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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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    Anonymous student Band 6.5

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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

    Once upon a time, I visited a supermarket. In that market, I saw a kid making noise and making trouble for his mother. The reason being, he wanted to buy a toy but his mother isn't allowing him to buy that because that isn't in their price range. But he keeps on making noise, he keeps on giving trouble to his mother. People around him were disturbed by him. Some people were laughing, some people were thinking, what do we say, it's trouble to have kids and so on. It's one of the times when I thought children have behaved badly in public. This is a place where people need to do their own work.

    Band 6-7

    Recently, I saw some children behave badly in public at a local restaurant. The restaurant serves simple Indian meals and it's quite famous for having a scrumptious lunch. But the children were throwing a fit saying that they want pizza and they don't want to eat the simple food at the restaurant. They were wasting the food as well as crying, disturbing people sitting around them. The others were quite disturbed and gave angry looks towards the parents and they overall disturbed the atmosphere of the restaurant. The parents looked ashamed but they did not know how to control their children. What I felt in that situation was complex. I have a younger sister and I know how difficult it is to manage younger kids. But I also felt that it is the responsibility of parents to educate and school the children properly so that they don't create such a situation in public. Children behaving badly is a reflection of the parenting more than how they are as people.

    Band 6-7

    I believe that children's are carefree creatures who don't think about their surrounding and it is difficult to control their behavior. Today I would like to talk about a time when I saw some children behave aggressively in public. Actually it happened about two months ago that I went for shopping in an Alante mall Chandigarh. My cousin and I went for food court because we were starving and while we were sitting there I noticed that there were few children who were randomly walking between the chairs. At first it seemed harmless but eventually I noticed that they were throwing papers all around and once there was a person who was trying who just who was just about to sit on the chair and they immediately pulled the chair. I think this behavior was aggressive and rude and they need to show some behavior. I was shocked that the parents were just sitting unaware of their surrounding and about their children. They were not trying to control them. Then a security guard came in and he asked the parents to take care of their children and luckily they agreed to do so and they calmed down their children. At that time I felt so disappointed that it was not children's fault but parents that they don't teach their children some basic manners that that how they have to behave in public. So all in all this was the time when I saw children behave badly in public and I felt down in the dumps because of that incident.

    Band 6-7

    I think seeing a child misbehave in public is not a very rare occurrence. It has happened so many times that I have been to supermarkets or shopping malls and I have seen children reacting very loudly or very badly to situations. Like very recently I went to a shopping mall with one of my friends and there was a child who really wanted to buy a candy and their parents promised them to buy it later because they shouldn't be having a lot of candy and they just had a candy today. The child literally lied down on the floor and started crying. It started making a scene and the parents got very pissed and they started shouting at the child and the child got even more aggressive after the response the child got from the parents and started hitting the parents and rolling on the floor and crying and running around which was very very disturbing to see. It created a lot of ruckus around and people gathered around because no one knew how to react. Nobody wanted to interfere in their personal situation at the same time. It was very very difficult to watch and it was not something you can just walk by. So that was very disturbing overall.

    Band 6-7

    One time I saw children play football on the street. I don't think they were behaving according to proper civic sense. They could have gotten hurt or worse yet hurt somebody else. They were playing football and shouting really loud while playing football. It was causing ruckus on the streets, blocking vehicles and possibly damaging other vehicles parked nearby. I was driving by that road and I myself got distracted by their game. I had to slow down so that I don't hit anyone playing on the street. They saw my bike coming but they still did not make way for me which annoyed me a little bit. I saw other people also feeling similarly. Most people were getting disturbed by it. Some people had their vehicles parked nearby. The ball was denting their cars. I think these people knew these kids so they did not speak against it. But if I had my vehicle damaged by some random kids playing on the street, I would be disturbed by it. I believe other people were also disturbed but did not say anything because they wanted to be polite. However, I also think that sometimes some behavior should not be ignored. Children should not damage public or private property while playing. They should be responsible to find a safe space to play where nobody would get hurt. They should also be able to focus on the game while not worrying about hitting or damaging other people or their properties. That is how I felt about it. I did not say anything then but if I get a chance to revisit the situation, I will.

