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Describe a thing you did to learn another language?: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • What was it?
  • How was it helpful?
  • How did you feel about it?
Show all 69 answers

Cue 1:What was it?

  • Begin by clearly stating the specific activity you undertook to learn the language.
  • Provide context about why you chose this particular method, such as personal interest or necessity.

Example

I decided to join a local language exchange group where I could practice speaking Spanish with native speakers. I chose this because I wanted to improve my conversational skills and immerse myself in the language.

Cue 2:How was it helpful?

  • Explain the benefits you gained from this experience, such as improved vocabulary or confidence.
  • Mention any specific instances where you noticed progress in your language skills.

Example

This experience was incredibly helpful as it allowed me to practice speaking in a real-world setting. I noticed that my vocabulary expanded significantly, and I became more confident in holding conversations. For example, during one session, I was able to discuss my favorite movies in Spanish without hesitation.

Cue 3:How did you feel about it?

  • Share your emotions regarding the experience, including any challenges you faced.
  • Reflect on how this activity impacted your overall attitude towards learning the language.

Example

Initially, I felt nervous about speaking with native speakers, but as I attended more sessions, I began to enjoy the process. I felt a sense of accomplishment every time I successfully communicated, which motivated me to continue learning.

Conclusion

  • Summarize the key takeaways from your experience.
  • Express how this activity has influenced your future language learning goals.

Example

In conclusion, joining the language exchange group not only improved my Spanish skills but also ignited a passion for learning languages. I now plan to explore other languages and continue participating in similar groups to enhance my skills further.

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

Using vague language can make your answer unclear and unengaging. Candidates often fail to provide specific details about their experiences, which can lead to a lack of depth in their response.

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Tip

Use specific examples and details to illustrate your experience. Describe the methods you used and the context in which you learned the language.

2: Ignoring Emotional Impact

Neglecting to express how you felt about the experience can make your answer less relatable. Candidates often focus solely on facts and forget to share their personal feelings.

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Tip

Include your emotions and thoughts during the learning process. Explain how the experience affected you personally and what it meant to you.

Lack of Structure

A disorganized response can confuse the listener. Candidates sometimes jump between points without a clear flow, making it hard to follow their story.

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Tip

Organize your answer by following the cues clearly. Start with what you did, then explain how it helped you, and finally share your feelings about the experience.

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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, that was a very emotional and interesting question. I am personally attached towards this because the last language I faced a very huge problem with was Tamil. When I entered into Chennai, I had a problem with Tamil speaking people. Even when I entered office, there were no people who, I would not say no people, but there were very few people who understood English. So, I had a hard time communicating with my manager as well. Whenever he used to give instructions to do a task, so he will just describe it in Tamil and when I asked him, I don't know Tamil, please explain this to me in English, he just used to say, then learn Tamil. So, I learnt Tamil over the span of 2 years. I learnt Tamil like, I had my vocabulary get straight by my friends. When I was preparing for this IELTS, I had read a lot of paragraphs. So, in that one particular paragraph, passage got my attention saying that the best way to learn a language is by immersion. By immersing yourself into that world, you can learn that language very perfectly. So, I had my friends surrounded by me, my colleagues surrounded by me, explaining to me what this word means, what that word means. I used to ask them what this means and how to say this. So, it has helped me a lot.

Band 6-7

During my college days, I started to learn French. The French was really fascinating for me because I wanted to pursue my higher education in France or Canada. As we know, the Eastern part of Canada requires you to have some basic proficiency in French and if I want to do higher education in France, it is mandatory for me to learn French because all of the people there used to learn it and speak in French and to survive over there, it's really compulsory to do so. It was really helpful to build to learn a new language because it kind of opened many spectrums of my brain to learn a language. Learning a new language is not easy I feel because it takes a lot of hard work as we need to study different fluency, dialect and words, vocabulary all together to learn a certain language. As I am a native Hindi speaker, it was really difficult for me to have some proficiency in English and learning French which was way more different than English was a challenging task but I did it well. It not only shaped my mind but broadened my perspective as well along the different cultures. After learning some basic vocabulary form and proficiency of French, I felt really confident about myself because I was knowing 3 languages at that time which was a great thing to have I feel. I will be over edge for anyone who knows just one or two languages because I am from a French background, I can do it really well and yeah of course I can watch a bit.

Band 6-7

Initially, when I was young, I had been relocated to a place called Delhi, which is in northern part of India. There, I had a difficulty in learning Hindi. It was not my mother tongue, but it was very difficult for me to learn. Initially, I used to read it from the books, practice it, practice writing and tried speaking to many people. I used to burn the midnight oil learning Hindi. I tried communicating with a lot of people around me so that I would become very fluent. Moreover, I used Duolingo app etc. to learn more. I decided passionately to learn Hindi. Then, I decided to watch movies. In addition to watching movies, I used to listen to music, which helped me a lot and I became more fluent with it. There are a lot of languages which people can learn. Mainly, they can learn by using new apps. The most important part of learning a language is it helps us to broaden our ideas and gives us a good knowledge and increase our vocabulary. It also increases our analytical skills. In addition to our analytical skills, the way we think also changes. It also helps us when we travel to different places. Having a good grip on knowledge on language helps us to communicate easily with anyone.

