Describe a skill that you learned from older people: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

What is the skill?
Who you learned it from?
How you learned it?
And how do you feel about it.

8 unique answers with expert feedback

Show all 8 answers

Cue 1:What skill was it?

Clearly state the skill you learned and its significance in your life.
Provide a brief context about why this skill is important to you.

Example

The skill I learned from older people is cooking traditional Indian dishes. Growing up in a family that values culinary heritage, I realized how important it is to preserve these recipes and share them with future generations.

Cue 2:Who did you learn it from & how?

Mention the specific person you learned from and your relationship with them.
Describe the process of learning this skill, including any memorable experiences.

Example

I learned this skill from my grandmother, who is an exceptional cook. Every Sunday, I would spend the day with her in the kitchen, watching her prepare dishes like biryani and paneer butter masala. She patiently taught me the techniques and secrets behind each recipe, making the learning process enjoyable.

Cue 3:How did you feel about it?

Express your emotions during the learning process and how it impacted you.
Reflect on the long-term benefits of acquiring this skill.

Example

I felt a deep sense of connection and joy while learning from her. It was not just about cooking; it was about bonding with my grandmother and understanding our family traditions. Now, I feel proud to carry on her legacy and share these recipes with my friends and family.

Conclusion

Summarize the importance of the skill and its impact on your life.
Mention your intention to continue learning and passing on this skill.

Example

In conclusion, learning to cook traditional dishes from my grandmother has enriched my life in many ways. It has strengthened my family ties and instilled in me a love for our culture. I intend to keep learning and hope to teach my children the same skills one day.

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: Vague Descriptions

Avoid being too general when describing the skill. Vague answers can make it difficult for the examiner to understand your experience and the significance of the skill.

Tip

Provide specific details about the skill, including examples of how you practiced it and its impact on your life.

2: Neglecting Personal Feelings

Failing to express your feelings about the skill can make your answer less engaging. Personal reflections help to connect with the examiner.

Tip

Share your emotions related to learning the skill, such as pride, gratitude, or enjoyment, to make your response more relatable.

Ignoring the Learning Process

Overlooking how you learned the skill can lead to an incomplete answer. This part is crucial for showing your journey and effort.

Tip

Explain the steps you took to learn the skill, including any challenges you faced and how you overcame them.

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

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7.5

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

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 8

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

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 6.5

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

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7

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

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7.5

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 learned from my grandma the scratching of woolen, and it's like making a cloth or a socks or a caps from a scratching. When I was in primary school, I saw my grandma knitting my sweater, socks, and a cap. So while seeing her, I learned that scratching from her, and I love to see her scratching, and it's a very precious time for me. When she used to knit the caps and socks for my parents or my siblings, I used to help her to scratch it and stitch it. So I think it is the most important in our life to make our cultures stay in our heart. Knitting is the most cultural way of our older peoples to make their life. Nowadays, all were designed by the machine or some mix fabricated.

Band 6-7

The skill which I learnt from an older person is their keen observation on different life situations. I learnt this from my grandmother and whenever I have any situations or I face some situations or she always gives me some advice and it has helped me a lot to improve my character. She also has faced many ups and downs in her life so that she gives advice to people, to the younger ones in her family. In addition to that, I was very impressed to know that she also had some ups and she learnt from her negatives.

Band 6-7

I will explain, now I will tell you the skill that I have learned from my elders, although I have learned so many skills from them but the skill that I think is most important is mathematics, they taught me math when I was a child, because of them I never need to go additional classes like tuitions and because of them I am very fast in calculation, I used to do calculation in my mind even I don't need a calculator whereas some and like unlike others are used to use calculator whilst I do it in my mind and they sometimes ask me a tricky questions and I try to solve them quickly and because of because I'm good in mathematics I got 100 marks when I was in 8th standard and I think learning this is the math is a hardest subject people mostly face difficulty in math and they make that subject easiest for me and because of that I started my passion I also because math has so many real applications and I start I decided to pursue a career in math.

Band 6

So the current generation, especially the Gen Z, there is a trend called as hustle culture. So this is good for some extent, but it also misguides people into overworking and also expecting quick results. So there is one aspect in human life which we have to concentrate while doing the hustle culture, that is patience. So patience is something which I have observed in my father during his work and naturally the way he is. So adding that property into my life has increased my productivity of work into 100. So patience is something which teaches a lot of values as well.

Band 6

My grandmother and my grandfather does a lot of things in their daily life and they think it is not difficult because they have been doing since their childhood and it is a lot easier for them but what I learned from my grandfather is making pots. He is a potter and he has achieved a significant heights in this pottery industry and he makes them in a wide varieties and lot of people likes them a lot and I also want to learn that skill from him. From my childhood I used to watch him from a distance when he makes the pots with hand and I think he he got that skill from their great-grandparents and from their great-grandfathers. So I asked my grandfather to taught me that skill slowly he showed me how to hold the pot how to mix the mud to make it into a paste from that I started learning how to make a complete pot by all myself with the help of my grandfather and it is the one skill that made me happy because it was making pots was the sole bread and butter for my grandparents by making those parts they will sell them by that money only they used to live on those money but I I want to learn it as a skill so I learned it my grandfather and it was very a useful skill that I thought from him

Band 6

Well, one of the important skills that I learned from older people is how to lead a healthy lifestyle. The people I've learned this skill is from my grandpa and grandma. I've been observing them from my childhood and noting down how they have been leading a healthy lifestyle from their young age. So one of the main reasons of their health being so good at this age is consuming healthy food. I've been observing they always try to omit unhealthy eating or unhealthy food which might harm them. So I've always seen them consuming green leafy vegetables and a lot of fiber rich foods and maintaining the nutrition balance in a standard level. So to be honest, by observing these activities, I'm trying to accumulate these habits into my life so that I could lead a healthy lifestyle throughout my age. So this is very much crucial to lead a healthy lifestyle in my future. So by doing this, I could clearly...

Band 5-6

We make so good and nice things. People always learn from many things, from everyone. But these things will always be, how do you observe and learn from this in a simple way? Which types of problems do you face? Just go with older people, older people means like grandmother, grandfathers. Just go and tell me.

Band 5

Well, older people in general are most important in our life because older people can achieve so many things and in this life we can show many skills and that skill developing our body. I would like to talk about one skill which is I learned from older people is focus. Without focus you cannot achieve any goals or any ideas. Focus is very important in our life. My grandfather always focus on her work and also they are very principled person. Also they always taught me that always in any work you have done focus is very important. Older people are inspiration for me because they show so many things in their life. Also their focus skill is very important and also grounded skills are also learned from older people because when you grounded you can show the people and also learn about them.