It is not necessary to travel to other places to learn about the other culture. We can learn as much as from books, films and internet. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Books, films and internet are great sources of information to learn about other cultures. But to understand other cultures comprehensively, travelling offers unique experience which cannot be replaced by simply obtaining information from any other media.

Travelling is a personal experience which can tremendously enhance one’s understanding about other cultures by talking to local people, tasting food and visiting the actual places. Exploration and curiosity are the human natures that motivate people to travel around and gain precious memories that are long lasting and unforgettable. Travelling, however, is a relatively expensive and also time consuming way when compared to reading books or watching films.

Travelling if possible is still the best way to learn about other cultures. You can never understand how tasty a type of food is without actually tasting it, no matter how many times a description like “fantastic” is being used in books. You can never feel the cold when temperature goes down to minus 40 if you had never been to northern part. Books, films and internet give words, pictures, audios and movies with a lot of information, but all the information have to be assisted by your imagination to understand it well. Travelling realizes your imagination and lets you have the actual feeling. Also, some descriptions in books, films and internet might be biased about a culture. For example, books I read told me that there is no racism in North American society nowadays but this was proved wrong until I travelled there and experienced it personally.

Travelling may not be the most convenient and fast way but certainly is the best way to learn about a culture. If time and money allows, everyone should travel and gain real experiences instead of sitting at the front of a desk, imagining.


In developing countries, some people think the government should introduce new technology to people in order to improve quality of life, while others believe that governments should offer free education. Discuss both sides and give your own opinion.

Technology is the key component that fuels development of a country and improvement of life quality. Technology if implemented is the fast way to see results, for example, solar panel applied in a whole country has greatly improved the efficiency of power and reduced combustion of coal, leading to less air pollution. However, if technology is not generated by the native country but by introducing or purchasing from developed country, it is not sustainable and will restrict the future development of a country. Therefore, sustainable strategy like free education is necessary to enhance average educational level which helps improve quality of life, for example, citizens would be aware of utilization of limited resources and saving energy by sorting garbage. Free education also increases the potential of innovation and new technology by making it affordable and approachable to everyone.

It has been debated for a long time regarding introducing new technology or offering free education to improve quality of life. In my opinion, government should take steps on both sides considering efficiency, time and cost. Applying technology is the direct way to create good conditions of a bright future but an implementer is the ultimate component that determines if the technology is successfully applied or not. In this case, educating citizens to operate techniques as well as raising their awareness of environment and energy seem to be very important. But free education is a long way to go for a developing country since it still struggles to improve its economy. A developing country has very limited budget to invest on education. We cannot wait for the day when free education finally comes to us and everyone understands taking public transit is necessary to reduce air pollution. Before our habitat and life quality have been deteriorated by the heavy pollution, it is good to know that new technology has already done its job to reduce NOx emission from cars.