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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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    Reported by

    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

    Answer

    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
    anonymous person icon

    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

    So today here I'm going to describe a person. Her name is Disha Baroi and she's a Christian, a Roman Catholic and mostly we like to do everything together. You know we are kind of like a best friend and we like spending time with each other, we like to watch movie together, we like to go for shopping together and we love to cook together and it's such a we like our own company, we enjoy our own company like we enjoy our own company and we like to hang around and if we want to go out and meet someone or some friends we would love to take one another together and introduce them to our own groups. So that's how we like each other and the most thing that has impacted me being with her is that understanding her own religion and respecting her cultural and her religion and following her cultures as well as mine and respecting our rituals and yeah that's it.

    Band 6-7

    When I was a child, maybe in third class, I had a friend named Shalini Ganesh. She was a South Indian and as you guys know, I am a North Indian, so her culture was completely different from my culture and that impacted me in a lot of ways. For example, South Indians are known to be very punctual, so that's something I learned from her and she used to bring some great dishes in tiffin and I really enjoyed eating them. So that's something I love from our time together and as a person, she was great. She taught me that it's okay to be alone, it's okay to make mistakes and learn from your mistakes is what really matters and don't get stuck in your past and always strive for growth. As far as our culture is concerned, South Indians are usually dark in colour, whereas I am on the whiter side, which was a little bit different for the people who used to see us. But as far as the whole experience is concerned, I recommend you guys having a friend from another cultural background because that really helps you in a lot of ways. It doesn't limit you and you become flexible in your own ways and you don't need to be dependent on other people.

    Band 6-7

    I have so many friends that I love to spend time with them, but my favorite friend is mine is Sakshi, she is like Hindu background and I am from Sikh. There are a lot of difference in two different culture and because she is always following her rituals and personalities and that's why I love to admiring her. When she was a little girl, she always used to do puja in front of their gods like Krishna, Krishna ji, Ram and it's a very beautiful thing like puja. So that's why I love to admiring her. Now she always do puja when she wake up in the morning and do her bathing and whenever they have to celebrate any function they always do puja which inspire me a lot. Because they always never forget to thank their god and it is very beautiful thinking. Furthermore, she loves to wear clothes like saree which I like the most. Saree is their culture and in their culture they used to wear saree, usually wear saree. She also gave me a very beautiful saree which I usually wear.

    Band 6-7

    I have my friend, Grace, is the one I want to introduce here. She is not just my friend. I met her at work. She was my colleague. She is from Southern Kerala. I know it doesn't sound different, but trust me, Southern Kerala and Northern Kerala is entirely different when it comes to the culture and the lifestyle, even the way they dress. Additionally, she has done her diploma in US, so that also adds to this cultural variation between us. She has this fresh outlook towards life, which I find very fascinating. We love going cafe hopping and we love exploring new foods together. Another thing that we enjoy doing together is going to movies and discussing about the movie afterwards. Her new outlook and her fresh thought gives me a new idea whenever we watch a movie. She always comes up with fascinating ideas.

    Band 6-7

    One of my friend named Isha. She belongs to Gujarati family and I belong to Marathi family. As she belongs to Gujarati family, her culture background is different. The family is very foodie, which I really enjoy watching them. As my hobby is cooking, I enjoy getting along with aunty and trying different food. Their palate of food is mostly sweet, but I enjoy having it. The most important thing which I love about Gujarati culture is their tradition dance Garba and Dandiya. Every Navratri she calls me over to play Garba. It is one of the most energetic dance form I have ever seen and enjoyed. I make sure that I go every year to her house during Navratri and play Garba. Also the Ghagra and Choli they wear during Garba is beautiful and it is designed using pieces of mirror. One of the most important thing I like about their culture is that whenever people come to their place, no person will go without having food from their house. They are so foodie that even if we travel, they will carry one separate backpack for their food. So that no one is left hungry.

