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Describe a time you saw children behave badly in public: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • Where was it?
  • What were the children doing?
  • How do others react to it?
  • And explain how you feel about it.
Show all 151 answers

Cue 1:Where was it?

  • Begin by describing the location where you witnessed the children's behavior, making it relatable and vivid.
  • Mention any specific details about the environment that contributed to the situation.

Example

I was at a busy shopping mall in Mumbai last summer, a place filled with families and children enjoying their day out. The mall was bustling with activity, and the atmosphere was lively, with music playing and people chatting.

Cue 2:What were the children doing?

  • Clearly explain the actions of the children that you considered to be bad behavior.
  • Provide specific examples of what they did that stood out to you.

Example

While I was waiting for my friend near a toy store, I noticed a group of three children, probably around 7 to 10 years old. They were running around, shouting loudly, and even knocking over some displays. At one point, one of them threw a toy at another child, which was quite alarming.

Cue 3:How do others react to it?

  • Describe the reactions of the adults and other children around the situation.
  • Mention if anyone intervened or if people just ignored the behavior.

Example

The adults around seemed quite shocked. Some parents looked at their children with concern, while others just shook their heads in disapproval. A store employee approached the group and asked them to calm down, but the children just laughed and continued their antics.

Cue 4:And explain how you feel about it.

  • Share your personal feelings about the situation, whether you found it amusing, concerning, or frustrating.
  • Reflect on what this behavior might indicate about parenting or social norms.

Example

I felt a mix of frustration and concern. It was troubling to see such behavior in public, as it reflects a lack of discipline. I wondered if the parents were aware of how their children were acting. I believe that children need guidance on how to behave in public spaces.

Conclusion

    Example

    In conclusion, witnessing children behave badly in public can be quite unsettling. It serves as a reminder of the importance of teaching children proper behavior and respect for others in shared spaces. Such experiences highlight the role of parents and society in shaping children's conduct.

    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. Candidates often fail to provide specific details about the situation, which can lead to a lack of engagement from the examiner.

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    Tip

    Include specific details about the location, actions of the children, and the reactions of others to create a vivid picture.

    2: Neglecting Personal Feelings

    Not expressing your personal feelings about the situation can make your response less engaging. Candidates often forget to share their emotional reactions, which are important for a complete answer.

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    Tip

    Reflect on how the behavior affected you and share your feelings to add depth to your response.

    Ignoring Others' Reactions

    Failing to mention how others reacted can leave your answer incomplete. Candidates sometimes focus only on the children and miss the broader context of the situation.

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    Tip

    Describe how bystanders or parents reacted to the children's behavior to provide a fuller picture of the event.

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    All Answers

    Here are all the answers by real-users practicing speaking for IELTS Cue Cards on our IELTS Prep App.

    Band 6-7

    Smoking is considered as an injurious thing to have and it will hurt the person who using it physically and mentally. When I was a kid, I saw that some of my seniors were smoking the cigarettes in public. I felt so bad about it at that time because I know that it is not good for health and it's not at all good for the people standing around. It causes problem to that elder brothers as well as for me. As a child also I was aware about that and I felt so bad about that. I noticed that some of the people were looking at them very badly and staring at them that what they are doing is really wrong and few of them went to that boys and said this is not fair that you are doing this at this age and this is not good for your health as well as it is not good for others. But still that boys were doing the same in that public place and it was a horrible situation where they are not understanding the negative part of smoking.

    Band 6-7

    Yeah, I had experience with a similar situation almost a year ago. I was sitting in a mall and relaxing and watching all the stuff over there. So I came across a family of four, one father and a mother and two children. So I saw this boy beating her mother without any reason, just as fun, but no one was questioning it. No one was, everyone was minding their own business. But I don't think it's a nice thing to do. It's not even cute. People think that if children beat their parents, it's a good thing or it is just a cute thing. But I don't think it's a very nice thing to do. It's a nice thing to do or a thing to ignore because the habits which we allow them to develop at the time of their childhood, it would reflect in their future. They would try to do similar things when they grow up. I felt very bad about that. I don't think children should be allowed to do that. So it's a very unpleasant situation. I think it's not very nice to do.

    Band 6-7

    I used to more often use the public transportation facilities to commute to my college. I use bus to travel. It will be always crowded to reach my destination. Many people want to move to that in the morning as it is more of an area where schools, colleges and IT parts are there. It was in the one time morning that school children gang was there and I saw one kid who stole a 500 rupee note from a man that was sitting and he did not seem to have given attention to it. Once I saw it, I really felt bad. It may be due to variety of reasons because there was a need or it was quite easy for them to go to the bad choices and my public around it did not notice. But I did not feel good after noticing it and not addressing it. So I had to speak to that kid even if I had to attend my college late. So I dropped in the stop where the kid stopped and I gave her about 1000 rupees and bought that 500 rupees back from her. I said that even at times it is important to stay honest and the universe will automatically reach you to a more wealthier place. It is by these practices that let us down and not helps us in improving ourselves. One day or another the same cycle repeats for yourself itself. Like that I advised her and she understood and was ready for it.

