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Describe a person from a different cultural background with whom you enjoy spending time: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • Who this person is?
  • What their cultural background is?
  • What activities you do together?
  • And explain how this experience impacted you.
Show all 193 answers

Cue 1:Who this person is?

  • Introduce the person by name and mention how you met them.
  • Share a brief description of their personality traits that you admire.

Example

The person I enjoy spending time with is my friend Aisha. I met her during my college days when we were both part of the cultural committee. Aisha is very friendly and has a great sense of humor, which makes her fun to be around.

Cue 2:What their cultural background is?

  • Describe Aisha's cultural background, including her ethnicity and any specific traditions.
  • Mention how her background differs from yours and what you find interesting about it.

Example

Aisha comes from a Bengali background, which is quite different from my Punjabi roots. She often shares stories about the rich traditions of Durga Puja and how her family celebrates it with elaborate rituals and delicious food. I find her culture fascinating and love learning about the different customs.

Cue 3:What activities you do together?

  • List some specific activities you enjoy doing together that reflect her cultural background.
  • Explain how these activities help you bond and learn from each other.

Example

We often cook together, trying out traditional Bengali recipes like fish curry and mishti doi. I also enjoy attending cultural events with her, where I get to experience her music and dance. These activities not only strengthen our friendship but also allow me to appreciate her culture more deeply.

Cue 4:And explain how this experience impacted you.

  • Reflect on how spending time with Aisha has broadened your perspective.
  • Discuss any personal growth or changes in your views due to this friendship.

Example

Spending time with Aisha has significantly impacted my understanding of cultural diversity. It has made me more open-minded and appreciative of different traditions. I now celebrate Durga Puja with her family, which has enriched my life and helped me build a deeper connection with my friend.

Conclusion

    Example

    In conclusion, my friendship with Aisha has not only been enjoyable but also transformative. It has taught me the importance of embracing cultural differences and has made my life more colorful and fulfilling.

    Following this structure will ensure you cover all the essential points while providing a clear and engaging response to the cue card topic.

    Tips to answer this Cue Card

    1: Avoid Generalizations About Culture

    Making broad statements about a culture can lead to inaccuracies and misunderstandings. It's important to focus on specific aspects of the person's background.

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    Tip

    Provide specific examples from your experiences with the person to illustrate their unique cultural traits.

    2: Neglecting Personal Connection

    Failing to explain your personal connection with the person can make your answer less engaging. It's essential to share why you enjoy spending time together.

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    Tip

    Include personal anecdotes or feelings that highlight your bond and shared experiences.

    Lack of Detail in Activities

    Being vague about the activities you do together can make your response less vivid. Detailed descriptions help paint a clearer picture.

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    Tip

    Describe specific activities you enjoy, including where you do them and what makes them special.

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    IELTS Cue Cards asked last week

    Reported by Leap students who gave IELTS

    Describe your favourite food at a traditional festival or a special event in your country
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    Anonymous student Band 7.5

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    Pitampura Test Centre, New Delhi

    Answer

    I like to taste different types of cuisine. Here I would like to talk about my favorite dish at my traditional festival of Onam which is Sadya. Sadya is popular in my city. We are experimenting these cuisines on Onam festival day. Onam is a famous festival in my city. All family members get together in my home and we make a delicious Sadya. There are many ingredients includes that Sadya. Moreover, we make a big feast that day as well as we create a lot of memories together and we wear that day the traditional dress called Sari and men wear the Dhotis. That festival is really important to us because the whole day we are conducting different kinds of games at our homes and all the family members came together. It's a memorable day in my life. This is the festival. We are making the Sambar and Aviyal. These all the kinds of foods are making with the vegetables.
    Talk about a toy you liked in your childhood
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    Reported by

    Anonymous student Band 8

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    Sector 34 Test Centre, Chandigarh

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    The toy which I liked in my childhood was a panda doll, which makes me pleasant and makes me more blush. The pandas are the most beautiful creatures of the world, which looks gigantic and has pooshy cheeks and they are like stars in the clouds and they dream in me. Furthermore, these have been given by my father. My father is a very very beautiful artistic person, who makes me think of that. Every day you will face every difficulties and make you suffer and move forward. Pandas are always seen in Japanese countries. It is my lifelong dream to visit a Japanese country and click a photo with the original pandas, which makes sounds better.
    Describe a time you were in a place where you didn't know the local language
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    Reported by

    Anonymous student Band 6.5

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    Whitefield Test Center, Bengaluru

    Answer

    As India is a very large country full of diversity, so there are many places which have their own language and speak their native language. The place which I visited and I didn't know about their language was Leladakh, which is about 300 km away from my hometown and it is a very good place as it consists of different kind of trees, animals and have many scenic views and I visited over there last year in summers as it was the best time to visit because it has many, it was cold over there and we had summers in our area so it was the best time to visit over there and I went over there with my whole family.
    Describe a time when your friend damaged something you owned
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    Reported by

