSIBILITY. Moreover, I consider this experience to be one of the crucially important points in my way to self-perfection. To sum it up, living far from ONE'S native country, close people, therefore, feeling homesick, is obvious to improve one's WILL-power and ability of adjusting to a new environment and capability to overcome various hardships and setbacks. SO, one should be strong-willed enough to overcome homesickness if THEY want to be successful and to have a guarantee for splendid future in THEIR life and career, as foreign study experience provides great chances for it.

Удачи в сдаче IELTS!

 Отправлено: 28.10.09 17:52. Заголовок: To begin with, it is..

To begin with, it is a well-known fact that people get used to the places they live. And so, if anybody move to another country for a period of time, it is obvious, that he/she will inevitably miss everything that was surrounding him: customs and traditions, language, buildings and especially relatives and close friends, and, therefore feel himself or herself lonely and abandoned. Sometimes, even if the person hadn’t been keen on the place he/she used to live, although, living overseas, he/she still would miss his or her motherland. What’s the reason for such a strange behavior? In my opinion, it is just a human nature to be bound to the place you was born or used to live for a long time. However there are a lot of different solutions that can help to deal with the problem of homesickness.
The first - the most evident way is to make new friends. Spending your time with them on going to cafes or watching cinema will help you to get rid of the felling of loneliness and give you a necessary support.
Devoting yourself to the job or study also can be a solution in coping with homesickness felling. But, although it’ll help to fill your schedule, it is unlikely to solve your psychological problems. Moreover, spending too much time on the professional activity may become a kind of obsession and make the person really unhappy. And so, everybody should be careful in order not to be caught in these toils.
One more way to avoid the homesickness is to surround yourself by the things and people from your original country. For instance, you may decorate your house with different stuff from your previous place of living; you may read books written in your native language, you may enter your country’s community and attend different festivals and holidays.
And, the last solution I would recommend is to keep in touch with you friends and relatives. Everybody knows that nowadays with help of the modern technologies not only is it easy to communicate by the Internet, but also it can help to save a lot of your money.
To sum up, I can make a conclusion, that despite the fact that it is really hard to change the place and the country of living, there are plenty of solutions which may help to cope with the devastating feeling of homesickness.

 Отправлено: 02.11.09 17:07. Заголовок: For Alena Mikhaylova

Alena, I did enjoy checking your essay. It is rather coherent and really worth reading:), although a bit longer than required (this must be a problem with most excellent students).

Please check the meaning of the following words:

* UNACCUSTOMED/UNFAMILIAR
We can be UNACCUSTOMED to smth. while a situation can be UNFAMILIAR
* NOISES/SOUNDS
* USE/UTILIZE
‘use’ – использовать, приводя в действия
‘utilize’ – использовать в значении ‘израсходовать’, употребить (использовать) до конца
* ‘aforementioned’ sounds rather official. It’s possible to say ‘the facts mentioned above’
* DEPRESSION/DEPRESSED
One can ‘suffer depression’ but ‘feel depressed’.

Besides, it would be good to revise the following:

SUBORDINATE CLAUSES WITH ‘WHICH’:

1) In the clause ‘to which people got used to’ one ‘to’ is enough. So, the correct variant is ‘which people got used to’.
2) THAT/WHICH
‘WHICH’ is always used in clauses like ‘…, что мало вероятно’. ‘…, что означает’, etc.. So, it is better to say, ‘…difficulties at their new work or at university, which, in turn, increases the probability of depression’.

ACTIVE/PASSIVE:

You don’t need passive with the verb ‘specialize’. So, it’s better to say ‘which specialize in’ instead of’ which are specialized in’.

WORD ORDER:

It is better to say ‘your foreign language speaking skills’ instead of ‘your speaking skills in the foreign language’.

Alena Mikhaylova пишет:

цитата:

To begin with, I would like to say that nowadays a lot of people from all over the world have to move to different countries for their personal needs such as work or study; therefore the period of time they spend far form their home is likely to be protracted, especially in cases when they leave their country for another one to live there. However, various problems are believed to be caused by this move. UNFAMILIAR environment, absence of relatives and friends, as well as the lack of some special sounds together with the lack of food which people got used to, make them most homesick. Owing to the fact that changing the place of living is really a stressful process in itself, it’s evident that there is a risk of finding IMMIGRANTS DEEPLY DEPRESSED. To make matters worse, they may face some difficulties at their new work or at university, WHICH, in turn, increases the probability of depression. Consequently, all the facts mentioned above raise such A crucial question as: what can be done in order to solve this problem? In my opinion, if you suffer from homesickness, appeared as a result of your move to another country, you should remember that there are numerous methods to rectify the situation. Firstly, it is strictly recommended for the newcomers to broaden the relations with local people, both with colleagues at work and neighbors, just to prevent suffering from loneliness. Moreover, it will also be very helpful for mastering YOUR FOREIGN LANGUAGE SPEAKING SKILLS and for quicker adaptation to the new atmosphere. Secondly, purchasing a lap top will make it possible for you to stay in touch with your friends and to be au courant of their affaires either by using ICQ OR SKYPE. Furthermore, I suppose that it’s worth trying to find cafes and restaurants WHICH SPECIALIZE IN the traditional food of your home country in order to have an opportunity to eat food you are accustomed to. In addition, I suggest installing satellite television to watch your native channels and to feel as if you are at home. In conclusion I want to say that even despite the fact that people are likely to suffer from homesickness it is worth trying to live in another country if such AN opportunity arises as it can be a cherished experience and they will keep it in memory for the rest of their lives.

Very well done, Alena! Good luck at the exam!

 Отправлено: 02.11.09 18:35. Заголовок: In 21th century a le..

