arrow back icon Top Answers

Describe a person you disliked at first but ended up being friends with: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • Who the person is?
  • When and where you met him/her?
  • Why you disliked this person at first?
  • And explain how your opinion of him/her changed and why.
Show all 104 answers

Cue 1:Who the person is?

  • Introduce the person by name and describe your relationship with them.
  • Mention any relevant background information that helps to understand who they are.

Example

The person I initially disliked is named Rohan. He was my classmate in college, and we were both part of the same study group for our engineering course.

Cue 2:When and where you met him/her?

  • Specify the time and place where you first met this person.
  • Provide context about the situation that brought you together.

Example

I first met Rohan during our first semester at university, in a crowded lecture hall. We were both attending an introductory class on computer science, and it was a bit overwhelming for all of us.

Cue 3:Why you disliked this person at first?

  • Clearly explain the reasons for your initial dislike.
  • Share specific incidents or traits that contributed to your feelings.

Example

At first, I found Rohan to be quite arrogant. He often interrupted others during discussions and seemed to think he was better than everyone else. This behavior really annoyed me, and I felt he was not a team player.

Cue 4:And explain how your opinion of him/her changed and why.

  • Describe the turning point that changed your perception of this person.
  • Explain how you got to know them better and what positive traits you discovered.

Example

Over time, I had to work closely with Rohan on a group project. As we collaborated, I discovered that he was actually very knowledgeable and passionate about the subject. He was also willing to help others, which made me appreciate him more. I realized that his confidence was just a way of expressing his enthusiasm for learning.

Conclusion

    Example

    In conclusion, my initial dislike for Rohan transformed into a strong friendship as I got to know him better. This experience taught me the importance of looking beyond first impressions and understanding people more deeply.

    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 Vague Descriptions

    Using vague language can make your answer less engaging and informative. Candidates often fail to provide specific details about the person or the situation, which can lead to a lack of clarity.

    bulb icon

    Tip

    Include specific examples and anecdotes about the person and your initial feelings to create a vivid picture for the examiner.

    2: Don't Overemphasize Negativity

    Focusing too much on negative feelings can create a one-sided narrative. Candidates may dwell on their initial dislike without explaining the positive changes that occurred later.

    bulb icon

    Tip

    Balance your response by discussing both your initial dislike and the qualities that led to your friendship, highlighting personal growth.

    Neglecting the 'Why' Factor

    Failing to explain why your opinion changed can leave your answer incomplete. Candidates often skip this crucial part, making it hard for the examiner to understand the transformation.

    bulb icon

    Tip

    Clearly articulate the reasons behind your change of heart, emphasizing specific interactions or experiences that influenced your perspective.

    calendar icon

    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
    anonymous person icon

    Reported by

    Anonymous student Band 7.5

    location icon

    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
    anonymous person icon

    Reported by

    Anonymous student Band 8

    location icon

    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

    location icon

    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

    location icon

    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

    location icon

    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 am going to describe the person as my husband and my husband's name is Kali Munni. I firstly saw him in the airport. At the time it was 11.30pm on the midnight. The first meet was, I was very fulfilled with seeing his face, with a lot of smile and that shining everything. Finally we met together and took a coffee and both of them were sharing their feelings and everything. And it comes in English and Spanish. After that I am very lucky about the person who was caring and everything. There was one step forward and one step forward and he was such a lovely person. I want to live with him but unfortunately he was in the out of station. I want to live with him but there are no options.

    Band 6-7

    Today I am going to talk about a topic, describe a person you disliked at first but ended up being friends with. So this friend is very special to me, his name is Anirudha, he is none other than my classmate. We met in our school Kikanik in Coimbatore in 1997 and we studied together till 12th standard. I did not like him because I had a one side love and she was my crush, her name is Shapna and he was the best friend of her. They always be together, study together which makes me very jealous. Moreover whenever I see her, he will be talking with her and he looks at me and giving a smile that makes me even more jealous. But later I never imagined that he would be an important part of my life. Because I got my first posting in Guwahati when I was working in border security force and coincidentally he was studying in IIT, he was doing a PhD there. And we ended up to be in contact after so many years. I usually go to his campus in the weekends to eat masala dosa which I was getting it for 25rs. You would never believe because the 25rs masala dosa was unlimited. After that we were in frequent touch.

    Band 6-7

    Hi, actually, sorry, I would like to describe about one of my best friend, Siddharth. I met him from my post-graduation time in Maharaja's college, Kochi. First of all, when I met him, I thought he was 3 or 4 years elder than me. Both of his beards and moustache and the specs he used make him look like a very serious person. But after talking with him, I understood. It's not like my first impression was not correct. He was a very simple person and very friendly to me. We shared a room in a hostel. Those two years, he was always with me and now he is one of my best friends. When I visit his village or his district, I will call him and we will go together for my needs. Actually, one of his ears is not working and he has some health issues. Whenever I call him, he will come with me. He never told me like that he is busy and he can't come with me like that. My first impression was not correct. I have already told him this one. He was very, he made a lot of mistakes.

