Global Breaking News - Wednesday, May 1, 2024

  Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? A person's childhood years (the time from birth to twelve years of age) are the most important years of a person's life. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

There are several periods during a person’s life that can be considered important for various reasons. Some people think the teenage years are the most important and others think it is the period when a person gets their first job. As for me, I believe the first twelve years in a life are the most important. I hold this opinion because these are the years when people build the basis for their personality and begin to learn social skills through formal education.
* teenage = 10대, 청소년기 / basis = 기초, 기저, 토대 / personality = 성격, 인품, 개성 / social skills = 사회적 기술 / formal education = 정규 교육

To begin with, the first twelve years are when we build the basic components of our personalities. Children are very impressionable during this period, and the environment they live in along their personal experiences helps shape how they will act as teenagers and adults. For instance, if children are raised in a calm, loving atmosphere at home, they are likely to be level headed and compassionate adults. On the other hand, if they are born and raised in a chaotic home atmosphere where they receive very little attention or love, they are likely to be irresponsible selfish people. During the first twelve years of life, the home-atmosphere is very important in terms of personality development.
* basic component = 기본 요소 / impressionable = 느끼기 쉬운, 감수성이 예민한 / raise = 기르다, 양육하다 / atmosphere = 분위기 / level headed = 신중한, 침착한, 온건한, 분별있는 / compassionate = 인정많은, 정다운 / chaotic = 무질서한, 혼돈스러운 / home atmosphere = 가정 분위기 / irresponsible = 무책임한, 책임감이 없는 / selfish = 이기적인 / in terms of  = ~면에서, ~에 관하여 / personality development = 성격 발달

Perhaps even more importantly, the first twelve years of life are when we develop social skills through formal education. In the first years of our schooling, we begin to learn many of the basic skills that we will need throughout our lives. For example, this is the time when we lay the groundwork for our social skills. Early childhood spent in school is when we start to learn the importance of socializing with people outside the home. Forming friendships and relationships and maintaining these relationships are necessary skills that we will need throughout the rest of our academic life and will be carried into the work place many years later. If these skills are not learned early, we will turn out to be stunted socially.
* schooling = 학교 교육, 수업 / basic skill = 기본 기술 / groundwork = 토대, 기저 / socialize = 사회화하다 / friendship = 우정 / throughout = ~에 걸쳐서 / work place = 직장 / turn out to ~ = ~로 밝혀지다 / stunted = 성장을 저해당한  cf) stunt = 발육을 방해하다

To conclude, there are several periods in the life of a person that can be considered as the formative years, and all of them are important for their own reasons. However, the first twelve years of life are the most important because this is when we start to form our personalities and because this is when we begin to learn the basic social skills of life through formal education. Children at this age can be compared to lumps of clay waiting to take shape.
* formative years = 인격 형성기 / be compared to = ~에 비유하다, 비교하다 / lumps of clay = 진흙덩어리