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Describe the time when you first talked in a foreign language: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • Where you were
  • Who you were with
  • What you talked about
  • And explain how you felt about it
Show all 122 answers

Cue 1:Where you were

  • Begin by describing the location where you first spoke in a foreign language, making it vivid and relatable.
  • Mention any specific details about the environment that made it memorable.

Example

I was at a language exchange event in my city, held at a local community center. The room was filled with people from different backgrounds, and there was a buzz of excitement in the air as everyone was eager to practice their language skills.

Cue 2:Who you were with

  • Introduce the person or people you were with during this experience.
  • Explain your relationship with them and why they were significant to this moment.

Example

I was paired with a native Spanish speaker named Carlos, who was also learning English. We were both nervous but excited to help each other improve our language skills.

Cue 3:What you talked about

  • Outline the main topics of conversation you had with the person.
  • Include any interesting or funny moments that occurred during your discussion.

Example

We talked about our favorite hobbies, food, and cultural differences. I remember laughing when Carlos tried to explain a traditional Spanish dish, and I struggled to pronounce it correctly.

Cue 4:And explain how you felt about it

  • Share your emotions during and after the conversation.
  • Reflect on how this experience impacted your confidence in speaking a foreign language.

Example

At first, I felt anxious and self-conscious about making mistakes. However, as we continued talking, I felt a sense of accomplishment and joy. It was liberating to express myself in a different language, and I left the event feeling more confident in my abilities.

Conclusion

    Example

    Overall, that experience was a turning point for me. It not only improved my language skills but also encouraged me to seek more opportunities to practice speaking in foreign languages. I realized that making mistakes is part of the learning process, and it made me more open to new experiences.

    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: Avoid Vague Responses

    Being vague can make your answer less engaging and informative. It may lead to a lack of detail that is crucial for a good score.

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    Tip

    Provide specific details about the location, people, and conversation to create a vivid picture for the examiner.

    2: Don't Overuse Simple Language

    Relying too much on simple words can limit your expression and fail to showcase your language skills. This may affect your fluency score.

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    Tip

    Incorporate a variety of vocabulary and sentence structures to demonstrate your language proficiency.

    Neglecting Emotional Impact

    Failing to express how you felt can make your answer less personal and relatable. Emotions add depth to your response.

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    Tip

    Share your feelings about the experience, such as excitement or nervousness, to connect better with the examiner.

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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
    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 >7

    The first time I talked in English was when I was around 5 or 6. I had just started my first grade and completed my kindergarten and I joined a new school which was completely English medium. My mother tongue was Telugu and Hindi and this was during school. It was my first year of school and the teacher had asked me which grade I was in and what was my name. At first I was shocked and I didn't understand what she was saying. I was kind of scared as well, confused even. And then I started understanding the words in my head and I spoke out loud. My name is Vaishnavi. I am from the first grade. The teacher smiled at me and that was my first experience talking in a foreign language. Growing up in my house, we always spoke Hindi or Telugu. I lived in a joint family and the major language we spoke was Telugu and learning English was quite a difficult task. But I seem to have overcome that. I seem to have overcome that challenge.

    Band 7

    Well, I would like to talk about the first time I had a proper conversation in French, which is not my mother tongue. This experience took place about three years ago when I was on a short trip to Paris with a couple of close friends. At that time, I had been learning French for about six months through online courses and language exchange apps. I wasn't fluent by any stretch of the imagination, but I had learned enough to hold a basic conversation. Like, you know, I have to beat the bullet and give it a try at some point, so I decided to take the plunge while ordering food at a small cafe near the Eiffel Tower. The waiter didn't speak much in English, so I had no choice but to switch gears and use my French. I started with a simple greeting, Bonjour, there was a cafe, I was to my surprise, he understood my language perfectly and responded with a smiley, even complimented my accent, which made me laugh. At first, I was nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs, afraid I'd say something wrong or embarrass myself, but as the conversation went on, I started to relax. I felt amazing to actually use what I had learned in a real-world setting, honestly, it was a turning point in my life, looking back, the moment was a real confidence booster, it not only helped improve my speaking skills, but also gave me the courage to keep pushing forward. All in all, it was a memorable milestone, also, I realized that making mistakes is just part of the process and also life, and the locals actually appreciate the effort. All in all, it was a memorable milestone for me and it really opened the door to the more immersive learning experience, so it was the amazing experience I have ever heard.

