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Student Debt
简体
Student Debt
学生债务

Learn About Verbs with "ing"

Date: Dec 14 2011

Themes: School

Grammar: Verbs with "-ing"

Intro

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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.

祝贺你!你是一名大学毕业生了。现在要开始找工作了。如果你住在美国,也是时候开始偿还你在过去四年中欠下的成千上万的学生债务了。
美国大学的费用变得越来越昂贵。与一些国家不同,美国学生在支付自己的学费方面得不到政府的太大帮助。除非学生的父母能支付起学费,否则很多学生毕业时都欠下大量的债务。
杰夫属于少数幸运者中的一名:他没有债务。而德凡则担心自己要如何付清所有的学生贷款。请听他们关于学生债务的谈话。

Dialog

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2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Devan

Devan

Jeff

Jeff

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.

 

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Discussion

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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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ttsuka

ttsuka

Japan

A solution would involve a new system where knowledge acquired matters more than degree per se. Then, we take advantage of technology just as E-Baby does. The movement has already started as seen in Udacity and free courses offered by MIT. In this system, students are free to learn certain subjects any way they choose: e.g. from books, help from online tutors and/or go to schools. Then, they take exams from certifying boards for specific topics individually. For employment, people develop their portfolios of subject matters that they mastered and employers study the portfolios and determine how suitable the candidates are for the job spots.  A diploma of four year college education has a lot of inefficiency if education is considered as training for job. That is why colleges are expensive.  Of course, people who want to enjoy traditional college experiences can do so. But an alternative as I explained here would help reduce costs involved in higher education for career building. 

02:14 AM Feb 10 2014 |

serdarbilginer

Turkey

universties must be free because the students are the very valuable investmen for the future.. the goverments have to aware of it. in my country studying at the collage  is really hard you need so much money. ı graduated last year and ı had 11 thousands of dollars of debt. ı m little lucky because ı got a job and paying my dept but most of my friends are still anxious because thhey are unemployed :(

03:21 PM Jul 20 2012 |

Jovana55

Serbia and Montenegro

Here in Serbia some of Universities are free, public universities of course. Everu public university has students who are studying under state budget, precisely goverment pay their studies. But it is limited. For example, at my university of economics, there are 150 students under the state budget and other 250 student are self-financing. They can pay in whole before they go o university or they can pay in instalments. Of course, not everybody can afford that. So the point is that you have to be excellent student if you dont want to pay your studies.


Also, there are the private universities, which are veryy expensive and just a few people can afford these universities.


Unfortunately, public university cant garantee that you will get a job after you graduate. It dissapointing that someone who finish the private university will get a job instantly after they graduate.

02:23 PM Jul 20 2012 |

davis jack

davis jack

China

in our country, college is expensive too. even though most parents may pay for it, there are still a few students have to pay off the debt after graduate. unfortunately, i’m one of them. it took me two years to pay off the loans. although it’s very hard during that time, i felt happy for i deal it by myself!

12:05 PM Jul 20 2012 |

 julito

julito

Argentina

Maria del Alba,  We know from the news that the crisis is hitting hard  Spain ,the money that you must pay to go to a public university  (1500 euros a year) is not a big deal  , but with millions collecting unemployment or “Paro”   ,it must be hard  to cover it, first you have to eat and pay the rent , if this is the case. Furthermore, I see many  graduates that  lack of job opportunities  due to the meltdown of the economy.

04:21 PM Dec 30 2011 |

Maria del Alba

Spain

In Spain there are a lot of public universities, but they also cost money (about 1500 euros a year on average). If you want to go to a private one, it costs you more (even 6000 euros a year). 


Fortunately, there is help of the government for the degrees if your family doesnt earn enough money, but with the economic crisis, there are less and less money from the goverment you can take advantage of.

04:07 PM Dec 30 2011 |

tilwayne

tilwayne

Morocco

I’m in a free public school, and I’m nowhere close to dreading the day I leave the school. So stoked for the feeling of being independent and not to rely on my parents anymore.

11:47 PM Dec 26 2011 |

denisezhao86

China

In China,student debt is not a very big problem,For most of students,their parents paid for them to go to college.Seldom students their parents can’t afford the cost.They had to take on tens of thousands of RMB in debt.


