IELTS Essay:

Topic: Life changes over time so do the people in a country. What are the differences between life in your country in the past and today?

Sample Answer 1:
Changes are inevitable and over time the way of people live changes and so do the culture and tradition of a country. I am 28 years old and have witnessed how the lifestyle of people have changed over the decades. I will explain those changes from my experience.

To begin with, the most striking change is the paradigm shift of family structure. Joint families were the most common family types in our country but nuclear families are predominant these days. Second, the embrace of technology is quite noticeable. There is scarcely anyone who does not use a smartphone and have the Internet connection. Things were different in the past. In the early 1980’s computers were unknown to people while this is a very common device in every household these days.

People in the past loved to socialise and they had a simple way of life. However, people in my country, especially in urban areas, are busy and have little time to socialise. This is a striking change and I believe this busy life has also brought many negative consequences to the society. Furthermore, in terms of people’s career, a great transformation has already occurred. There were only a handful of job types in the past but with the time the number of different careers has increased remarkably.

Finally, the swelling population these days have increased the competition in every sphere of life. This includes getting admitted to a school to securing a position in a reputed company. Life was not that much competition in the past.

In conclusion, I have witnessed many changes in terms of people’s lifestyle in my country and those changes include family structure, people’s acceptance of technological development, increasing competition and loosely social bonding.

 

Sample Answer 2:
(Country: Myanmar)

Life was simpler over twenty years ago in Myanmar. People used to live in individual houses rather than in apartments. No tall building or big shopping complex could be found in the downtown area of the city Yangon. Nowadays, you can find skyscrapers where people lives and business runs their offices around the city.

At the same time, the way people commute also has changed. Many people now have the automobiles though most people had to rely on public transportations before. Many cars in the city area lead to congestion as well as pollution.

Moreover, communication becomes much easier as the technologies have improved. From rich to poor, everyone uses mobile phones to connect with friends and families. The advanced technologies take Myanmar which has been closed and isolated for almost sixty years into the world. People, particularly younger generation, use social media to know what is happening around the world with just one simple click.

The improvement in technologies allows people to have a better health and education services. Young people have a window of opportunities to learn different languages and sophisticated computer technologies within the country or even take the distance learning course from other countries.

However, the social and cultural values have been affected. People spent less time with the families and have to work longer. It affects their social life and brings impacts to their society. Within a decade, the way people live, commute and communicate has changed in Myanmar. With the changes, the society may have good and bad impacts. Despite these consequences, the life of people in Myanmar surely continues to be changed as time flies.

[ Written by – Htet Htet ]