Erin Posted November 7, 2002 Share Posted November 7, 2002 What is a very important skill a person should learn in order to be successful in the world today? Choose one skill and use specific reasons and examples to support your choice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ciquita0 Posted November 11, 2002 Share Posted November 11, 2002 Originally posted by Erin Billy What is a very important skill a person should learn in order to be successful in the world today? Choose one skill and use specific reasons and examples to support your choice. As many career councilors are advising, to be successful in the world today you have to be flexible and to develop good human relations. I think the most important skill a person should learn is adaptability. First of all, as the world is changing from one day to another one has to be prepared to face new challenges each day and to get a new start if necessary. For example, when you face an employer you'll have to show your adaptibility as you may have the opportunity to be advanced and to face new responsabilities and tasks. Or, as life is so unpredictable one may be so unfortunate as to be left without money or house. He for sure has to be adaptable and try to build a new life. Second of all, if we think better everybody changes along the long road of life. If the person that you choose to spend the rest of life with changes, you have to be flexible and deal with the changes even accept those changes. Otherwise the relationship is in danger. Finally, if we think that from different reasons we may someway along the way move into another town, have a new job, a new neighbour and so on, one has to adapt and integrate into the new community. In the end, I want to emphasize that if one is flexible he can take advantage of the new turns of a situation, he can take advantage of the others' inflexibility and become successful. [/size]Can adaptability/flexibility be considered a skill???[/size] ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vaya Posted November 16, 2002 Share Posted November 16, 2002 Hello! Well, it's a very interesting question if adaptability can be consedered a skill. I don't know for sure, but I tend to say no. I believe it's a character quality. But you can easily make some skills out of it: s/he is able to find comprosimes, to easily adapt in a new enviroment, to react/respond quickly... But it's philosophy :) Anyways [from movie Mr. Deeds], this essay is quite nice. The 2nd and 3rd body paras are a bit too short, but I believe you can survive with it. Some how I miss some generalizations like: adaptability is helpful not only in your career, but also in your privite life (then follows the 2nd body para). The 3rd body para is somehow similar to the 2nd. I would advise you to connect them. I believe it's better to write 4-paras essay than 5-paras one, if those 5 paras are short. Word 'successful' should be also mentioned in the body, not only in the intro and conclusion, because the conclusion seems a bit disconnected from the body. To sum up, you have nice writing skills, but you don't really know how to use them :) Also I am a bit to finicky. I would give you 5.0/5.5 Good luck! Renata Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ciquita0 Posted November 18, 2002 Share Posted November 18, 2002 Hello Vaya, :) Thanks a lot for your advice and for the time spent to rate my essay. You made me see some week points of my essay, that I haven't noticed myself. I'll try to stick more to the subject, but I was wondering if such skills can be learned? ? Can you tell me from your point of view which is the most important skill? This question is addressed to everyone that read these lines...:D Thanks again and looking forward for your answer. Peace. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cpt10 Posted November 27, 2002 Share Posted November 27, 2002 Hello, Could you have, please, a look at this essay. I consider it somehow offtopic, but maybe the format is right. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We are living in a very different world today, in respect with the world our forefathers have seen along the history. until present times, the absence of means of electronic communication and the absence of available air transport kept the world in the state of isolated entities. Nowadays, we are living in a 'global village', and, like in the villages we used to know, you meet all kind of people: hunters, shamans, and, well ... foreigners. In order to be successfull in this new world, one needs to have intuition. First, being in contact with people who use their phisical power for making a living, one should carefully estimate the force of the opponent. Understanding subtle messages sent by the movments of the body, enables a person to decide weather to have a more or less agressive attitude when dealing with others. Understaing the correct signals increase the chances of survival. At the same time, when one meets persons who use their brains for making a living, needs a good, spees thinking mind. In this way, can control the other or, if the other is supperior, convice him that together would be a good team. He would increase in this way his level of success. Also, developing a good sense of extrapolation helps when dealing with situations when the other part is unknown. One can assume what reactions another might be, by considering what the reactions of the members of the group in which the unknown person might be included. The ability to generalize and emit judgements based on little pieces of information would be crucial for maximising success nowadays and in future. I consider that all this abilities, together, make intuition, a skill hard to master, since it involves such a large number of talents. Nevertheless, with patince and dedication everything can be achieved, and, when having a high level of intuition, one will have success in the world today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sow1225 Posted January 20, 2003 Share Posted January 20, 2003 Hi, I have my exam on 23rd. I did not write this answer with time limit as I did not know how to answer this one. I agree with 'ciquita0'. I guess adaptability can be considered skill, but I am still not very sure. I took self-discipline and framed my answer, Erin, Please do suggest. Can self-discipline be considered as a skill?. Thanks. 