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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
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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

    This is actually about a person whom I came across on telegram. He is actually from Indonesia and I am from India. So, we are actually from totally different cultures and cultural practices. The first thing I will tell about her, is that she is a female, like about my friend. So, I chatted with her like an hour or two hour a day last year. So, her name is Sanjay and I used to talk to her like what are the practices they do. She actually was afraid sometime while showing me her face because in their culture she is actually Muslim. And that's why in their culture showing face actually may cause them harm. Their belief is like that. They actually believe that there is a disease actually that happens to them by showing their face to unknown persons. So, they cover their face all the time when they are outside their home in front of their parents. They are free and other than that they are not very likely to show their face. But overall she was very pretty and then gradually she showed her face to me. And we spoke like our daily meals, what are the daily meals, what I had in dinner, like that stuff.

    Band 6-7

    In my childhood, I used to have a friend who is from a different cultural background and I am from a family where we believe in cultures, traditions and festivals but they believe it more and they have more customs and restrictions like that so we both celebrate different kinds of festivals. For example, if I celebrate Diwali, she used to celebrate Krishnastami. They are Indian festivals and also few of the traditions were different in comparison with my cultural background with hers. She used to be more traditionally visible and in my tradition, we usually prefer traditional clothes but when we only visit a temple or like that and she has more restrictions due to her cultural background and I used to have a little less restrictions in comparing with her.

    Band 6-7

    Hi, when I was in Dubai, I was working in a company, it's a cleaning company, on the time of joining, my supervisor or like my co-worker was in Nepali. That man from the day one onwards, I was very much impressed with that because he has a lot of experience in his hand and you know, he don't have that much, you know, arrogance or any type of ego towards the fresher or the newcomer, so I enjoyed a lot with him and his culture was also very good. He was very welcoming, he usually asked me whether I had ate my food or not, always he talks very friendly and all and he talks about his family and you know, I had a lot of pleasure times with him. I used to go to his room and spend a lot of time there, so his presence made me to feel that, you know, there is no age limit is there to become friends, like I mean, he was four fifty plus and I was thirty plus, so that man really inspired me a lot, he was basically from Nepal and you know, if I would love to work with him, if I meet him, meet him again, so that was a very good experience with him, so Nepal and India are not much different because you know, Nepal was partitioned from India a long time before, so I love him.

    Band 6-7

    So the person from a different cultural background is one of my friends, Tarun. He is from Uttar Pradesh and he is from Muslim background and I enjoyed plenty of time with him and when he came to my house, we do a different kind of activities. He told me about his culture, how they pray, how they prepare food, how they do shopping. His culture is really different from my culture and I think I learned a lot of new things from his culture. He told me and teach me different kind of things. We spend a lot of time with each other. So firstly, he told me how to prepare biryani because I really like biryani and he taught me how to prepare biryani. He told me about all the ingredients and how many time it took to be prepared and then we together made a biryani and we have had it. It was really delicious and then he told me about his festivals and how they pray. He also taught me that and we went to Moscow where we did prayer and then we went to market. Then I also told him about my culture. This is really interesting experience about him because he told me about his culture and I told him about my culture and I really feel delighted by spending time with him. I learned a lot of new things about different culture and we took a lot of photos and I felt that we have to learn different kind of things from different kind of culture. It helps us in many ways.

    Band 6-7

    Actually, everyone has different culture versions of day to day life. Today I would like to talk about one of my friends. Her name is Divya and she comes from Tamil Nadu culture. The culture was very interesting to me. We met at the college days. I went to Chennai and there I studied. The activities were study materials and day to day life. We played together and we took each other's plantation. That's the main thing. I would experience a lot from her. I would study a lot from her. She taught me everything about Tamil Nadu culture and what are the main things they do. I like to hear what she taught me. In Kerala and Tamil Nadu there are different cultures. We both are from different cultures. We shared our cultures and we made the festival more grateful. Today also I would get her friendship. That way we spend more time together. We share our personal things.

    Band 6-7

    Hey AI, I want to describe a person whom I met just a week ago. He is a Rajasthani boy and I truly enjoy his company because we share a common interest. It's a music. We love music and especially traditional or folk music. So, as he is a Rajasthani guy, they have a variety of folk music which I truly enjoy. Last week, I visited the depot and they are mesmerizing. I visited a folk dancing show also and they are elegantly dances. They were superb and as we share a common interest like dancing and music and singing, I truly enjoy his company a lot. He is a nice person, nice guy and he is so dedicated to his culture, his music which I like the most.

    Band 6-7

    In this world, number of people meet different kind of personalities in their life. Some of them they like and some of them they don't like. And here I would like to describe about a person whom I met during my masters of pharmaceutics from Punjab University. It is very renowned university where different people came from the different regions of the India. And the person I met named Jyoti. She was from Rajasthan and she has different culture than me as I am from the Punjab and she is from the Rajasthan. She shares so many different kinds of things from her culture and heritage's value. In their culture, they used to wear some lehenga and choli on their festivals and occasions where they do a different kind of dance performances. And yes, the most important thing about their culture was a different style of food they are serving to their guests and on the occasions. I do like the dal bhaati churma most and we do spend time together by doing some college activities together regarding a nukkad nadang at the college and I liked her companionship better. The time spent with her was very exciting and I learnt from him about their culture, how they represent their culture in front of the others.

    Band 6-7

    When I was in my college, intermediate, I got into a new place like from the school and getting from the meeting new people. Like it was challenging for me but there was so many people who are from different countries and different cultures. And for example there is one of my friend like who is from Saudi Arabia and another friend of mine is from Mizoram. And another friend of mine is from Assam, Nepal like this. So the friend who was from Saudi Arabia is got tie up with me as I have been to Saudi Arabia before also. So he is completely different like he has different way of thinking in order to taking things. And he brings the different cuisine food which I like a lot and I also share my food with him. And also in terms of effectiveness he was like very honest and his honesty affected me a lot in order to think the things in a different way. And also it was a quite humble person and also tells me that we should always stay humble like there is one God and all. And apart from it he was a kind guy who shows kindness to the people and talks with everybody very politely way. So it affected me a lot. I have changed my perspective of thinking and speaking with politeness less due to him thanks to him. So it have been affected me in several ways.

    Band 6-7

    The person I'm speaking about is Daniel, he is from Netherlands. I pretty much enjoy the company of him. So he is from a Dutch origin where they do things differently, they share food, they invite people to their homes where they charge money for the meals, they go out, they enjoy their coffee, the work ethic is pretty good. The way they think, the way they analyze stuff is also pretty natural and pretty intelligent. I've been to their place, the country Netherlands is also pretty good. And I also enjoy spending time with him as he is a natural person, he is not a fake person. He always spends time with me, I also take my wife, he also brings his wife, we enjoy.

    Band 6-7

    I have a friend. Her name is Mika. She is Kazakh. She's from Kazakhstan. I met her at a public library in Kazakhstan. She is ambitious and she works very hard. When I first met her, I was very shy, but she encouraged me to open up. She helps me in understanding the rules of Kazakhstan, their culture, their language. We go to cafes together, explore new places. And she helps me in memorizing the new city. She tells me where all the good spots for eating are, where all the other libraries are. She has been a very good friend to me and she has helped me a lot because it was a new city for me. I had no friends. She became my friend. She listens to me and she's there for me when I need help in the city, when I need help with the language. And she acts as my tour guide, which is very helpful. I'm very grateful for her.
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