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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
    anonymous person icon

    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
    anonymous person icon

    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

    I have actually two friends who are totally from different backgrounds. I come from a country which is really diversified and enriched with culture, India. My friend's name is Dhruv Modi. He comes from Gujarat and I belong to Telangana, Hyderabad. I speak Telugu, he speaks Gujarati. That's his mother tongue. And there is my other friend, his name is Arav Gupta. He comes from Haryana and he speaks Haryanvi. Common language is English. We spend a lot of time. He teaches me about his culture. I get to show him Hyderabad. We go to the same school. We both love to talk about each other's culture. And Arav is also really a cool person to spend time with because his culture is also really good. When I went to his home, damn! It was really good where I could see all the artifacts that belongs to Haryana. And same with Dhruv. Dhruv is a Jain and I am a Hindu. Well, there are a bit of similarities. But still, I respect everyone's culture.

    Band 6-7

    गरवा इन my country me have diverse cultures and traditions and all stay together with the feeling of brotherhood. Last year, my father's transfer orders came from the senior office, and we shifted to a new city, which was really strange for me. And I was admitted to a new school where everything was strange for me, and there was an uncomfortable ambience all around. And there I met my classmate named Rohit, who belongs to a Haryanvi culture. He was really a nice person, and I think so, he was really supportive and kind and have the feeling of companionship and is always compassionate to help everyone in each and every situation. Along with this, we do various activities together, such as enjoying outdoor activities, exploring various natural ecosystems. And I think I learned various things from this friendship. First and foremost, I learned the value of good friends in my life. Moreover, I transformed my introvert personality to an extrovert personality. And also, I learned to socialize with the people all around me, and I got a source to develop my extracurricular skills and hobbies.

    Band 6-7

    Okay, so the person is Shruti Thavde and I met her in my school. In my school, she was in my class and she comes from a Marathi culture, Marathi background. She is Marathi person and we both really had a very long friendship to stay together. We had been together for 10 years almost and I really loved her culture too. She and I had enjoyed a lot of their cultures but especially the one culture which I really loved with her was Lavani. Lavani is the dance, it is like traditional dance Lavani and I really loved seeing that dance that we have seen each other and also she also do that dance which makes me so overwhelming by seeing her dancing because Lavani is the dance where people enjoy so much and I really do enjoy. In fact, one funny case was there, in fact one funny thing is Lavani especially do women's too but I also tried one day doing Lavani and it was really amazing doing it, you know. I really enjoyed doing it with her. She taught me Lavani at her home, how to dance, the steps, the moves and we really enjoyed each other company and we also enjoyed dance, the culture is Marathi culture is one of the best among all cultures but I also loved it and yeah that's the story.

    Band 6-7

    Well, to describe about a person from a different background with whom I enjoy spending my time is, I would describe my friend Mustafa Ali. So talking about my friend, he is from the Muslim background, from the Muslim religion, and he is a student, and we are classmates, and their cultural background. I came to know is they are Muslim and they have really good religion functions and really good traditional things I discovered from him. So some of the activities that we do together are, like we visit one another's places, and one of the good things that we do is we discover and we try to mingle together where we try to explore one another's culture, one another's tradition, and one of the good experiences that really had an impact on me is when I visited their place, it was very enormous and it was, at first it was very erratic, but when I happened to join, it was very cosy and it was really a mind-blowing place, and I really happened to have a great experiences and it also gave me a chance to think out of the box how people live, and it really impacted in my life as well as a student, and at the end, I really thank him for being with me and I was very much ecstatic for his good thing that he did to me.

    Band 6-7

    So, the name of this person is Dr. Taneshwar Chahal, though we belong to the same profession but he is from the different cultural background. I belong to the more of the Eastern culture and he shares a Western culture. For example, we differ in our religious practices. I have a proper routine, a spiritual routine, where I do visit temples also but too for him I have seen a very different lifestyle where they don't have any religious bendings and moreover the person is more fun-loving, they have more travel histories as compared to mine, they are more hard-working and their cultural beliefs are also different in the sense that they have a different eating habits from ours. Moreover, we have a more family bonding, we get together of our cousins more, plus the bondings in the family between the kids, children and parents are more as compared to theirs, the culture is very different. However, they have some positive points also to learn, for example, they are very hard-working, they are fun-loving, they live their life to the fullest. So, yes, that is what I love about them.

    Band 6-7

    Being a North Indian, I never went to South India, but when I went to study in my college, I met someone from South India. He was an inhabitant of Kerala, a South Indian state. For the days in beginning, we didn't talk much, but as time passed, we started to talk with each other and I realized that he is one of the nicest person there is in college. I really enjoyed spending time with him as he told me about his culture, the way his people behave, their eating habits, how they do things differently from the people in the North. The cultural exchange was really eye-opening and really made me grow as a person.

    Band 6-7

    Okay, I want to talk to you about my friend called Saurabh. He's from Pune, that is north of India. I'm from south of India. So, there's a huge cultural difference, not just in food, but other ways too. It's because of him I started my spiritual practice. We actually were working together, but during our free time, we used to visit temples and also spend some time in the nature as well as, you know, explore new places. So, yeah, I really enjoy spending time with him as it also helped me to understand his culture and I could also tell him more about my rituals and practices, what we follow back in my city. So, yeah, I think being aware of different cultures, even though you're in the same country, it's really good knowing, you know, different things, the cuisine, their practices and even the way they celebrate festivals is something really nice because I get to learn a lot of things from him too. And yeah, there was a time where we exchanged food, you know, he cooked his local food and I cooked some delicacies from my city and we really enjoyed, you know. So, there was a time where I had been to his city and he gave me a tour of his neighborhood, the different villages, towns and all of that. It was really nice.

    Band 6-7

    I had one of my friends named Shamsundar. He is from a place called Salem which is located in Tamil Nadu. I am from a cultural background called Baduga and he is moreover a Tamil person. I got to learn a lot from him. I am much fond of his dedication and his confidence in most parts. He is a very helpful person and he has influenced me in many places. I have gone through many difficult times. At those times, he is the person who stood with me and helped me to go through these difficult times. He has also helped me in lots of projects. Moreover, in addition to my semester's projects, he was the person who completed all of my projects. I am also facing issues in speaking. I am a person who used to speak faster. He sat with me and made corrections and made me speak a little bit for good. One of the most things I admire about him is his helpingness when compared to other people.

    Band 6-7

    India has always been a place of cultural diversity and staying in India I also came across many people like this but one person which I want to tell particularly is Mr. Chetan who is from Kerala now myself being from Maharashtra we have a cultural differences I have a Maharashtrian culture he has a Keralite culture now the culture differences is like I follow Hinduism he also follow Hinduism so few things are matching but there is a vast difference because of the province to which we belong the cultural rights starting right from the birth to the death are different whenever a person is born we always start by giving protecting the child by you know what we do we

    Band 6-7

    Well, there can be so many persons. By meeting them we feel happy or they can be our inspiration. Here today I would like to talk about my friend who is from a different cultural background. Her name is Sara. She is 24 years old. She is painstaking person. Apart from this she is alluring and good personality. If I talk about her cultural background, she is from Tunisia in Africa country. Her native language is Arabic. Apart from this she speaks French, English, Arabic as well. There are so many things which I learnt from her. Moreover, she also loves to learn Hindi and Punjabi by communicating with me. It is very interesting part. Whenever we have leisure time, we sit together and communicate in each other's language. It strengthens our bond and friendship as well. I feel very encouraged and good.
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