42.What is a very important skill a person should learn in order to be successful in the world today? Choose one skill and use specific reasons and examples to support your choice. In this fast paced era, people’s awareness towards the world is changing. Accordingly, many new developments are occurring in every other field within a blink of the eye in a society. An individual has to catch up with fast changing world to survive and be successful. Self-discipline is the important skill needed to be successful in the new developing world. Self-discipline can teach many skills to an individual in the journey of life. Skills like determination to survive, adaptability, and confidence that any kind of issue could be handled in no time. An individual cannot learn as how to be self-disciplined. It should come from within. A person without self-discipline since he was a kid would remain without one throughout his life. He can manage to survive in the world. But, it is not something that can be initiated or inculcated in an individual. It should come naturally from an individual’s actions. Only then such skill would be beneficial in becoming successful in the real world. For instance, my father was born in a small village, in a family, whose main occupation was agriculture. People around used to speak abusive language. But, had the determination to survive, to come out of that village and explore the real world. Even today, he still says, self-discipline is the most important one needs to have. It gives tremendous determination to survive. Another reason that can be cited is, skill like self-discipline can take one’s life into many turns. For example, an Indian family who got migrated to United States in 60’s had to go through so much. Initially, it was a big culture shock to them. They only had one skill in their hands and it was self-discipline. The lady of the family did not even know how to speak good English. With self-discipline, she understood the necessity of educating herself. She took many classes in English. After all those years of hard work she ended up working as an English teacher in school. Another example is, self-discipline also teaches confidence. For example, first thing that is taught in many schools is self-discipline. If kids get used to self-discipline and work hard, they would get the confidence, that any kind of exam or an issue, in the real world could be handled. In summary, the most important skill a person needs to be successful in the real world is self-discipline. Self-discipline is the foundation for any individual’s personality. With out self-discipline, though many can manage to survive, it is tough succeed. It is like the foundation of a large building. If the foundation is not laid out correctly in a proper form, there high possibilities that the huge structure could collapse anytime. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shirley Posted February 23, 2003 Share Posted February 23, 2003 In the current fast paced world which is constantly under change owing to the rapid technological advancements in every field, achieving success has become a matter of struggle where several people with equal calibre have to vie for same position. As a result of increasing awareness of knowledge and education, the present competition leaves people contending for status and success to improve one's living. In such a situation the ability to speak , listen and learn is worthy. So. I think the one skill which is important in today's complex world is effective communication skill. The lifestyle of the modern world has made it incumbent on the individuals to effectively communicate and make their presence felt both on the personal and professional level. On the personal level, an extroverted and broad minded attitude is more respected and fascinated as compared to a narrow minded approach. Being social, mingling with the people and being easy going gains appreciation from the society. To achieve such a position, one should develop communication skills to effectively communicate ideas. On the professional level, effective communication and interpersonal skills help promote popularity in the work environment where people with equal intellectual levels meet. Such work requires the individuals to effectively communicate, present and elucidate one's point of view.The more convincing the ideas are, the less is the distance to success. Moreover, to achieve success interpersonal skills also lead to developing leadership qualities and avoid conflict through effective diplomacy. In order that one has to stand out in a crowd , the grandeur of eloquence and clarity of speech are the most important attributes in the current professinal world. So I think the ability of effective communication skill is the most important skill today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tetyana Posted February 26, 2003 Share Posted February 26, 2003 Hi, Shirly. I love your essay. I do like your thoughts. I had to translate for myself some words from your essay such as "grandeur of eloguence". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erin Posted February 26, 2003 Author Share Posted February 26, 2003 Originally posted by sow1225 Erin, Please do suggest. Can self-discipline be considered as a skill?. Thanks.I'd rather play it safe and say that no, self-discipline is NOT a skill. From m-w.com: skill 2 a : the ability to use one's knowledge effectively and readily in execution or performance b : dexterity or coordination especially in the execution of learned physical tasks 3 : a learned power of doing something competently : a developed aptitude or ability As always, we should not take chances with our tests--too much is on the line! