Topic32: Many students have to live with a roommate while going to school or university. What are some of the important qualities of a good roommate?
Because I have lived with a roommate in a dormroom for three years, I will state the good qualities of a roommate based on my experience. I think that the important qualities are compassion, range of roommate’s tastes, and the similarity of each other tastes.
First of all, compassion is a necessary element. For example, when I was studying until late night in my room, my roommate often listened to music on large volume or watch TV with laughing. His behavior made me annoying and I could not concentrate on studying. Although I told him about this problem and he understood about what he was doing, if he had compassion, the problem did not probably happen. This quality is very important for preventing some problems from happening.
Next, range of roommate’s tastes is one of important things. When I enrolled in a university then, I was not interested in jazz at all. This is because I always listened to pop music, rock, and so on. On the other hand, my roommate liked listening to jazz very much. He sometimes lent me his some jazz CDs and explained how nice the music was to me. Thanks to such his behavior, I too liked jazz since then.
Finally, whether a roommate’s hobby is similar to you is an important thing. Although this is not my case but my friend’s case, because my friend’s character was different from his roommate, some problems happened. For example, my friend’s roommate liked playing mah-jong with his friends and often invited his friends to his room and played mah-jong. Accorging to my friend, because he did not like the game, he did not take part in the games and instead had to endure frequently the noise.
In conclusion, if a roommate had compassion, range of roommate’s tastes, and the similarity of each other tastes, you might spend enjoyable time with your roommate. Of course, you should not forget that these qualities are not only what you demand your roommate to have but also what you have to also have.
TOEFL listening discussions: A conversation between two students in their first class of the term