    Band 6-7

    So, it is this person who I met in my college, at first he seems to be so arrogant and like a conservative person, because I have seen his actions and like, I have seen his statements somewhere at the college, so I thought that ok, he is a conservative person and our ideologies doesn't meet or have different ideologies, so I avoided him, I don't talk too much, but during an event at college, we like, there was a situation arrived where we need to talk, so we had a conversation, and yeah, actually he seems to be a good guy, he like, he know how to behave and like, he is able to make people comfortable, actually he shows concern to other, empathy, that were the good characters of him, but even though our ideologies are different, we both of them, we both respect that and stay in our place and both respect our own, their, each other's ideology, that's it.

    Band 6-7

    So, this person was a classmate of mine. We met in my school, I guess around 5th grade or something. And at that time, I felt that this person was quite obnoxious, attention-seeking, and I don't know, just way out of the way, a little weird. And maybe that was because of the things I used to hear about him to other people, like the misconceptions, the prejudice I hear, the already, I guess I created some stereotypes about him. But once, I actually after 5 years, maybe in 10th grade, I just talked to him once about something and I thought that no, the things I had thought about him are actually not true. He is something different. And when I talk to him right now, I feel happy and he is one of my closest friends whom I share everything with. So yes, mostly I feel that we actually make up things about people in our mind that we should not. We just judge them on the basis of how they have been with others or how others perceive them. But instead, I think we should actually talk to them first on our own, see how they are with us, how they are responding to our questions, how they are talking with us. And then on the basis of that, we should think about it and then come to a conclusion. So yes, this was my experience and I feel that I took a huge life lesson from it.

    Band 6-7

    I would like to talk about my friend. I met him in the first day of the college. I thought he is rude. I dislike him because of his appearance. He is more like a rowdy cheater. I thought his appearance was more likely to be violent. So I didn't like him. After talking to him, I realized he is a calm person. There is nothing to do with his appearance. The main thing I like about him is that he understands people's point of view and judges without any bias. He puts his points as well in front of the people. He is a really good friend. He is a good artist. I like both of them. The way he does the work is really good. Firstly, he seems like a chill guy. If he wants to do the work, he will do it at any cost. These are the things I like about him. He is a good friend, a good dancing partner, and a good crime partner.

    Band 6-7

    The person I disliked was Alina and he is a colleague at my college and I firstly disliked her because of her rude behavior. I met her firstly in my college in the first semester and she usually speaks with other persons with rude behavior and I didn't like that behavior. Then by gradually in the second semester we talk more things and she became my best friend and I gradually know about her behavior and she is a nice person and she has a lot of problems in her family life and I also stand with her for the basic and the whole.

    Band 6-7

    When I was 10 years old, I met my friend in a nearby playground. He was so annoying at first, we didn't get along. I used to play with my friends, which consisted of 5 members. There are separate numbers of gangs that could come around and play in our playground. So we got into a little bit of a tense and fight between us. He is the main group of the guy and I am the main group of the guy. Because of that, we had clashes over the past 2 years or so. After many days, we got to know each other. We separated our boundaries and we played along. Eventually, we spoke to each other and got to know him more. After getting to know him, I went to his house and we spent quality time together. That was the first time I got to know him and how he was and what he was like. So this was the moment.

    Band 6-7

    It was a very long time ago when I was in 6th grade, so I was moved from another school to the particular school. So it was my first day, I went to the class and I was, I sat on a different bench, everybody was like, everybody was sitting in a group and I was sitting alone because I was new. So at that time, I saw one girl, who is basically, like at a first glance, she looks very tough, although she was in class 6th, tough, kind of rude, kind of very, you know, tomboy style. So I, like at the first glance, I was like, no, I don't want to be friends with her because of her, how she looked and because of her attitude, right? So, but over the time, we started talking by any chance, you know, in any kind of gathering or any kind of extracurriculars or, you know, when we were doing the homework. So at that time, I got to know about that she is not rude, disrespectful or not having attitude. It's just how it appears at the outer shell, inside she is very honest, very kind, generous, not to me, but to everyone. So that's the first thing that I like and we ended up being the best friend. So I think for more than six years, we're together and I like to admit that she is one of the best person that I've ever met in my whole journey. She supports me in everything that I've done and I am really sure that in the future, she will also support me in my any kind of work. So yes.

    Band 6-7

    A person I disliked first, but ended up being friends with, was with my friend called Alvin. He's a tall and handsome guy. I met him first in my church. At first I disliked him because he was not a person who used to talk very much. He was very introvert and he used to only talk with a person, people who talked with him first. We have to start the conversation only then he'll speak back. He was a bit of an introvert. But when we had a program in our church, we both were the in-charge of that program. And then we got a lot of time to spend together, to go for shopping for the program, to talk together. And then I realized he is not an introvert person. But we have to speak, only then he'll speak back. So at that time, I made sure that he was comfortable with me and I spoke with him. And that's how we maintained a good friendship. Now, we are already best friends. We used to meet up occasionally. And every weekend, we used to meet in church. We used to plan our programs together. However, from the past, he has changed a lot. He started talking to others. And all those things.
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
    ielts logo

    Get the IELTS Prep App

    Star rating icon

    4.2

    1M+ Installs

     app download banner image

    Get the app link on your phone

    +91

    Or download app from

    google play storeapp store
    master ielts speaking ad