First of all, let's look at the present situation of the elderly and young people. I wonder how many young people live with their grandparents? Do they often talk with them? I suppose many of them rarely talk with them. It is true that even if elderly and young people don't live together, some of them often talk with each other, and have a good relationship. However, we can't ignore the situation that the families who live apart from elderly people are increasing. This causes a lack of communication between old people and young people. Communication is the means to know and understand other people. A lack of communication causes misunderstandings between us and the destruction of our good relationships. This is a very sad situation.
Please consider why elderly people and young people don't often talk with each other. The reason originates in the indifference of elderly and young people. As for the elderly people, they don't make an effort to blend in with young culture, and they try to force their view of life and knowledge on young people. therefore, young people regard them as obstinate, and think that our young culture is the best. But there are a lot of things to learn from each other. However, at present, we don't have many opportunities to do that. As a result, both sides don7t want to learn, and are too lazy to teach.
I had been living with my grandparents for seenteen years until I started to olive alone. As a child, I was attached to my grandmother, and always slept beside her. Every night, my grandnmother told me lots of old stories. For example, she told me her war experience. On holidays, we went to a park near our house, and she taught me how to make a flower necklace or a reed pipe. Moreover, during dinner time, I told her what I did, such as talking with my friends at school, and I laughed a lot with her. I learned many things from her, and also I came to think about communication. True communication is deep understanding. I thought we can laugh from our heart in a casual conversation. Because we had a relationship of mutual trust, I could speak of my worries and the things which I couldn't speak about to even parents and friends.
As my experiences show, in order to prevent indifference, and get along with both elderly and young people, I want to make the following three suggestions. First of all, young people should share our energy with elderly people, and encourage them to be active. For instance, make oppotunities to talk about your school life with them. This is because it will help them to feel young again. Secondly, listen to their old experiences, and deepen your understanding of htem. Thirdly, invite elderly people to participate in volunteer activities. In doing so, they can communicate with many people including young people. The day will surely come shen I get old. When I get old, I would rather be active-playing with my grandchildren, having other people, young and old, to talk to. I want to keep smiling. Communication with a smile helps the relationship between the eldrly and young people go smoothly.
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