Plan this advantages and disadvantages essay about culture with the ideas and outline below, write it on a 40-minute timer, then compare it with a band-8 model answer.
You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
Write about the following topic:
Young people in many countries are increasingly influenced by foreign films, music and fashion.
Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
Write at least 250 words.
GoPrep wrote this practice question in the style of the exam. It is not an official IELTS question.
Pick two or three points from one or both columns. You do not need all of them, and your own examples score better than memorised ones.
Spend the first few minutes planning, then write.
0 words of 250 minimum
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Write your own answer first, then compare: how it answers the exact question, what each paragraph does, and which phrases you could borrow.
Young people around the world now watch foreign films, listen to international music and follow overseas fashions. In my view, the benefits of this trend are real, but the disadvantages are slightly more significant if it goes unchecked.
On the positive side, contact with foreign culture exposes young people to new ideas and ways of living, which makes them more open-minded. New tastes can also inspire creativity; many musicians now combine local instruments with global styles to produce original sounds, and K-pop has shown how blending influences can create something entirely new. Foreign films and songs are also a pleasant way of practising a language, as young people learn expressions that textbooks do not teach.
On the negative side, there is a risk that local identity will weaken. If teenagers spend most of their time with imported media, they may know more about foreign celebrities than about their own national heroes, writers or folk music. Traditional arts, such as crafts and local theatre, then lose their audience and gradually disappear. Another danger is that young people copy fashions and values without thinking, for example adopting unrealistic beauty standards or consumer habits that do not suit their own society. Because international companies have large advertising budgets, local products often cannot compete for attention.
Nevertheless, these problems are not inevitable. If schools teach national culture and the media give a proper place to local music and cinema, young people can enjoy the foreign alongside the familiar. A culture that is confident in itself can absorb outside influences without losing its character.
In conclusion, foreign influence brings openness and creativity, but the loss of local identity is a serious risk, so the disadvantages carry slightly more weight unless countries actively protect their own heritage.
| Phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|
| foreign influence | effect from another country's culture |
| cultural identity | sense of belonging to a culture |
| exposure to | contact with |
| mainstream culture | widely accepted popular culture |
| local arts | arts of a region |
| blend of cultures | mixture of cultural elements |
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