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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

    Well, in my life I have met with various people and most of them are from diverse cultural backgrounds. Many of them are my friends and colleagues. Here I am going to talk about my work colleague Sunita, who follows the Sikh culture. I met Sunita in my office for the first time and she became my friend after the first week of my internship. Sunita is Sikh by religion and I am Hindu by religion, so we had some cultural differences, but we usually spend time together because she and I are very alike. Sunita often goes to Gurdwara and she takes me with her there to seek blessings. There is also a food, no not food, in...

    Band 6-7

    A person whom I know who has a different cultural background is one of my friends John who came from Odisha. Odisha is a state in the northern part of India and he came in Kerala for his higher studies. We met each other in the year 2022 when we started our graduation classes at SCS College, Srikantapuram. And when I first saw him, I was really interested to talk to him and know more about him and his cultural backgrounds. So he was really happy to be with me and make me as a friend. Then we sat together in our classes and we shared our lifestyles and experiences with each other. So that idea, this sharing gives us more ideas about our lifestyle and cultural activities, everything. He's a person who is more traditional and religious. He's a religious person. And all these traditions came from their own community. So he has a practice of visiting the temple every day morning at 6 p.m.

    Band 6-7

    The person whom I can think of with regards to have a different cultural background whom I enjoy spending my time with was Mariam. He's a pharmacist in Saudi Arabia that was way back 2016 when I first had my work as an overseas Filipino worker. So yes, she is a Saudi national which had introduced me to their language, to their culture, to their practices. So through her I have indulged, immersed myself to their culture, to their practices. So I have discovered that wearing the hijab or wearing the face cover is not really obligatory but it is a form of protecting yourself, being away from the danger or being away from predators. It's a form of protection because for most of them, especially men, seeing your hair would arouse them, would be a threat.

    Band 6-7

    I would like to tell you about a friend of mine. Her name is Pratyasha who comes from a different cultural background than mine and I love spending time with her. She comes from Kolkata, a place in the eastern part of India and I am from South India. Both are cultural and educational and every background is different but we enjoy spending time with each other a lot. I met her at first during my first year in my college and she was my classmate. Since we both had a similar behavior as in we both used to sit at the back of the class, we naturally bonded slowly. I was curious about the language she spoke which was Bengali and slowly she was curious about my mother tongue Malayalam too. So we both started exchanging the words in both our regional languages to each other and slowly we became familiarized with it. We both used to go to museums, we often used to different restaurants that served our regional foods, local foods and we slowly like exchanged our background cultural and food and everything. She even introduced me to the Ikkyan of her friend from Kolkata who were there in our institute and I got to learn that they were quite too much into writing and music much more than how it is in my place. So I slowly got introduced to the beautiful musical instruments of Kolkata and I

    Band 6-7

    I am going to talk about a pleasant personality whom I met in my school days about a decade ago. She was my mathematics teacher as well as my class teacher in 5th standard. Her name is Mrs. Sharita Sharma. It was my first day in the Army Public School, Ahmedabad. Concerning it, I reserved late because my car broke down. When I rushed to the class, she was already in the class. I was scared to enter but she held my hand and took me inside the classroom. The incident made me aware of her nature and behavior. Moreover, she was an extremely beautiful lady and the best thing about her was her smile which I loved. She always greeted people with a smile on her face. Apart from that, as she was a child, she looked stunning whenever she wore a saree. She mostly wore Indian outfits such as salwar kameez and sarees and rarely more western clothes. I generally show her wearing green, bright colors, apparels and because of her hair complexion, each and every shades stirred her. She had dark brown hair which perfectly complemented her skin color. Besides being a very good mentor, she was also pretty. So, she was a perfect example of beauty with brains. It is said that she, the inner beauty, determined everything.

    Band 6-7

    There are many cultures in India but I like the most is the Rajasthan culture and Gujarati culture. Last time I visit Ahmedabad and I met one famous personality of Ahmedabad, none other than he is a Gujarati actor Malhar Thakkar and I met him with my son and we are lunch together and we discussed the Gujarati culture like Gujarati dance form, Gujarati dishes and specially the Ahmedabad, Ahmedabad is Ghatia and also we discussed about more cultural activities held at Ahmedabad which organized by Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation and we enjoy a lot there, the activities and there are many exhibitions, cultural exhibitions there and we purchase.

    Band 6-7

    As I remember that on the last year my uncle came from US on my birthday so it's very enjoyable moment for me and also my uncle told me about the American culture like their study, education sector as well as their hospitality as well as many more facilities of the US culture. Moreover we spent most of the time doing outdoor activities like playing cricket and many more things. Well this moment is very enjoyable moment for me and it's enhanced my knowledge because my uncle told me lot of things related to the US culture like their foods, traveling areas as well as many more many more places. Furthermore my uncle told me if I if I have to plan to visit US in future then they told me about the what difficulties which student was faced there so it's very interesting and best moment for me to learn about these things. And last of the day we spend most of the time doing activities and also we spend spend the most time with our family members.

    Band 6-7

    I love to spend time with a group of people who are committed to speak about education and it is a club and people from different part or different areas come and join to this group and they talk about their experience with education and teaching and learning so in this forum I find different people from different part of the world they come together and we share our knowledge and expertise this helps everyone to enhance our knowledge to upgrade our skills in teaching and specially I would like to mention Dr. Gloria from Nigeria she is coming from a different cultural background I like to talk to her because she is very professional and she is doing her work with very interesting interest and we share everything that we have on the specific topic that we choose and we share and I learn many things that's a positive thing I feel and also I get to meet many people from other country to learn about their language and their culture and their traditions as well so I enjoy spending time with this group of people

    Band 6-7

    For my higher studies MBBS, I have been to Philippines to do my studies, since I went there I have met many people in different cultures and today I would like to speak about a person named Grace, Love Grace, actually her name is Love Grace and she is from Nigeria. So, why I took her as a person to talk about is that, she is one of the persons who have left so many beautiful memories and impacts in my mind and why because to explain her, she is such a beautiful girl with very beautiful shade of color and she is such a beauty, her beauty lies in her character actually, she is really loving as her name suggests, she is very loving, kind and she used to visit me during my weekends and she used to share some of the different cultures during their wedding, their birthdays etc. which are celebrated in very different way other than from my country India. So, we usually talk about our cultures and we used to celebrate their cultural festivals etc. together and I wish that I could see her once again in my life.

    Band 6-7

    Thank you for this nice topic. I come across with many type of people but I like to talk about my colleague Miss Veni. She is my colleague. Now I am working in operations department and I think she is very kind. She is a very kind hearted girl that I have met. Her background is she belongs to Gujarati family but she has married to the Christian Tamil family and she adapted his culture very well. Before marriage as I said she belongs to Gujarati family. She was pure vegetarian and after marriage she started eating non-veg and adapted his culture and I think this is an example of kindness. She studied in London but she adapted Hindu culture as well as the foreign culture. She is very jolly person and I think she is very down to earth. I like her very much. As a person she is very kind and loyal. Thank you.
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