Learning English through Poems and Songs

A famous songwriter once said, ‘Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power.’

How important is it for you to acknowledge the challenges we face and find ways to cope with them? Write an essay explaining your opinion with relevant examples from your personal experience.

Growing Pains: Break out of the Cage of Fear

There is no denying that we are all faced with different kinds of difficulties and challenges in our life no matter how old we are. It is especially true in the time of adolescence, when teenagers begin to be exposed to challenging circumstances and problems like demanding schoolwork, peer pressure, competition with peers, bullying, stress, to name a few. And, most teenagers are inexperienced in dealing with problems. Many of them would rather avoid or escape from problems without acknowledging their existence because of their inner fear and lack of courage. They are afraid of facing the harsh reality as it might be too daunting and painful. However, I think it is important for us to take up the courage to acknowledge the existence of challenges and find ways to cope with them so that we will grow out of our innocence and become a mature and responsible adult.

When we acknowledge the challenges we face, we begin a journey of knowing about ourselves such as our personality, our strengths and weaknesses, our potential talent so that we will understand ourselves more and live a more fulfilling life. For example, when I was at junior secondary two, I was afraid of disagreeing with others and offending others. I dare not speak my mind even though my real thoughts are different from others. Instead of pretending to follow and agree with others, I would keep my mouth shut and refuse to communicate with others. As a result, silence became my friend and I was isolated by my peers.  As soon as I felt rejected and isolated, I could no longer hide away my own problem. I came to understand my timid and shy personality prevented me from getting along with my peers. Then I started to reconnect with and be open to them about my real thoughts. Surprisingly, they accepted and respected my different opinions. Our friendship was thus established. If I had not been bold enough to face my inner fear and find a solution to my problem, I would not have made any friends and improved my interpersonal and communication skill.  

When we acknowledge the challenges we face, we will learn to face success and failure with a proper attitude and develop a healthy outlook towards life. For instance, when I was at senior secondary five, I got very bad grades in my academic performance and became the last in my class position. I became socially withdrawn from other aspects of life like having fun or playing sports with my friends as I was afraid they would find out my poor academic results and would laugh at me. I skipped school and stayed at home to avoid facing my academic failure. However, after several days of absence from school, I decided to talk to our school’s social worker about my problem. She helped me figure out that failure is just part of our learning process and academic result is not the whole of my life and that, there is still hope that I can do better next time if I do not give up. Suddenly, I realize that it is not the end of my life and there is still a long way to go ahead of me. If I had not learnt to face my fear of failure, I would not have stood any chance of achieving success.

Facing life challenges is like a butterfly struggling to break out of its cocoon. Once, you acknowledge your problems, struggle with them and try to sort out them, a beautiful you will soon come out and become a wonderful person just like a beautiful butterfly.

Learning English through Workplace Communication

It has recently been claimed that in the workplace many Hong Kong fresh university graduates are less hardworking and less willing to face challenges compared to those in the past.

You strongly disagree with this opinion. Write a letter to the editor of Hong Kong Daily disagreeing with this opinion. Support your views with three reasons and /or examples.   

Dear Editor,

I am writing to express my disagreement with the recent saying that Hong Kong fresh university graduates are less hardworking and less willing to face challenges in the workplace than those in the past. The opinion is simply lame. Times have changed. Nowadays, Hong Kong fresh university graduates face tough and unfavourable circumstances which means that they have to pay extra efforts at work in return for lower salaries.  By giving three reasons below, I will prove the opinion wrong and unfair. 

Nowadays, in this age of globalization, one of the severe challenges facing fresh graduates is that they have to compete with international counterparts upon entering the workforce. Gone are the days when a university degree was a guarantee to a decent and stable job with high salary. With the increase in the number of universities in Hong Kong, more local university graduates are churned out. They have to work harder and compete with a larger pool of local graduates than those in the past. Despite keen competition among local graduates, Hong Kong university graduates also have to compete with overseas graduates who are favored by the employers because of their fluent English and international exposure. Moreover, after Hong Kong’s handover to China, mainland graduates are preferred by the employers because of their fluent Mandarin and understanding of Chinese business culture. Local graduates pale in comparison with mainland and overseas graduates. Unlike their predecessors, faced with tough and fierce competition, they have to work much harder and learn more skills in order to stay afloat in the workplace.  

In this digital era and social media age, fresh graduates are willing to face the challenge posed by the advancement of technology. They are versatile and able to adapt to the ever-changing pace and demand of the workplace. For example, my friend Sarah, a fresh graduate who is now an office worker, has to know how to use mobile apps like Deliveroo and Foodpanda to order food delivery on time for her bosses and colleagues whenever there is a pop-up lunch meeting. Also, she has to know how to use mobile payment service like PayMe or ApplePay to collect lunch payment from her colleagues. Moreover, they are adept at learning new skills such as building websites, vlogging, making short films and live-streaming videos, marketing and advertising products and services via Facebook, Instagram and Youtube, online teaching via Zoom or Google Meet, using Fintech and so on. These tech skills are highly sought after in the job market. Isn’t it a strong proof that fresh graduates are willing to adapt to the changing demand of the workplace?

In this global era, as business goes international, fresh graduates are required to work long hours and even around the clock to meet their clients’ needs. For example, my friend Cara, a fresh graduate who now works at a multinational corporation, has to work late into the night to make deals with her client on the other side of the world and return early the next morning to report to her boss the progress of her work. Another example is that my friend Joey, a fresh graduate who works at a leading advertising agency, has to work 120 hours’ overtime in a month due to heavy workload. In contrast to the claim, this is a convincing evidence that they are just as diligent as their predecessors.

In the 21^st century, expectations placed on fresh graduates are much higher since the workplace has become more demanding and competitive than that in the past. The claim that Hong Kong fresh university graduates are less hardworking and less willing to face challenges is just a stereotype against the young generation. I hope that the above can help set the record straight and appreciate the efforts paid by Hong Kong fresh university graduates.

Yours faithfully,

Chris Wong