Hello,
This is my seventh practice. Please give me feedback again.
Thank in advance.
Question:
A Hong Kong radio station has recently started a program to help young people solve their emotional problems. You called the radio program host, Ms Wong, to tell her about a serious interpersonal problem that had been troubling you a lot. She offered you some advice, which you followed, but the outcome turned out to be disastrous.
Based on this experience, write a letter to the Editor of a youth magazine questioning the quality of the advice offered by radio program hosts who do not have professional qualifications in counseling. Share you views about the usefulness and dangers of such programs. Suggest ways in which young people can get good advice. Sign your letter 'Chris Wong'.
Dear Editor,
Being a young people could be difficult as they are developing and learning how to take their responsibilities. It would produce problems and require advice. That is one of the reasons why radio programs helping people to solve their emotional problems are so popular among youngsters. However, it seems that no people questions the quality of such programs. Having experience of seeking advice from a radio program, I would like to share my views on this.
Let me start with my experience. I had a serious interpersonal problem in school. Some of my classmates scorned me as I worked very hard at school. They sometimes even tricked me and I found it hard to have a friend at school. Therefore, I called a radio program host and told her about that. I followed her advice, telling my teacher about my classmates' behavior, hoping my conditions would change. However, as you can easy to guess, the result was devastating. They were punished and ignored me. Lately, I discovered that the host has had no professional qualifications in counseling; I really doubt the quality of the advice that such program hosts can offer.
Certainly, such programs can provide a way to share the sadness of our lives and help relieve our stress. People can call the radio hosts even if they have no friend. Also, if youngsters want to find a people to talk with, but teachers, family members, schoolmates and friends are not on their list of choice, such programs seem to be the only way to do that. And talks can sometimes heal people who are in anxiety.
However, there are dangers of such programs. Firstly, their advice could make people blind to follow. Many radio program hosts do not have professional qualifications in counseling. Thus, their suggestions could have many flaws. But simultaneously, their advice could be convincing and even make you compelling to follow because they must be good enough in speaking to be a host of radio programs. That illustrates why I told my teacher about my classmate's behavior and stopped asking other advice.
Besides, the hosts are difficult to follow your case. There is always a limit on calls to such programs. Only little portion of the calls could be answered. How could people have the luck to call the host twice or even more? Although some of the hosts would follow their cases and contact you at other days, how many people and times they can call back? I tried so many times to call the hosts for further advice, but not succeeded, feeling more anxious than ever. I do think that most of the emotional problems could not be solved one and for all. They require reviews and changes of approaches but such programs cannot provide.
Besides, the main concern of the host of such programs could be not to help you. There is a trend that mass media provide news that is attractive instead of meaningful, and so do such programs. Some of the programs are commercially oriented and therefore their hosts sometimes would talk with you in a way that could attract more listeners rather than the way to help you.
After my failure to follow the host's suggestion, I found alternative ways young people can get good advice. For a student, they can consult their school social workers. Thanks for my school social worker, my interpersonal problem was solved. She encouraged me to send sorry letters to the classmates and even persuaded them to work harder at school. School social workers are easily forgotten but are qualified and can provide continued counseling.
Besides, young people can also get good advice from their parents. It may be uneasy to do that for some youngsters but they are always trustful and take you into the most important consideration.
Finally, I hope that this letter could arouse young people's concerns about the dangers of such programs. Knowing that we cannot fully depend on the hosts' advice, they would find more suggestions and decide good actions for themselves. Thank you for your attention.
Yours Faithfully,
Chris Wong
Chris Wong