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mulan Posted March 7, 2003 Share Posted March 7, 2003 Erin, I want to know that in this kind of essay, whether we need to give the definition or even a concept of the skills such as "critical thinking skill" in my essay? Would you mind reading it and providing some comments? ------------------------------------------ In their early days, men had to learn many skills in order to survive, such as hunting or self-defense skill. In our time, there are many more skills that people have to learn if they want to be succesful in this competitive and complicated world, namely communication skill, computer skill, language skill… And if I am asked to name the most important, it will surely be “critical thinking” skill. To begin with, critical thinking is important to those who wish to gain knowledge. We are living in the so-called “era of intellectual economy”, where we can do nothing without knowledge. Critical thinking can not only show us access to knowledge, but also allow us to use previous knowledge to create new knowledge. We can say critical thinking is the very premise of innovation and creativeness, which always makes us successful either at school or at work. However, critical thinking is not only important in the field of education or scientific, it is also imperative in all aspects of life, especially of the citizens of the 21st century. Each day we live, we have to face with lots of choice. Simple as it is for a schoolboy to choose between mathematics and Java class or serious as it is for the community to choose whether peace or war, each decision requires us to make our thinking purposeful, reasoned, and goal directed. Smart choice leads to success and benefit, while bad choice can destroy all.That synonymous with requiring each of us to think critically to improve our own lifes. Last but not least, critical thinking also help people to develop and improve other important skills and characteristics as well. Generally, outstanding people who think critically also have willingness to plan, flexibility in thinking, persistence, willingness to self-correct, mindful attention to the thought process, and the seeking of consensus. Those are the very elements to make a person successful and help him to stand out from crowds of philistines. In conclusion, I strongly believe critical thinking is not only the very imperative skill that people should learn, it is also the invincible and crucial power leading to success and achievement. And because critical thinking can be improved through practising and strategies, you could also learn to improve yourself, as it’s said that “ How you think decides who you are”. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theparaDoxguy Posted July 13, 2003 Share Posted July 13, 2003 In our modern world with a high competitive life today, most people are not honest with each other. It is hard to believe anything from people around you and almost impossible to live with a straightforward life, without lying to anyone, including yourself. In fact, there will be a lot of times when truth will hurt you. So in order to be succeeded, a person should have learnt one important skill: lying. Firstly, lying can get you out of troubles if you use them wisely. Imagine that you go to work late by almost an hour because last night you were hanging out with your friends until 3. Your boss is waiting for you in front of your office. What are you going to tell him? Telling him a truth and you will suddenly get kicked out from your job or tell him that you had spent the last whole night working on special papers for him or the traffic was terrible. Same thing applies when you get in trouble with police, teacher, friends or even your parents. Lying properly and you will get out of troubles. Thirdly, lie to yourself. Life is such a cruel thing. Especially in these days where everything, including yourself, always get evaluated and compared. There will be a lot of times when truth will hurt you and you could not forget it easily. If you keep thinking about those things, it will not make anything better. So why not lie to yourself? Maybe you are not that bad or maybe it was just a bad luck. This may causes the bad habit of finding yourself excuses. But at least if you lie to yourself and it make you feel better and able to live on, it is still better than stuck with those truths. In addition, sometimes try lying to your self that you can do it. There will be lot of times when the situation will intimidate you and make you see things worse than they really are. Also, there will be many times that you get pass the situation that you think it is impossible to. In sports we can see lots of these things happen when player has come back from behind to win the match or win the match against the player who is much better than him. The psychologist experts think that those players always have the ‘positive thinking’, believing that they can win no matter how far behind they were or how better the other player is. They will keep talking to themselves that ‘I can win I can win’ and isn’t that they are lying to themselves? The truth is they are going to lose. They were far behind the opponent and they have to struggle back twice harder to win. They have ten times lower ranking than the other players have and nobody has expected them to win. But then they lie to themselves. They lie to themselves that they still have a chance to come back. They lie to themselves that the situation was not that bad. They even lie to themselves that they are playing better than those players who are the top ten in the world. And they really did it. They won the matches they should not be able to but they did it. They are all just because they are lying. Furthermore, after