    Anonymous student Band 7

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    Begumpet Test Centre, Hyderabad

    Answer

    When I was a kid, I had a little pencil box which had these four buttons which gave the pencil box an operative use. When you press the button, the box would open up. When you press the second button, a little part of it would slide out. Basically it was just a little electronical and a fun thing to have and I owned it when I was in 6th. One day after break, I was standing and talking there with one of my friends and another friend of mine was running through the hallway and accidentally she pushed my shoulder and my pencil box hit the ground and it broke into multiple pieces to the point that it was not functional anymore.
    Describe a book you recently read
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    Reported by

    Anonymous student Band 7.5

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    CBD Belapur Test Centre, Navi Mumbai

    Answer

    It Ends With Us is a book I read recently. It's by the author Colleen Hoare. It's mainly a story about two teenagers, Atlas and Lily, and how they just handle their life going through high school, adolescence, and just domestic violence at home. Both of them come from very, very different families. However, they have one common determining factor between them, which is domestic violence. The abuse that they've seen their moms go through is just insane, and they connect through that on a different level. They're actually in the same high school, but they never speak to each other until Atlas actually crashes into an empty house next to Lily's villa. When Atlas is homeless and he doesn't have anywhere to go, he just comes and breaks into the house next to Lily's, and Lily helps him with all the daily necessities like clothes and food, medicines and stuff. Furthermore, their friendship blossoms into love, but it doesn't really fructify as Atlas has to leave. This book really gave me a lot of knowledge about domestic abuse and how to deal with it.

    All Answers

    Here are all the answers by real-users practicing speaking for IELTS Cue Cards on our IELTS Prep App.

    Band 6-7

    I am a person, I belong to the So, the person I am talking about is my close friend, she belongs to Maharashtrian culture. Even though we share some similarities because we belong to the same country, but my country has different cultures, backgrounds, so I learn a lot. Mostly when I went to her house, we cook. She cooks so well and I love the Maharashtrian food. I was born and brought up in Maharashtrian culture and in my home, in my house, there is more U.P. culture, like you have this U.P. food, Uttar Pradesh food, actually, so that's very different from the Maharashtrian food. The Maharashtrian food is spicy, more authentic, like the food from Uttar Pradesh is also so good, but they share so different elements together. They are fun, but different, so I really love that culture, like the Maharashtrian saree, nawari, the dance, it's very different from the U.P. culture. It's so different and there's so much to learn. The language, the Marathi language is so beautiful. It's like when you speak Marathi, it feels like you are a royal person. It's very different and very strong, whereas Hindi is so cute, so subtle and that makes me learn so much about different person. My close friend is someone who will stand with her words. She taught me so much and I've grown up because of her. I learned so much and I can understand the world because of her more better, in a more better way. So, that's it.

    Band 6-7

    To begin with, I recently joined a coaching center which is on international level and most of the joiners came from other states of India as well as some came from other countries. Additionally, they all have different cultures, somebody comes from Maharashtra, some Kerala and some are from south side which has a wide variety of cultures after some miles. So today I wanna elaborate about my friend named Yash who is from Kerala. His residence is in Pallipattu gaon which is in south side of Kerala which is very beautiful village I have ever saw in my life. After watching the pictures and videos of culture, I found drastically fascinating them. Furthermore, first of all, I decided to go with Yash for making a visit of his village to know more about his culture but due to some difficulties and my family pressure, I didn't do to anything. Along with, I prefer to go with him. I usually like to spend time with him because his and my interest are same. He also like car racing as well as horse riding so we often go to watch car racing along with horse riding as show some fraction of space whenever we get some leisure time. I feel he is very amazing and very good friend. I always own quality over quantity so I don't have any much friends but some of them I have are very supporting. I usually feel over the moon whenever I get with him. I usually push past my limits and work hard to get success.

    Band 6-7

    India is an incredible country. There are many people and many places are most popular in India. India is such a diverse country and it's believe in unity in diversity. All the people of different nations or different cultures are live together in India. Among this all I would like to talk about my friend who is almost totally different from me. Her nature and her background was totally different from me. She is from Kerala and she spoke of Malayalam. I meet I met her on my Bachelor of Education college exit on 2002. First of all when I meet her I was I felt blue because I thought that how I can deal with her and how I can interact with her because she spoke Malayalam and I spoke Gujarati. She is totally different from me. Her nature, her language, her food as well as she has a totally different dressing sense than me but after the someday she is just become fan of my life. We did some project together such as online vehicle service system. She is just open-minded and very helpful person of my life. Whenever I meet her I know the culture and history about their state because I am fascinated in learning a history. All in all I like a kid in candy shop to talk with her because she is

    Band 6-7

    Good evening, I am Srinath. Today I want to describe about my friend Mr. Javed, who is a Muslim. Since we have met each other in our bachelor's degree in the year 2010, we have been closely acquainted with each other. Then after completing our education in 2014, we got separated and later on after my studies, post graduate studies, we again met each other and then our relationship continued to the same. Basically, I got to learn that as a human being, we need not justify others about their religion or culture. One have their own cultures and also we can learn many things from others. He has been a beautiful, helpful person to me and I always rely on him in any circumstances.