    Band 6-7

    So, I like to go for daily walk generally in the evening and in the park, children almost accompany their elders with them and one day, I was walking on the ground and I saw few children plucking flowers from the trees and when I saw them, I was pretty angry on them and they were not accompanied by any elder, there was one uncle sitting beside them, so he couldn't tolerate what they were doing, so he got up and told them that the advantages of plants and told them not to pluck that and he very calmly handled the situation, he calmly told every child to not do it because and he also listed many harmful effects of it that they are destroying the beauty of the park, they are in and he explained them very politely and sensibly and to my surprise, children also respected him a lot and listened to him quietly and they understand him, so according to me, I think I learnt that they was that when you try to tell someone strictly, they are not able to take that in the right way but when you handle the situations calmly, that time I think children also tend to understand you more nicely and they try to understand your opinion and children then apologise to all of us who were present there and they promised that they would not do that again, so the one thing that I really learnt was that if you handle some situations with calm mind and calmly with proper understanding, so I think you can make anybody learn something new and also you can be.

    Band 6-7

    Sometimes, due to the lack of moral values and feeling of prosperity and dignity in oneself, people start behaving rudely with others. Moreover, the aggression especially among the teenagers and the children that they show is quite an exaggerating thing, which is not tolerated at all. So, when it comes to me, I had an experience where I saw children behaving rudely with their mother in the public, in front of everyone, despite of knowing that it is a public place, they were still behaving very badly. It was a time I was in the grocery store and in order to buy some non-necessary things for my home, I was just continuing shopping, but I just got amazed by watching the behavior of a group of three children, their mother, as their mother was poor, so even after knowing the fact, they were just using rubbish language with their mother and moreover, they were throwing the things of the grocery store here and there, as their mother denied to buy chocolates for them. So, by seeing their behavior, I was just very furious and firstly, I wanted to just go and make them understand about the values that they should have, but then I realized that already their mother was suffering a lot and then she would also feel more embarrassed. So, after understanding this, all the people nearby me also started continuing with their work and although I felt bad for her, but I couldn't do anything, I just took a...

    Band 6-7

    Well, there's actually two instances of children behaving badly in public. First of these instances was when I went to a mall to go to a toy store to find a board game. I saw this little boy crying and asking his mother to get him an expensive toy and his mother kept saying no, I will not get you the toy. However, he persisted and she had to slap him and it was very embarrassing to notice that and I felt some second hand embarrassment as well. From this experience though, I really learned not to act like that. I was about 7 or 8 at that time and I've always been a quiet kid and I never do such things in public especially when I'm out with parents. The second instance was at a restaurant when a little girl was crying because she wanted some brownie and her parents looked like they couldn't afford it or they didn't want to buy it and they kept on saying no, we will not get you the brownie. However, she kept persisting as well but they ultimately had to get her the brownie so she would stop crying and embarrassing them. From this I learned that children shouldn't misbehave and it's the duty of their parents to look after them and teach them manners because lack of mannerisms is embarrassing and it gives out a very bad first impression.

    Band 6-7

    So yeah, this one time when I was in school, there was a huge fight between groups of children. This happened during my 10th final year examination. This fight was because of some crowd where one guy pushed another guy, they started badmouthing each other and it gradually led to a fight. So this happened in the morning on that day. After that fight, teachers came in between and resolved it there for that time. But after the examination, both of them had that ego which led to them calling their friends near the school. And when their friends arrived, it was a big scene where both the gangs started fighting with each other. The crowd was attracted because of this fight and the whole road was blocked. And this fight was finally resolved when the police arrived. So I think this was one of the bad behavior of children that I have seen in my life and I oppose this because it was unnecessary. The guy who pushed the other guy would have done it due to some, as I said before, it was crowded. He would have slipped or he could have done it unintentionally. So I believe it was not required to escalate that small fight into such a big quarrel. So yes, this is my opinion on it.

    Band 6-7

    So this incident was basically last month, on April 5th, while I was just travelling from home to meet my friend, and children from this part were just throwing up waters from a high store building which was falling all over the people. I noticed it from very far. Moreover, I stopped in a side because I didn't want to get wet in the water. Additionally, I also thought of going to that high store building and complaining to the authorities about the issue, but I kept quiet because the children were too small and they were just having fun in their own world. On the other hand, I also noticed that some students were throwing papers and small particles from the top which could hurt other people who were travelling below the store building. Even though they were too small children, no one was really planning to complain to the society or the complex members. They were just left alone and they were happily playing around. It was just like a piece of cake for them to throw water on people and imagine that even the people are having fun. But even though they didn't know that, people are facing troubles while they pour water on them. Moreover, it was a happy jolly moment for them, but for others it was a very hard time.
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