Visitors to other countries should follow local customs and behavior.

[Valery Shepenkov]

Hello! My name is Valery Shepenkov, I am from Russia, Rostov on don city. I would like to share my essays here, which I try to write everyday. I plan to take IELTS and TOEFL test in near future. I am free for chat and live talk in Skype. My nick name there is valsheper. I took toefl ibt on 10 Jan 2009. Got 94 (24 in writing), but I want to improve my score, I need more than 100 on TOEFL or 7.5 on IELTS.

I am new to this site. I would like to make many friends here. :D

I would like to receive the feedback to the following essay. Any comments would be highly appreciated.

Thanks in advance! I wish a good luck to everyone acing for the TOEFL/IELTS!

TOEFL writing, task, independent essay.
Write about the following topic:
Some people believe that visitors to other countries should follow local customs and behavior. Others disagree and think that the host country should welcome cultural differences.
Discuss both this views and give your own opinion.
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

While any of this points could be supported by sound arguments and relevant examples, I believe that visitors to foreign countries should learn about the culture of a foreign country and its language. On the other hand they should not lose their origin identity. I would like to illustrate my reasons as follows.

First, visitors to other countries should learn the culture and language of a foreign country. Before going somewhere it is better to know what local traditions of a definite country are. This will make possible the ease of communication and would definitely ignite a sense of respect to someone in a foreign country. In this way, one may prevent himself from getting into a situation of cultural misunderstanding. For instance, person from China traveling to Spain would better learn Spanish and a few most famous customs of that country.

Secondly, aliens should not lose their original identity. No country in the world have the right to forbid or to block existence of any other cultures, but have a chance to support diversity of worlds cultures. As far as I am concerned, if migrants or temporary visitors come to another country they should be provided with the opportunities to meet people from the country of their origin. Definite types of communities should be developed. So that people would feel comfortable while they are in a foreign country. For example, there many nations live in Russia, and in different corners of my country there so called diasporas of Chechens, Uzbeks, Adygeyans, and other ethnics. It helps them a lot to diffuse smoothly into a new foreign realm and to identify themselves as a different culture. I think it’s very important.

Finally, visitors should follow local customs and by whole their attitude should exhibit their respect to people living in a given country. From my own experience, I can tell that ignorance of local language and customs may lead to a big problems, since it is a disrespect to another culture. I used to live in South Osetia when I was a child. I am Russian and people living there are osetians. They have a different language, customs and origins. They showed a high veneration to us, buy studying our literature, customs, language. But on the other hand they made incumbent upon us to study their language at school. I did studied osetian language at school. It helped me a lot to better understand indigenous people of that region. And I have not felt myself as an alien there, but as a brother who can be supported any time.

All things considered, people planning to visit or to live in a foreign country must familiarize themselves with the culture of that country. But this does not mean that they should give up the original traits of their home country. Different cultures should respect other cultures, in order to provide a piece on our planet. And providing that people learn foreign languages and customs, I am sure our world will never come to the verge of war.

With regards,

Valery Shepenkov

TOEFL listening discussions: A conversation between a student and his counselor

[Valery Shepenkov]

Hi Diana!

Yes, you are absolutely right, I've used more words than enough, it's about 450 words long. Anyway, I already have taken my TOEFL test after writing of this essay. I got 94... on Ibt format... Hope you will get a result much higher than that!

Regards,
Valera

PS

"Hi Diana again!

Nice to meet you by the way! It was a long time for anyone to answer to my essay... thank you for evaluation anyway!

After my TOEFL, I graduated from the university in Russia, worked for 1 year in a company, and now I am studying at master level in Sweden at KTH, in Stockholm! I am very happy about that!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Institute_of_Technology

How about you!? What do you study? and what would you like to study?
I study engineering, I am an engineer.

Please add me on Facebook! I have the same name there as here, so it won't be difficult for you to find me there.

Best regards,
Thanks again!

Valery Shepenkov"

I couldn't send you a private message here, so please fill free to send me a message to my email address: valeryshepenkov@gmail.com

I will delete the message after PS from here after a couple of days.

[Kitosdad]

While any of these points could be supported by sound arguments and relevant examples, I believe that visitors to foreign countries should learn about the culture of a foreign country and its language. On the other hand they should not lose their original identities. I would like to illustrate my reasons as follows.

First, visitors to other countries should learn the culture and language of a foreign country. Before going somewhere it is better to know what the local traditions of that country are. This will make possible the ease of communication, and would definitely ignite a sense of respect toward someone in a foreign country. In this way, one may prevent himself from getting into a situation of cultural misunderstanding. For instance, people from China travelling to Spain would do well to learn Spanish and a few of the most important customs of that country.

Secondly, aliens should not lose their original identity. No country in the world has the right to forbid or to block existence of any other cultures, but have a chance to support diversity of worlds cultures. As far as I am concerned, if migrants or temporary visitors come to another country they should be provided with the opportunities to meet people from the country of their origin. Definite types of communities should be developed, so that people would feel comfortable while they are in a foreign country. For example, there many people of many nationalities living in Russia, and in different corners of my country there are so called diasporas of Chechens, Uzbeks, Adygeyans, and other ethnics. It helps them a lot to diffuse smoothly into a new foreign realm, and to identify themselves as a different culture. I think it’s very important.

Finally, visitors should follow local customs, and by whole their attitude should exhibit their respect to people living in a given country. From my own experience, I can tell that ignorance of local language and customs may lead to many problems, since it is a disrespect to another culture. I used to live in South Osetia when I was a child. I am Russian, and people living there are Osetians. They have a different language, customs and origins. They showed a high veneration to us, by simply studying our literature, customs and language. On the other hand they made incumbent upon us to study their language at school. I had studied Osetian language at school. It helped me a lot to better understand indigenous people of that region, and I had not felt myself as an alien there, but as a brother who would be supported any time.

All things considered, people planning to visit or to live in a foreign country must familiarize themselves with the culture of that country, although this does not mean that they should give up the original traits of their home country. Different cultures should respect other cultures, in order to maintain peace on our planet, and providing that people learn foreign languages and customs, I am sure our world will never come to the verge of war.
................................................................................................................................
Very well written Valery. You are certainly very talented.

Kitos.
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Keep it simple ... Keep it interesting.