    Band 6-7

    I have a friend known as Lovleen Kaur who is one of my closest friends. She is a Punjabi and she was born in Punjab. I love her culture because it is so rich in everything from the food that she eats to the festivals that she celebrates to the clothes that she wears. I mean everything is so deeply rooted in culture and tradition which is really really amusing to me. We both celebrate the festivals that she has like Lohri, Holi and Bhaisakhi. All of these are so interesting because they are amazing and deeply deeply nourishing to the soul. She is really warm and everybody that comes from Punjab that I have met are really warm and welcoming and lovely and so so outspoken. Everybody loves out loud. They all are so fun to be around. They are always laughing, always lifting your mood up. You know wherever they go they always grab the attention with the strong personality that they have. So my friend Lovleen, she is really really expressive. She is really fun to be around. She is deeply rooted in her culture and the food that she brings me, Dal Makhani and whatever that they make in her culture, it's all so rich and delicious. So I truly love her culture.

    Band 6-7

    Well, I have been living in a PG for years and for two years. So I met different people who come from different walks of life. So one of my friend that she is from different state that she comes from northeast. So I like her culture because the learning and knowledge that I grasped from her was quite different from my culture. So I got exposure from her side that really makes me excited to get to know about her life, her culture that completely different from mine. So it was a quite great experience and I really enjoyed her company when I used to live with her. So that's all from my side.

    Band 6-7

    So, from a different cultural background, I have a friend of mine and she's from South Kashmir and I'm from North Kashmir. So, we have a very different cultural background and also the accent is very different from between us and they have a different sort of like marriages, they have different kind of things and singing. So, she's a friend of mine and we used to stay together in our college. We had a shared room together and I enjoyed her company a lot because I really liked her accent, the way she talked, the way of talking and then I got used to that accent as well and sometimes at my home, I also talk with my homies in that accent.

    Band 6-7

    Every person have their own cultural activities. Most of the people are coming from different backgrounds and from different cultures. The art form from every people is different compared to others. One of my friend named Kavya, she is my friend during the time of my college. She is actually a Tamil student. Moreover, we celebrated our festival like Onam, but they don't have any celebrations like that. At the time of Onam, we shared the experiences and I told her about the stories and history about Onam. It was really such a nice event and we shared so many memories at that time. She helped me in many ways and I tried to teach her about that event in different ways. She really enjoyed the way I talked to her. Furthermore, the rituals are different, but the coordination of everyone is important in every ritual or every program. The thing I have to say is, be with everyone and help every member.

    Band 6-7

    So this person would be Akash, who we also call by the nickname of Raja. I met him during my undergrad and he belongs from the southern India culture, which was in particular a very new experience for me since I have been living in the northern region of India. There is a vast cultural difference between the two extremes of the country. So it was a very impromptu moment where through a common friend we got introduced and eventually we became really good friends, we enjoyed spending time together, moreover we just used to go out for dinners and additionally he and his friends who are also from a similar cultural background, they used to tell us about their language, they used to teach me about the language, they used to help me understand the local songs of their culture and language. So the bond actually impacted me in a huge positive manner since there is always a disparity between the northern and the southern cultures and there have been talks about the northern people don't like south Indians and vice versa, but it was a complete myth buster since we get along really well.

    Band 6-7

    So, one of my close friends at universities is Meghna. She hails from the Kolkata in West Bengal. One of the most favorite thing I like about West Bengal is its diversity in music. She has introduced me to a lot of Bengali songs which I now have come to admire a lot. We usually cook recipes she used to often eat at home like one of those was a recipe that included potato and egg and we also made a lot of, we also tried a lot of recipes with biryani, Kolkata style biryani which is one of the most famous. Also her place is known for sweets. She always brings sweets for me as she comes from home. One of them which I like the most is Sandesh. I really enjoy her cultural background. She has also shown me her videos of dancing the classical way on stage and I just love how Bengali dancers perform. I have come to appreciate the folk music of the land and by knowing her I have come to acknowledge that how India is a diverse land of different religions, different practices and yet we live so close together. By learning, by knowing her I have also discovered that recipes vary so but the inherent quality of cooking remains the same.
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