Problems of the Modern Youth (Friendship, Love, Conflicts)

(An interview with an American)

- What is the most important problem of the youth?

- One of them is a generation gap.

Every generation is unique in its experience. It has its own ideals and a system of values concerning every aspect of human life.

Adults always complain that the young are not what they were. These words are repeated from generation to generation. Undoubtedly it is correct. In fact today the young are better educated. They grow up more quickly. They derive joy from more freedom. At present the young do not blindly accept the ideals of their parents. For them everything that the adults bear in mind is past history.

And this is inevitable, because different generations take different directions. Moreover, the young look forward and the old people look backward.

The adult always teach the young how to live. They apply old standards to the new way of life. The past is hanging over them preventing them from appreciating the things around them anew. The young think that the adults have lost touch with everything that is important in life. They are right, because what is important to the adults is the past. The young know what they want. They prefer to make their own mistakes rather than to listen to the warnings of the adults. The past exists to help the young to avoid unnecessary blurs. But they do want to have them. The young want to live their own life. They want to overcome their own difficulties without turning back.

Unfortunately the life of the young is frequently determined by the adults. The adults start the war but the young die in it. The young and adults have different points of view concerning everything. And it generates the conflict of the generations. In the 19th century Ivan Turgenev in his novel "Fathers and Sons" perfectly illustrated the eternal problem of fathers and children's misunderstanding. I think that parents will never understand their children.

- Why?

- Every new generation is different from the one that preceded it. Today the differences are especially considerable. The adults always believe that they know best only because they have been around a bit longer. They don't want their values to be doubted. The young on the other hand are questioning the assumptions of the adults, they suspect that the world created by their predecessors was not the best one.

- Was there any clash of values between generations?

- It is known far and wide that the clash of tastes and values between generations occurs in the main in highly developed countries. Occasionally it was sharp, especially in the 1960s and '70s in Western Europe and the USA.

- Can you see the solution to this problem?

- Certainly. I think that the only way to solve this insoluble problem both the young and adults should be tolerant and patient. Despite our generation differences there are no clashes of values in our family and my parents are my best friends. They always help me, console me, and try to help me to solve my problems.

(the materials from the site http://www.bestreferat.ru/referat-77222.html http://nota.triwe.net/ were used)

COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES

Questions:

1) What advantages do different periods of human life – childhood, youth, and adulthood – have?

2) Some people think that school years are the happiest days in people’s lives. Can you say that you have been happy at school? Why?

3) Were you a problem child? Were there any in your grade? What did they do?

4) Would you like to stay young forever? Why?

5) What does adulthood mean for you?

Pair-work:

1) Share memories of your childhood.

2) Share expectations of young childhood /adolescence.

Discussion:

1. Read the proverbs and quotations of famous people on the youth. Pair up to interview each other and share opinions on them, and then have a group discussion. Explore in your speech the vocabulary you have learned in this Unit.

What Is Youth?

1. Youth is a wonderful thing. What a crime to waste it on children.// Youth is a period of missed opportunities. - Shaw, George Bernard

2. Knowledge in youth is wisdom in age. - Irish proverb

3. A lazy youth, a lousy age. - Traditional Proverb

4. Praise the ripe field not the green corn. - Irish proverb

5. Praise youth and it will prosper. - Irish proverb

6. If youth but had the knowledge and old age the strength. - French Proverb

7. We pay when old for the excesses of youth. - Traditional Proverb

8. Youthis the best time to be rich, and the best time to be poor. - Euripides

9. A fledgling pigeon cannot fly over a mountain. - Korean proverb

10. Youthhas no age. - Pablo Picasso

11. I’ve never understood why people consider youtha time of freedom and joy. It’s probably because they have forgotten their own. - Margaret Atwood

Simulation game:

Each stage of a person’s life is characterized by a different psychological crisis that must be resolved before the person can successfully progress to the next stage. The success of each stage depends on how well the previous crisis was resolved. If a person does not resolve a crisis, it will continue to affect the person’s development throughout life.

Have a “round table” discussion one of the eight successive development stages that psychologists point out and the conflict that must be resolved with a focus on the adolescent “identity crisis” which is the most significant crisis of human psychosocial development. Give some examples of teenagers struggling to define their own identity.

Date: 2016-01-14; view: 1349