    Band 6-7

    This person I'm going to talk about is my colleague. I met him at a conference at Delhi. He's from North India and I'm from Southern part of India. So he invited me for a cultural festival at his hometown in Goa. So I visited that place for a week and I stayed there. I spent some great time with them and I came to know about this culture. They speak a different language which is Konkani. The landscape and the travel and the culture all around a lot which was very useful for me. So I stayed there for one week and we travelled together. So we rented a car and we went to Goa, Panaji. He was like a tour guide for me and we went to so many places. He explained about the culture and about the tribes and about the Portuguese history and so many things about Goa. So it was very useful for me to get to know about his places. Yeah, that's it. Thank you.

    Band 6-7

    But then, it also requires a kind of emotional bonding towards each other. We understand each other a lot. We are quite emotionally supportive towards each other. Each and every little things are being shared with each other. And plus with that, it is also the thing that our families are together most of the time. They come together for lunch and dinners. At times, Uttarayan is the festival where our families meet on terrace. We are most of the time together since morning till evening, kind of late evening. And what we used to do was, we engaged in flying kites and also we used to cook together. So, when we were cooking together, we made sure that we are both respectful to each other at times. We try to make and impress each other by providing and making each other's favorite foods. And also, these are very little things but then, this little things adds a great value to the friendship. This friendship is not only just a kind of childhood friendship but it is a kind of emotional bonding too. She has just moved to Canada recently, few months back. And I still miss her a lot. The time which we spent together was one of the best time I ever had in my life. And I still cherish those memories with her. At times, we have the video calls as well. On those video calls, we do discuss and cherish those kind of memories. We enhance our quality of life by sharing each other.

    Band 6-7

    Hi, he is Salim. He is from West Bengal. He is one of my colleagues. My culture is Telugu culture, his culture is Bengali culture. We both like to spend time together because we like to explore each of our cultures. He is very interested in knowing about my cuisine and as I am interested in knowing about his cuisine, Bengali cuisine. We both go to temples as well as some cultural events where we both get to know about each other's cultures more. Once I travelled to the Kolkata and went to Kali Mata temple which is very famous and I was shocked by their culture, how their people's attire and how they do pujas. It is completely different from our side and compared to my food, their Bengali food is very sweet but I like the taste. The only similarity we both have is we both are Hindus in the background.

    Band 6-7

    Okay, so I'm going to talk about my friend who is from a different culture. She was from Assam and during our graduation, we did our graduation social work together at Amherst University. We were good friends. We met there and we became good friends. One of the things I liked about her was her languages, you know, how she used to talk. And she used to tell me the culture of Assam, like how they get dressed up, what festivals do they make. And apart from this, they told me about how they dress in such a way so that everyone admires. And she used to wear the different traditions, her clothes in our colleges, you know, I would have loved it. And apart from that, like you used to tell about my hometown, Kerala, she always loved our South Indian food, so I used to bring the food from my home and you used to give it to her. She seemed to be tasty and she always admired my culture and I also admired her culture. She always loved our cultures and, you know, she always been a good friend. Apart from that, we always helped each other whenever we had any problems. She is always there with me and, you know, during our graduation, we used to go to the internship together. And apart from that, we always sit together, eat together, we used to go home together. She used to live in a nearby hostel, so, you know, because our hometown was in Assam, so that's why she was there. Apart from this, she's one of our good friends now, currently she's in Assam. She's doing her job there as a social worker and I'm telling you, working here as a social worker, it was a great indeed, a great experience staying with her. Thanks.

    Band 6-7

    So, I would like to talk about my professional ex-colleague, 2 years back I was working in my Excel company where my colleague was Santosh. So, me and Santosh were working together on a project. Basically, he was from the different region, I would say he is from the South India. His culture, his food, everything was different. Even his native language was different. He used to speak Telugu. So, I really enjoyed his company when we discussed about our culture, our traditions, our rituals which seems not similar but yes it gives a exciting knowledge and enjoyable conversations which generally we used to have.
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