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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
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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

    So I would like to talk about my college friend, which is Ashmita. She is also now my office mate. So, being a hardcore Punjabi, she is a very jovial person, very witty and a complete foodaholic. I love doing a lot of things with her, like going for shopping, trying out new cafes and also exploring some cultural festivities. And she is a Punjaban, she is a Sikh, she follows Sikhism and she has a ritual of going to Gurdwara every Sunday. I usually admire this quality about her and it makes me think about other religion as well. She is a very spiritual person as well. She has a great personality, being from a Punjabi background, she also knows the Punjabi language, which I found very interesting. One of the qualities which I really admire is she gets along with a lot of people and she doesn't have any grudges or she doesn't think about anything else. This quality has impacted me and broadened my horizon towards other people, made me think out of the box and also understand how other people feel. So, being a spiritual person, she has a lot of traits which also helped me grow in my career and become a more calm person.

    Band 6-7

    Well, I met a person from a different cultural background whom I admire the most is one of my best friends, Basum. I met her while I was doing my graduation. She was from a Muslim background and she was a Muslim. And I met her when we were doing our lunch. So we became friends and after that soon she became my roommate and over the years our friendship grew stronger. And once during my graduation, our teacher gave us a project and I really enjoyed doing it with her. And this was the time when I came to know about her that she was very good at speaking skills and she was not only by looks she was good, she is also intelligent and her dressing sense was also very good. She dressed herself in a very elegant way and she also, she has taught me also how to dress myself and she has a wide knowledge of dressing sense and whenever I visit her now, I really enjoy spending time with her. Last Sunday, both of us went for watching movie together. After watching movie, we went for something to eat. We ate our favorite pizza and pasta. After that, I decided to pay the bill and soon when I was searching for my wallet, I realized that I forgot my wallet and it was very embarrassed for me and hopefully she was very understanding and she understood the whole situation and she paid the bill and I found, I felt very happy that I have such kind of understanding friend that she helped me out in such embarrassing situation for me.

    Band 6-7

    So when in first year we were all asked to go for volleyball trials and we sat on a bus to go to the other campus, I sat next to a girl who looked northeastern and she had bangs, she wore specs. When we introduced it to each other, we didn't know that we would become friends and such good friends. Her name is Tia, she comes from Tripura which is in the northeastern part of India and we both were in the volleyball team together and that's how our friendship grew. We almost daily meet each other or see each other. She comes to visit me, I go to visit her and we both share a mutual interest of momo and since she is from Tripura, she has tried almost every shop in our neighborhood and she always gets me a plate or two and we eat it together whenever she feels low. She texts me or calls me and she has taught me patience and understanding of other cultural background people because I come from a background where we don't open up to other people that fast. She just came into my life and she explained her whole life to me in all the 10 conversations we had in the beginning. That's how I enjoy spending time with her and she is very real and true.

    Band 6-7

    So basically there was a great friend of mine whose name was Ali and he had a different cultural background. When we met for the first time I never knew that he would be such a great friend but then as the time passed by he taught me different values principles and ethics that I never knew before. He respected not just elderly people but also younger people and then we have spent a lot of time together and we also got a lot of chances to look into each other's opinions and for the first time I had no idea what we were doing but then later on we actually did a lot of activities. We became best friends and then we used to study together. His culture was so different from that of mine and during Eid time he would bring a lot of sweets to my house. We celebrated many festivals together and soon our families became best friends too and then later on I just looked and the time just passed by with the blink of an eye I never realized how fast the time has passed and then soon he left to UK and I'm here I'm like still studying and he sometimes calls me

    Band 6-7

    Recently I met a person who belongs to a different religion. I am belongs to Hindu religion and she was Muslim religion followers right. So today's Bhakarai so we had a discussion on the Bhakarai that why they are performing all these activities during these days. So it's a very long day back story. It's related to their Mohammed Prophet that he saw a dream that he has to sacrifice his sons.

    Band 6-7

    So, I have a friend named Shrestha Dutt, she is from Bengali culture and I had enjoyed her company when I met her in my school days and she have a very rich culture like Bengalis have very rich culture, they are very rooted to their culture and when I met her I have learnt a lot of things like the food they eat and the dance they do like the folk dances and many of the festive seasons like Durga Pooja, then the Shara, many more and I enjoyed their culture, yeah that's it.

    Band 6-7

    It is really enriching to know a person who is from a different cultural background and I had the privilege of knowing such a person and she was my friend. She was a friend from college. Right now she is not in my contact but back in the time when I was in college, we used to study together. We used to go in the same bus to our college which was Baring Union Christian College, Patala. She was a Christian and she was basically from Kerala, from the south part of India and she had a different lifestyle. Her language was entirely different, her way of wearing anything was different. She was a nun so she used to wear a particular uniform. Meanwhile, I was somebody who was hardcore Punjabi, used to speak Punjabi. The connecting point was just our subject, the connecting point was just the course that we were studying. It was really fulfilling to talk to her, to share her experiences and the way she used to talk to Punjabi people and she was very incorporating of the people.

    Band 6-7

    As I'm from Buddhist culture, I like to talk about my friend Kita, who is originally from Japan. I met him during a student exchange program a couple of years ago, and since then we have stayed in touch and become quite close. Despite our different culture backgrounds, we connect really well and genuinely enjoying spending time with him. What I found most fascinating about Kita is his calm and respectful nature, which I've noticed is quite common in Japan culture. He's always polite, so soft-spoken, and extremely thoughtful in his actions whenever we hang out, whether it's going for a walk, watching movies, or even just having a cup of tea. The conversation is always enriching. One of the things I appreciate most is how much I've learned from him. He taught me about traditional Japanese costumes like the tea ceremony and even some basic Japanese phrases. He also introduced me to Japanese food like sushi, ramen, and mochi, which I had never tried before meeting him. What's amazing is how we both embrace our differences rather than shy away from them. For example, I come from a most expressive and livingly cultured background, and at first our communication styles were quite different, but over time we found a balance and developed mutual respect for each other's way of life. Spending time with Kita has not only been enjoyable, but also eye-opening.

    Band 6-7

    I think the person that I knew from different background or culture is my friend Yoon. She is a Korean. I met her when we were in yoga class in Mysore and she is around 20 or 30 years older than me but we are still a very good friend. She visited my house twice and she stayed at my house with her friends. I showed her around the village. She really enjoyed it and Yoon also has a really big heart. She loves you know taking care of people because she has her own daughter in her home and since she is Korean I always take the opportunity to learn more about their culture, their fabulous skincare and their food backgrounds. She always tries to teach me her languages too but I'm too bad I'm not good with languages. I think she might be one of my favorite person in this whole world not because she always gives me like gifts whenever she visits plenty of them but she's always very caring and she always listen to my thoughts. We love to cook together and yeah

    Band 6-7

    The person I enjoy spending time with is a friend called Prisha. She is from a Malayali background and she is a Malayali. She is from Kerala. I got introduced to her in 9th standard and we instantly got jilted after we first met. We share the same interests and hobbies and we spend most of our time together. Till 12th standard we studied in the same school and for college we went to different universities. We both have same interests which includes watching movies, playing badminton and we go for bike rides. We also recently went for a short bike ride to Agali and I really enjoyed the trip. It was really enjoying and it was the time I spent after a long time with her. The reason why I like staying with her is because she is non-judgmental and she makes me feel my own value. It makes me relax being around with her. She is the friend I am still close with. It's been 7 years since we got to know each other and our bond is getting more thicker and thicker. She is the only friend I am the most close with in the recent years.
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