arrow back icon Top Answers

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.

    bulb icon

    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.

    bulb icon

    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.

    bulb icon

    Tip

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

    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

    The thing that shocked me the most was once when I was going to buy some groceries in my town, at that time, in the city center, I saw some kids harassing an old woman. They were hitting stones on the women and trying to tear off her clothes and were misbehaving with the old women and I thought that someone's going to do something to those children or move them away from the old women but after purchasing my groceries, when I had back to my home, at that time, I saw that the old women were still getting harassed and none of the people that were present there was doing anything to save the old women. That broke me down from inside and since then, I thought that this society is very cruel. This outside world is a very cruel place and I helped the old lady and sent her to the place she was going and the groceries that she was taking home were dropped off, were taken by those kids. So I took that grocery from them and the grocery that was remaining with those kids, I gave it to the old women and took her back to her home and told her kids. She had two kids. One of them was a shopkeeper and one was a middle-aged person who was autistic. So

    Band 6-7

    There was an uneventful thing that I observed while I was driving to my workplace. On the way, I always come across a bridge and I think that was an afternoon time and so some school students were going towards their home from the school and I observed that few of them were throwing some snacks wrappers, chocolate wrappers into the river and since it was a lot of traffic, I had parked my vehicle to a side to clear the traffic and so I got a chance to observe those kids properly and they were throwing this garbage in river and nobody really cared. People just ignored their actions and nobody interrupted them or asked them not to do so. Looking at all this, I felt really disappointed on how the society is nourishing the young generation. I mean, after all, children learn from their parents or they learn from their teachers, they learn from the elders, they observe the elders and if we are only going to behave like this, reluctant, we are going to ignore things and not going to correct them, then I don't know how the next generation is going to move ahead and I doubt with what values are they going to take up our country or our world ahead and this puts me in a very deep

    Band 6-7

    Actually, everyone has the habit of doing good and bad things. In the childhood, the parents educate the children. I think that it is more important to behave with the children in a public place. So, it means to their status and everything. I also had a behavioral change in this child in the public. So, today I would like to talk about that. Recently, my mother and I went for shopping. It was near to my house. It was a supermarket. In the supermarket, one boy stole some toys and destroyed other things also. The parents were there, but the child behaved like that. So, the other shop members and other people in the public were restless and irritable. After that, I think that what behavior the child has. The behavior of the child destroys everyone's moods. So, I feel that very pretty and very uneasy. At that time, I realized that every child has their own skills or their own experience throughout the life. So, in the beginning, the parents want to teach.

    Band 6-7

    It was one afternoon I was coming from school and I was passing by the cloth point where I saw two children by the age of five or six and they were smoking there. When I looked around I realized that even some adult people were there but they were not saying anything to them. It seems as if it was something that was normal or they it was cool with them but personally it didn't sit well with me. I really wished that I could discipline them but I couldn't do that because we are not related with those children so I just left the situation as it was.

    Band 6-7

    Recently, I went for a marriage in the neighborhood. It was one of my friend's marriage. There were a lot of people of different age groups from old individuals to small young children. That is where I noticed one child was being really restless and impatient about something. Suddenly he started screaming at the people who have gathered on the stage, was screaming at his parents, yelling at the fellow children around him. Nobody knew what the issue was. When we asked him, he wanted to change a particular song and he wanted to put something that he was fond of. I think children these days are really pathetic and they do not care about what the surrounding is even if it is a public or a private zone. Even the parents are not able to control their own kids.

    Band 6-7

    A time that I saw children misbehave badly was 7 years ago in my native place Mandia. At that time I was on my way to my home where I saw a bunch of children misbehaving with girls. What I initially did was I scared them away and after several minutes they came back. And after that I told them I would call the police. Even then they even tried to hit me. I stopped them. While this was going on there were many many people who passed by. And what was surprising was none of them pointed it out. And what I did was finally I called the police. I made aware of the situation. And later I felt really bad because those kids were immature and they were unaware of what they did. And I think parents should be more responsible about raising their children.

    Band 6-7

    So, I can think of this one time when I was travelling by metro, I was going to my college and a child was travelling with his mother and out of nowhere, he starts to throw a tantrum. In the middle of the metro, he lies down and he starts to cry and he's wailing and his mother is trying to console him and everyone is looking at him. So, that really distracted everyone in the metro and I felt really uneasy. I felt very nervous watching that because the child was crying very badly. It felt like he was in pain but then when we asked the mother what was it that was bothering the child, she said that he wanted a packet of chips. So that was the whole reason why he was throwing a tantrum because he wanted a packet of chips that his mother wasn't ready to offer him. But yeah, this basically made me feel that these days parents are very, very lethargic with their kids, they don't discipline them enough, especially when it comes to social and public places and I think it's a necessity to actually teach your kids how to behave when they're out with others.

    Band 6-7

    So, there was this one moment when I was in Goa and I had visited a park and I was just sitting there reading a book while all of a sudden I heard few kids playing in the park and there was this one small boy who was stealing this girl's toys and not giving it back to her and so the girl was crying. Knowing this, the mother was quite mad and went to the boy's mother and complained saying that he took away her toys and he's not letting her play with it, he is hitting her with toys and basically they're not playing. He's just taking everything and hitting her with it which was actually bothering the mother to which the boy's mother told her that they are just kids, they will act out like this, it's not a big deal but my opinion on this topic is that even though they are kids, you can't let them do whatever they want to do just because they are small and can't understand you. They have a little bit of understanding which you need to help make them understand and whatever they are doing is not right because the girl was really sad and it just isn't right because the boy is basically being spoiled. His mother needs to let him know that at least play with the girl and then share your toys, don't steal a toy and play with it on your own.

    Band 6-7

    Recently I visited a very famous mall in my city with my family and we were just window shopping there and looking at the few things here and there and there I saw a child with his parents who was behaving very strangely according to me like he was just crying and shouting and lying on the floor because he wanted a toy from the toy store Hemleys and his parents were not ready to buy it as it was not worth it and it was kinda expensive. So he was so ardent and behaving so childish the people around them on that floor were also seeming very disturbed because of him because of them particularly and it was not a very pleasant experience for me. I believe that the children should be taught how to behave in a well mannered way especially when they are in public so that not even the parents get embraced themselves and not even the public around them should feel disturbed.

    Band 6-7

    Well, the last time I saw a child behave badly in public was not much long, it was about one month ago, when I was visiting a mall nearby, Gaur city mall. Well, at the mall, the child was crying for a toy he wanted to buy really bad. He was actually blackmailing, emotionally blackmailing his parents and trapping them into purchasing something that would be broken or lost after two days of use. People around there were pretty annoyed with the child, disturbing the atmosphere there. People went there to have a good time, but when the child started crying and sobbing in the aisles of the store, people were pretty irritated by their presence. Personally, I felt bad for the parents and the child as well, because children are to be toughened up and nurtured into understanding what's right and what's wrong. And for the parents, because parents were helpless, they let their child into giving him so much authority so he could capture their trail of thoughts and tell them what he wants and get those things at last. So I guess parents have to work on improving their child.
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
    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