    Band 6-7

    I had a lot of circumstances in my life that I had witnessed a lot of students have been doing bad things, like in my high secondary education time, my colleagues were smoking in the school premises itself, and also there was also other bad moves from the children, which was they were sitting with their loved ones and they were doing some bad things, like it's not good for the children to do those kinds of things, and also I had an incident in my life that was a child in my class was literally behaving towards the teacher just like an enemy, and he even spoke bad words towards the teacher, and the teacher was really upset on that, and that really made the teacher's day spoiled, and he was not even about to apologize on it, he was the reason to make the teacher sad, and a lot of children are there doing these kinds of stuff in order to be more like a boss in the class, sometimes even the people nearby used to say a lot of things about them, but unfortunately they are being more...

    Band 6-7

    On 3rd May, I went to a park named Jaina Park, which is in Churchgate, the heart of Mumbai, also known for its well-collectivity. So on that day, while we were sitting on the grass, I, my mother and my little sister, we watched a lady with her child named Ayaan. I know the child's name because I could hear the mother yelling, Ayaan, sit down, Ayaan, do this, Ayaan, do that, hence we became aware of the child's name. This child was literally yelling and crying for a very stupid reason and the reason was that he couldn't hit a random stranger besides him, hence he was crying. The mother was trying to stop the child but the child eventually was so stubborn and rebellious that he went and did punch a stranger, but the stranger was a very kind person and did not really react because Ayaan was a small kid, moreover, the child was also crying to eat unhealthy food, which other people in the garden were having. So as a mother, Ayaan's mom couldn't allow him to do that, but low-key, she wanted to let Ayaan go and do whatever he wishes to, just because there is a...

    Band 6-7

    I was boarding a flight from my hometown Chennai to Bangalore where I noticed that there were a couple of kids who were sitting in the front seat near my aisle. I noticed that they were all siblings, two sisters and one brother. They were fighting like they were going to kill each other. Now in my mind I was like okay they are kids it's very natural for them to fight and quarrel with each other. When the flight took off one of the sister pulled out the sister's hair and she started to cry. Everyone in the flight were in fact disturbed by the whole situation and end of the day

    Band 6-7

    There was this time that I really feel bad for the parents of a kid who was crying non-stop on the roadside. I think that kid was crying for something which was really unnecessary and crying over something which looked very unnecessary and making the situation really bad for the parents. I think others were also really irritated by the behavior of that kid because he was crying like non-stop and everywhere, everyone passing through that road was looking at him and everyone were wondering that what have happened to that kid. I was watching this all the time and the thing I understood was he was crying over a toy that he wanted from a store nearby and I think he was making a fuss out of it. And I personally think that teaching to a kid how to behave in public really starts from the family. Of course, kids would behave like that. They need time to acclimatize with something and all this are true but even though, I strongly believe that teaching to behave is something that should start from the family and parents should take care about it.

    Band 6-7

    Hi, I would like to describe about the time when I noticed that some children at the restaurant that we were at were crying and throwing huge tantrums. So the table next to ours was occupied by a joint family, there were around 3-4 adults and 2 little children who were creating a ruckus over there. Of course it was very disturbing for the entire restaurant, the whole ambience was disturbed and people were not able to focus on eating because it was that loud. And the issue, the main issue that all of us, that the people in my table at least faced was that the adults were not actively or proactively doing anything to stop the children. Most of the time when children are creating a ruckus like this or if they are throwing a tantrum, parents are expected or generally parents do take their children outside and try to calm them and then bring them back inside the restaurant. But in this case, nothing as such was done and that was the main pain point for many of us. But I would also like to note that there is another side to this, that sometimes society is not very kind to new parents, especially parents who have children under the age of 1. Of course they are going to be uncomfortable. And I think a classic example would be when parents travel with very young children in …

    Band 6-7

    So recently when I had gone for a fair nearby, I had seen a bunch of kids and there were particularly twins and they were with their mother and they were fighting for an ice cream. The mother clearly was hazzard and she wanted to just get home. This is what I understood from her demeanor and she was trying to convince them to get home. However, these children were fighting, they were crying and they were throwing tantrums. They were just lying on the floor and crying and screaming. It was disturbing other people and also the mother was extremely embarrassed of the situation and ultimately she gave in and she bought them the ice cream after which they started crying about the flavor of the ice cream which the mother had got in them and they started crying, they started throwing the ice cream at each other, they were soiling their clothes, they were also causing disturbance to the people around them and finally the mother got so irritated that she just left the scene, leaving the father to handle the whole situation. From this whole situation, I felt that the father was not at all cooperating and he was playing the good cop while he let the mother be the bad cop and even though the father could have just handled one child and asked the mother to handle the other child, it would have been a better situation for them as a family and for the people around them because this was causing a lot of inconvenience for others and moreover it was a nuisance situation and it could have been sorted very easily but then they just didn't bother about the situation.

    Band 6-7

    Although there are so many time I ever watched many kind of the wise children but here I would like to talk about the situation when I watched really stubborn children. Actually on that day I was on the way to give my interview and I was surprised when I watched the children fight to just a small candy and first of all I thought I should go toward them and made a clap on their face but after that I left the ideas and I converted that ideas into the full silence instead of I started to watch the videos of these stubborn children because two children are creating loud noise to take a candy and other children started to participate in this fight so that was really aggressive moment for them then suddenly I felt in my mind that children's parent is responsibility to teach them not only ethical values but also moral values so that's why I thought it was pampered because of their parents looseness in their discipline and it's either a parent's or teacher's responsibility to make them segregated individual
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