In 21th century a level of travelling to live, work or study has strongly encreased. A lot of people go abroad in oder to get better education, job or standart of living. Inspite of benefits jf living in foreign countries, homesickness seems to be a big problem, wich influences on person's phychological well-being.
I am absulutely sure that many people, who have left their native places of living, suffer terribly from homesickness. Propably, every person accumulates individual habits, preferences in food, entertainment and other life spheres. Often when people change their place of living, these preferences and habits can hardly be saved, consequently it damages people's mental health, so they feel bad.
The other reason of feeling homesickness, wich is thought by me to be the main, is missing family and friends. As a rule, human being consists of living in social network, wich includes our relatives, friends and other people, without whom we can not be happy. That's why, it is essential to stay in contact with them.
As far as the way to reduce suffering from homesickness is concerned, the oppotunity to communicate with relatives and friends needs to be. Nowdays, it is becoming easily to keep in touch with people, because of the Internet. I suppose that spending much time on the Internet talking with friends can help people to recover homesickness. Moreover, the Internet must help to learn more about new places of living.
In short, even though all people suffer from homesickness, while they are living in foreign counthies for a long time, nevertheless communication with family and friends on the Internet, as I believe, can help to solve this problem.

 Отправлено: 16.11.09 23:16. Заголовок: For YANA

Dear Yana,
Thank you for publishing this beautiful essay at our website! I did enjoy checking it:). It sounds pretty coherent and undoubtedly makes a positive impression on the target reader. Here is your essay 'slightly' corrected. The words in bold are those that have been added, while the words that should be removed are taken in square brackets []. I hope this will be of help!

Yana пишет:

цитата:

To begin with, it is a well-known fact that people get used to the places they live in. And so, if anybody moves to another country for a period of time, it is obvious that he/she will inevitably miss everything that was surrounding him/her*: customs and traditions, language, buildings and especially relatives and close friends, and, therefore feel [himself or herself]** lonely and abandoned. Sometimes, even if the person hadn’t been keen on the place he/she used to live, although, living overseas, he/she still would miss his or her motherland. What’s the reason for such [a]*** strange behavior? In my opinion, it is just [a]*** human nature to be bound to the place where you were born or used to live in for a long time. However, there are a lot of different solutions that can help to deal with the problem of homesickness. The first and the most evident way is to make new friends. Spending your time with them [on]**** going to cafes or watching cinema will help you to get rid of the feeling of loneliness and give you the reqUired(?) support. Devoting yourself to the job or study can also be a way of coping with the feeling of homesickness. But, although it’ll help to fill your schedule, it is unlikely to solve your psychological problems. Moreover, spending too much time on [the] professional activities may become a kind of obsession and make one [the person] really unhappy. And so, everybody should be careful in order not to be caught in these toils. One more way to avoid [the] homesickness is to surround yourself by the things and people from your original country. For instance, you may decorate your house with different stuff from your previous place of living; you may read books written in your native language, you may enter your country’s community and attend different festivals and holidays. Finally, the last solution I would recommend is to keep in touch with you friends and relatives. Everybody knows that nowadays with the help of [the] modern technologies not only is it easy to communicate by the Internet, but also it can help to save a lot of your money. To sum up, I can make a conclusion, that despite the fact that it is really hard to change the place and the country of living, there are plenty of solutions which may help to cope with the devastating feeling of homesickness.

*
Instead of giving to options all the time (he/she) you can use the pro-noun THEY! E.g.: “it is obvious that THEY will inevitably miss everything that was surrounding THEM”.
**
FEEL already means ‘чувствовать себя', so adding ‘herself/himself’ is not required!
***
Uncountable nouns are not used with 'a'!
****
Check the difference between:
'spend … on smth (a noun)' and 'spend … Ving' (no preposition in case a gerund is used)

Good luck at the exam!!! You'll cope with it!

 Отправлено: 17.11.09 23:11. Заголовок: Vera пишет: In 21th..

Dear Vera,
Thank you for your contribution! Here is your assignment checked and a little bit improved. The words in bold are those that have been added, while the words that should be removed are taken in square brackets []. I hope this will be of help!

Vera пишет:

цитата:

In the 21st century [a level] the frequency of travelling to live, work or study in other countries has strongly increased. A lot of people go abroad in order to get better education, jobs or standards of living. Inspite of the benefits of living in foreign countries, homesickness seems to be a big problem, which influences on a person's psychological well-being. I am absulutely sure that many people who have left their native places of living suffer terribly from homesickness. Probably, every person accumulates individual habits, preferences in food, entertainment and other life spheres. Often when people change their place of living, these preferences and habits can hardly be saved, consequently it damages people's mental health, so they feel bad. The other reason of feeling homesick[ness], which is thought [by me]* to be the main one, is missing family and friends. As a rule, a human being [consists of] depends on(?) living in social network, which includes our relatives, friends and other people, without whom we can not be happy. That's why it is essential to stay in contact with them. As far as the way to reduce suffering from homesickness is concerned, it can be creating an opportunity to communicate with relatives and friends [needs to be]. Nowadays, owing to the Internet, it is becoming easy to keep in touch with people. I suppose that spending much time talking on the Internet with friends can help people to recover from homesickness. [Moreover, the Internet must help to learn more about new places of living].** In short, even though all people suffer from homesickness while they are living in foreign countries for a long time, nevertheless communication with family and friends on the Internet, as I believe, can help to solve this problem.

*
Passive is good for impersonal sentences. If you want to underline that it is YOUR opinion, use active, e.g., 'The other reason of feeling homesick, which I think to be the main one, is missing family and friends'.
**
The sentence taken into brackets sounds a bit irrelevant.

Thank you for the very good attempt at doing the task! You managed to cover all the points without overwriting! That is really an achievement:).