you get used to lie, most of the time you will know if the other people are lying to you or not too. It is something that you can sense or feel it when you are talking to them. This is a very useful skill, especially when you have a negotiation with somebody. In the end, lying is a skill every person needed in order to survive and if lucky enough, succeed in these days. Even you are not good at it, at least you must able to lie that you never lied before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pilon Posted July 15, 2003 Share Posted July 15, 2003 I find this topic very difficult. I didn't time the essay. ======== Many problems are solved in our society every day. These are problems about policies, such as allowing or disallowing driving at certain speed or forcing mandatory voting. It is the principle of the democracy that citizens have to participate in the debates that concern the policies and laws. To participate in the debates one has to be rather skillful at presenting his argument. Bad presentation can diminish the value of your point and the opposition will win. I have read articles in newspapers that discuss certain policies. It is very nice that people care about the problems and participate in the discourse, but unfortunately in many articles the fallacious logic is evident. The author seems to have a good point, but after reading the article the impression is that he doesn’t know what he is suggesting. It is very important to correctly present your point in the debates that concern these policies. To reach a fair decision all members of community should present their ideas without logical fallacies. For example the ideas of poor people should be presented equally well as the ideas of the elite. Otherwise the social group of poor people will not be properly represented in the government and the democracy will degenerate in oligarchy. It is unfortunate that most people don’t pay much attention to their obligations as citizens. I am of the opinion that being an active citizen is crucial in the modern democratic society and that one can’t be a proper citizen without the ability to correctly present one’s argument. One who overlooks the citizenship obligations knowingly or otherwise supports the oligarchy. wordcount:268 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erin Posted July 20, 2003 Author Share Posted July 20, 2003 Originally posted by pilon Many problems are solved in our society every day. These are problems about policies, such as allowing or disallowing driving at certain speed or forcing mandatory voting. It is the principle of the democracy that citizens have to participate in the debates that concern the policies and laws. To participate in the debates one has to be rather skillful at presenting his argument. Bad presentation can diminish the value of your point and the opposition will win. I have read articles in newspapers that discuss certain policies. It is very nice that people care about the problems and participate in the discourse, but unfortunately in many articles the fallacious logic is evident. The author seems to have a good point, but after reading the article the impression is that he doesn’t know what he is suggesting. It is very important to correctly present your point in the debates that concern these policies. To reach a fair decision all members of community should present their ideas without logical fallacies. For example the ideas of poor people should be presented equally well as the ideas of the elite. Otherwise the social group of poor people will not be properly represented in the government and the democracy will degenerate in oligarchy. It is unfortunate that most people don’t pay much attention to their obligations as citizens. I am of the opinion that being an active citizen is crucial in the modern democratic society and that one can’t be a proper citizen without the ability to correctly present one’s argument. One who overlooks the citizenship obligations knowingly or otherwise supports the oligarchy. wordcount:268pilon, your writing is very good, and grammar/mechanics, etc. do not seem to be a problem. Your essay seems much more like a GRE or GMAT essay than a TOEFL essay. I read your essay three times, and the first time, I didn't really know what your essay was about, and it seemed as if it was unfinished. So, after that, I went back to read the essay prompt, and read your essay more carefully, and I realized that you were saying that debating skills are important in society today. I would recommend that you make the topic of your essay clearer in future essays, and that you say more directly in your introduction what you intend to write about. Really, TOEFL isn't looking for a masterpiece, just a sort of minimal competency. The other paragraphs could be as simple as something like: First, debating skills are important in today's society because.... Furthermore, one must have good rhetorical skills to... Finally, I would like to suggest that only debating skills are not enough to ensure X; Y is also important, and would be an ideal complement to one's debating skills. These are just examples, but I hope they show the overall structure that TOEFL will reward you for. I think in your case, you will be rewarded by the KISS principle--Keep it simple, stupid. (You're not stupid, don't worry, it's just the expression. ;) ) I guess you're wondering what kind of score you'd get. Probably a 4.0 or 4.5. Keep studying hard! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pilon Posted July 21, 2003 Share Posted July 21, 2003 Erin, thank you for your review! I agree with you that the essay is clumsy. I am not sure if my idea will work for the essay question at all. It is not the first time I write vaguely. I guess it is my style. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crackit Posted July 21, 2003 Share Posted July 21, 2003 What is a very important skill a person should learn in order to be successful in the world today? Choose one skill and use specific reasons and examples to support your choice. In today's world with stiff competition one would be very happy to have a formulae for success but nobofy can deny the harsh reality-- there is no such formuale. But one must possess soem basic skills and qualities to become successful in his/her career. I think communication skill is the most important skill that everyone must try to develope in order to be successful. I have following reason for rating the communication skills as most imporatant. In any field, everyone has to communicate with his co-workers. There is nothing that one can do in isolation. For example, tale an example of research institute. In typical research institute there are amny professors who colloberate with each others. These professors have to communicate with each other, convey ideas precisely and effectively. If these professors lack the ability to communicate properly then they can hardly male any progress int he field due to lack of ideas. simillarly, in companies the manger has to convey his ideas, plans to the subordinates effectively. Even in politics, leaders and diplomats must be able to communicate tactfully. For leaders and diplomats it is essential that they have good communication skills. More than conveying the ideas effectively, a good communication skill pays in more than one ways. It is one of the major aspect of one's personality. A person with good communication skilll can impress his superiors easily even if he is not technically sound enough. In companies, people with good communicaion skills are given more responsibilites and also higer positions. Thus, a good communication skill pays in more than one ways. Thus, i think person with good communication can boost his career easily and also help a lot to the overall developemnt of the place where he works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crackit Posted July 21, 2003 Share Posted July 21, 2003 i have posted my essay. can someone please read it rate it? thanx in advance:D:D:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crossline Posted July 23, 2003 Share Posted July 23, 2003 Topic:What is a very important skill a person should learn in order to be successful in the world today? Choose one skill and use specific reasons and examples to support your choice. Erin! Please score it! I need your help!!!. I take toefl test in 31 Jul. :( Essay To be successful in the world to day does a person effort a lot. He need not only well educated experience in school, but also deep knowledge in social. But the above all, I want to mention here about the communicative skill. To be the successful, firstly, let become the communicative. It's said that the first glance is very important. When we contact with a person, we are only able to estimate about that person through how he express what he means or how he makes his impression. And that's also the reason why a person more attractive than the others through his communication, when we talk with him. The science proved that if you make an impression to the other people, they will remember you longer than the others. A simple reason is that if you want something, you must speak to someone about it, to order it. It's the same when you want to protect your mind among crowd, you must have your point of view. And of course, if you don't have a good communicative skill, your view will be abadoned. In daily living, people always give their order and accept the other orders. It means that, if you can prove that your ideas are true, you have more chances to require the other people to do it for you. As a neccessary skill in our life, communication looks like a key factor of each people to enter the successful world. The more people have it, the more attractive they have to other people. So I definitely believe that it's an important skill for everyone to be successful in the world today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sai Posted July 24, 2003 Share Posted July 24, 2003 Hi, can anyone please correct my essay. i will be giving my toefl very soon and i want to get good score in essay. #042: What is a very important skill a person should learn in order to be successful in the world today? Choose one skill and use specific reasons and examples to support your choice. Mostly, people think aptitude is important skill a person should learn. They say " aptitude cannot be built in one day or over night". But I believe in adoptability cannot be built in overnight and I think adoptablility is the most important skill, one should learn because the world is changes from one day to another. Firstly, rapid changes are taking place in the world and in our daily lives. A person should be ready to face the new challenges each day. For example, in computer profession, one should be upto date with all the software and he/she should also learn different computer languages in which the project is done. Even the life style as become busy, in most of the house's both the parents are working. For example, both the parents leave to their respective offices and children will leave to their schools early in the morning. Generally, there will be no time to prepare food in traiditional way. At this point, they prefer TV dinners and ready made food in week days. Secondly, adopting to different environment and living helps to maintain good human relations. For example, changing to different country or town for job, getting along with new community, people in different country. It would also help when we get married to the person with different life style. In conclusion, I think that adoptability will be advantageous for new situation in life. Accpetng changes and changing would help to achive success. Therefore, One can be successful by being adoptable to new situation. Thanks :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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