In my sight,it’s benificial for us students,if the universitiy is free.No one will drop out school beacause of the expensive tuition.  

07:51 AM Dec 20 2011 |

nenembl

Argentina

Here in Argentina, Education is public or private as well as Universities. If you choose a private University you must pay every month or the price of the whole carrer in instalments. If you prefer a public University, you must pay a certai  amount of money at the beginning of the year to enrol and a small amount each time you sit for an exam. Labs, libararies, workshops are free, that’s why there are many students in each course and in careers as medcine, it’s really difficult when you must attend a practical class. 


Ours is s very generous country, more than we wish, specially with students that come from neighbour-countries. If it were different we’d have  better education. .Besides when students must pay they appreciate things and don’t waste time and spoil resources. 

07:58 PM Dec 19 2011 |

claimant

claimant

Azerbaijan

in our country when we want to enter the university we must pass the exam.after exams we choose some faculty and there have pass mark for free education and paying education.it depends on us.i study at the university and our government pay for it.but if u received a paying education u must pay every year for it.example,if u didn’t pay this year university doesn’t allow u to come to the university again. every student try to pay their tuition fee every year and because of it they haven’t got much debt.

11:53 AM Dec 17 2011 |

 julito

julito

Argentina

  Timchangbest,   Why should they  move to another country , is that easy ? people in the US used to have regular jobs ,pay taxes ,medical insurance  ,send children to the best universities  and now  they have lost their jobs, houses ,healthcare, what are they suppose to do ,they are helpless .The Banking system received  a huge bail out  to keep them on business, but what about the millions of people that don´t know  how to keep on going  and what good  lies ahead  except  misery and frustration. 

06:21 PM Dec 16 2011 |

hamood123

hamood123

Jordan

god with you devan (each person has to strive to get success in the life)

05:45 PM Dec 16 2011 |

lyricsong

lyricsong

Viet Nam

“They print more” HAHAHA she is so cute Laughing

05:29 AM Dec 16 2011 |

wwongsapun

wwongsapun

Thailand

Yes! In Thailand have many student dept,We’re spent a lot of money for study in college or universities. It’s very hard to the our parents for pay with this. I want to the goverment help us for pay with this. So I think it’s a good way for help to people have a good way for study. So which is results to help improve the country in the future.

08:05 PM Dec 15 2011 |

1 person likes this

ninJa_neon

ninJa_neon

Austria

For the time being it is free in my country. But the politicians of the Social Democrats did promise this because they wanted to win the elections. You don’t have to pay any money and there are no limitations or initial tests. There are many Germans who can’t go to a university in Germany because they didn’t pass the initial tests and then they go to Austria. There are too many students, not enough rooms and professors. This system is stupid – the debt of my country is increasing just because of those incompetent politicians.

01:13 PM Dec 15 2011 |

1 person likes this

CatcheR

CatcheR

Iceland

it happens in Indonesia too, especially private university it cost an arm and leg, they made you pay for entering their university, and every practical they ask for money, money money and money, unless you go public university it’s better , moreover good public university can find you a job after graduate because they have correlation with Government’s public workplaces.

01:52 AM Dec 15 2011 |

 julito

julito

Argentina

BastedPrada.   I can see your point.  governments collect taxes  and with that money  they should be able to provide education, security  and healthcare. True that sometimes  they lack of sufficient money  to cover the cost  involved  in all these , but  in the case of education  they may at least  provide grants  to  those  students that deserve it and charge  minimum fees to the rest of students. 

12:30 AM Dec 15 2011 |

BastetPrada

Colombia

I’m from Colombia. I have an interest case. Here there are many universities of the government, but you have to pay for going there. Can you believe that? What’s the sense of Government’s education?

12:08 AM Dec 15 2011 |

1 person likes this

CatcheR

CatcheR

Iceland

I think it’s uncommon in my country to loan money in bank for study, our parents afford for study bill and quite a lot scholarship for those who are not enough money to study, Of course everyone will be happy if university is free and more more students can have chance to study high :)

11:56 PM Dec 14 2011 |

Ahshan

Ahshan

China

i am also own my goverment,s money ,yep i am in debt

10:50 PM Dec 14 2011 |

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