Intro
1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.
2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.
Congratulations! You’re a college graduate. Now it’s time to start looking for a job. Oh, and if you live in the US, it’s also time to start paying off the thousands and thousands of dollars in student debt you’ve taken on over the past four years.
Colleges in the US are becoming more and more expensive. And unlike in some countries, American students don’t get much help from the government when it comes to paying for school. Unless their parents can afford to pay for their university, many students graduate with lots and lots of debt.
Jeff is one of the lucky few: he’s debt-free. But Devan is worried about how she’s going to pay off all of her student loans. Hear their conversation about student debt.
Dialog
1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.
2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.
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Devan: So, I’m about to graduate, and I thought I would be really excited for this day, and really I’m just dreading it, because I know that means I’m going to have to start paying off all my debt.
Jeff: Yeah. I have some friends like that, but my parents paid for school.
Devan: Well that must be nice. I really wish that my parents had paid for me, but they couldn’t afford it. So now I’m tens of thousands of dollars in debt. And I got a degree that I don’t even think I’m gonna be able to use in this economy.
Jeff: Yeah, I keep hearing that. I don’t know, I got a great job after school.
Devan: I think you’re one of the few there, you know? I just think that it’s getting harder and harder to get a job or to have a degree mean anything, because so many students are going to school, and so many more are not finding jobs. It costs more money than ever to go to school now. I don’t know, I think that maybe we should adopt a system like a lot of countries in Europe have, and have it be free.
Jeff: Well, how would we pay for that?
Devan: The government.
Jeff: Where does the government get the money?
Devan: They print more.
Grammar Point
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Discussion
Devan is graduating from college soon. She is worried because once she graduates, she’ll have to start paying off her student loans. She has had to take on thousands of dollars of debt in order to pay for school. Plus, she isn’t sure if her degree will help her find a good job.
Jeff is lucky. His parents paid for him to go to college, so he didn’t have to take on any debt. He also found a good job as soon as he graduated. But as Devan points out, his situation isn’t normal.
Devan thinks that college should be free in the US. She thinks the government should pay for it, not the students. But she isn’t sure where the government will get the money to do that.
Is student debt a problem in your country? Do you think that universities should be free?
Comments
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Taiwan |
I don’t think university should be free. First of all, it shouldn’t be free in order to maintain the quality of education. Professor and equipments need finical support in order to maintain a proper level of educational training. If universities don’t have enough money, they may end up using poor quality equipments. Then, some experiments that require high accuracy may not be done properly. According to a survey, top 100 universities worldwide spend ¼ of its budget on equipments and professors’ salary. So we can see how finical support is important to the quality of education. Secondly, the university is not free, so it can avoid people’s abuse. If the university were free, some people may not work as hard as they do now and just stay there for fun. When that happens, it will waste a lot of social capital. A survey done by comparison of UK and US university students shows that US university students graduate 1 year and half earlier than UK students on average. The evidence suggest the tuition fee aid as a force to push students work harder than those who don’t pay . Third, the university shouldn’t be free, so it will only motivate those who care about the education and the goal of bettering themselves. When people pay the money, they tend to pay more attention on what they are doing, so the university education can achieve its final goal to provide better quality people and skills. So, universities education is precious; paying tuition fee can show how people appreciate it and not to waste the resource. |
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Belarus |
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Argentina |
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