Band 6-7

I started learning a language which was Korean. I researched through websites and took free courses to learn the language. I also started a new Duolingo account to help me learn better. It also enhanced my ability to learn faster. I've always wanted to learn Korean because I've always loved watching K-Dramas by which it helped me a lot. After watching K-Dramas, I wanted to watch K-Dramas without subtitles. After learning Korean for about 2 years, I've now reached the phase where I can watch a K-Drama without subtitles. It has also increased my curiosity to learn other languages. So that's why I started learning German which is now at a stop because I'm currently doing my 12th. Learning Korean also helped me connect with more people. I always talk with people in Korean. My Korean is still not that good but I can understand what people say and also it helped me to communicate with people from Korea. I've also texted my friends in Korean to know my progress or my level at which I'm standing in Korean.

Band 6-7

Language is like a linking bridge for most of us to communicate, not for most of us, for all of us language is like a linking bridge to communicate. I always love to learn new languages like being a South Indian I love to learn Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and also Hindi since I was a Kannadiga, I am from Karnataka, I loved a lot to learn Telugu, Telugu language so to learn Telugu what I did was I started watching Telugu movies and also made a few Telugu friends, I tried to conversate with them in Telugu, they also helped me a lot to learn Telugu, they taught me small small word linking words and how to greet in Telugu and all and by watching movies, watching movies helped me a lot to learn this new language which is Telugu because I could relate, I could relate the feelings which they are expressing through that language, I could understand, since some words were not understood by me also, I could see the subtitles and understand the words, what they are trying to express, what they are trying to say and all and after learning the language, I really felt very good and I felt the joy of accomplishing a thing and the advantages of learning a new language was that if I was to travel to Andhra Pradesh and visit new places, it would be, it would get easy for me to communicate there with those Telugu people and to get information or to seek help with them and also by learning a new language, it was a lot easier for me to make new friends, new friends because a language wasn't a barrier for me to make new friends, I could build a bigger social circle or I could build a bigger network by using the language.

Band 6-7

I'm planning to move to Italy so that I start learning Italian recently. I always wanted to study Italian. I feel that knowing Italian can help me in my studies. So I started learning Italian. One of my friends said that there's an application that helps to study Italian. Then I took that app and started studying from my home. It was a very good application that helped. Very helpful for every kind of people like children or adults. In my opinion, that app helps people very much. I love learning Italian now. Also, I can speak Italian very well.

Band 6-7

A new thing that I learned was a new language. The new language I am learning is German. Learning German is quite a challenging task, but I like it. I like it because it gives me access to communicating with other German people. Actually, I am trying to get into German universities for my further master's program. While learning German, I understood that learning a new task or learning a new language is quite a challenging task. I am learning German from an online app called Duolingo. I installed it when one of my friends suggested me to do it from there. I am also currently enrolled in an online German comprehensive course which will get me a certificate on it.

Band 6-7

Thanks for giving me an opportunity to express my views on this topic, i.e. describe a thing you did to learn another language. So first thing I did was I searched and googled it for the coaching classes of German language. For that coaching classes I have paid around 10k per month and the risk I used to take to attend this classes was I travelled from Kothru to Baudhan for this classes and it was very precarious and very dangerous because everywhere there were various types of vehicles, let's say heavy vehicles, cars. So it was very dangerous to drive and even though I was driving I don't have any kind of license for that. So it was very dangerous. Then I have completed A1 level of German and I do got certification for the same and I feel very proud about it because no one in my class has done such an achievement for learning German language and it was very useful and helpful for me when I was interviewed for German MNC. So this language, the knowledge of this language has an added advantage to my career progression. So I am very proud of it.

Band 6-7

In lockdown period, I came across with one TV serial that is based on Turkish. It was a Turkish serial. It built my interest in the Turkish language because some of the words were similar to the Hindi language. So I find it interesting to learn this language. Moreover, I did 15 days course to learn it more deeply and I additionally did some test to get a certificate of this language. I did things like watching television shows of another serial, watching movies of that language, and I also watched or I also dug upon the Turkish people's Instagram account.

Band 6-7

Well, personally, I love the questions about languages because I love learning new languages. And other than English, the language I know and I've learned is Spanish. So the one thing, not only for English, but also for Spanish, that I did is I started watching movies in the language I wanted to learn. So that helped me a lot in learning new phrases and idioms. Not only that, but also about different tenses and when to use them. So that was one thing that I learned and it helped me a lot. Other than that, it was the vocabulary that I learned every day. There are ample of new words in movies that you learn, especially the colloquial words that are not very often used in daily conversations when you are talking to someone who is not native. So those are the kind of things that I learned from watching movies. And I think it was a great decision. I am proud of myself about taking a decision like that and learning it through a different platform, which was not only interesting, but also helpful. As people think that movies cannot help them in any area, but I guess if you are focusing on the right thing, it can be helpful in increasing your skillset, especially your communication and language. So that was one of the things I did to learn new languages. Not only to make my learning exciting, but also helpful.
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