    Band 7

    Well, I was in school then and I studied in a Bengali medium school, but there was a spoken English class arranged for us specially so that we can be fluent enough in English. And there was a teacher who came from another institution of a language school. She actually defined a protocol in the class that all the students must speak in English and if we speak our native language, she said that she would not teach us anymore. So in the first class, she asked us to describe ourselves and what are our hobbies and what we love to do and whether we have any pets and what kind of relationships do we share with our parents and friends and everything regarding us. So that was the first time I remember I communicated her in an entirely foreign language without speaking a single word in my own mother tongue, my own native language. Yes, and that day I felt quite confident and quite happy because I spoke quite fluently in English and very confidently. So that was the memory I have, yes.

    Band 6-7

    The time when I first started talking in a foreign language was probably when I was in my school. I was taught English, Hindi and Telugu. Hindi and Telugu are very known languages to India, where I belong from, but English is a foreign language for all of us. I have started speaking in English since childhood, from my school years. I have developed really good communication skills since everyone around me in my school also speak in English. It's actually a really important language because all over the world everyone speaks in English and it's really helpful when we travel to other countries. It's like the main language which everybody is accustomed to. It's also very easy compared to other subjects. Speaking and writing in English is very easy compared to other subjects. There are various accents for English. I think I'm good with American accent as far as English is concerned. Other than English, I know Hindi, Telugu and Arabic language, which is something that I have taught.

    Band 6-7

    I have quite a bit of family members who are non-Indians and we do not speak the same language. One of my aunt's husband is of German nationality and he was here a couple of months ago for their engagement party. I was really excited to talk to him because for the last four months I've been learning German as a language. I've always wanted to learn a new language and German came along. The first time I told him that I'm learning German, he was really excited and that's when he said, okay let's test your skills. I was really nervous at first but then I gathered the courage to talk to him. He first asked me, what is your name? Then I could tell him what my name was and then he started asking me a few complex questions. In addition to that, he was asking me questions about my work life, do I like to travel, which started getting a little difficult for me. Somehow I was able to manage to answer him in simple and complex sentences but I lacked the knowledge of verbs and adjectives and the construction of the sentences was not that great. However, he was quite happy with my response in the end since I had managed to get a lot of information conveyed to him. He then started asking me about how my day was and that's where I started stumbling and I couldn't remember any word or any sentence and that's when he told me that he can also speak in English which he hadn't told me before. We had a good laugh about it and now he is like a friend of mine who I love practicing my German with. We usually practice German once or twice a week on video calls since he lives in Germany and I live here in India. He has also asked me to write a few things in German and send it to him for checking and corrections if any.

    Band 6-7

    So, I would like to talk about the first time I used German in a real conversation. It happened last year during an online interview for a master's program in Germany. I was in Roon in Mumbai and I was speaking in German to a professor who wanted to check my basic communication skills. At the beginning, he greeted me in German and asked me to introduce myself. So, I talked about my background in computer science and my interest in AI, artificial intelligence. Then he asked a few simple questions about my family, my hobbies and what I wanted to study in Germany. I remember struggling with a couple of words, with the grammar mistakes and he was very patient and sometimes he repeated the questions pretty slowly because I was not knowing, I was not having a command over the language. So, at first I got a little nervous because I was afraid of making mistakes and forgetting vocabulary. However, after a few minutes I relaxed and realized that he could understand most of what I was saying and when the interview finished, I felt proud of myself because it was the first time I had used German and German for such an important purpose. That experience really boosted my confidence and motivated me to keep improving my language skills. He also gave me a feedback at the end that I did a great session with her. The professor also let me know that you had a good command over the language. In a very less time, I provided a good command over that language which provided me with good results as well and it also provided me with multiple opportunities through that German language proficiency.

    Band 6-7

    So the first time I talked in a foreign language was when I was in France last year for 2 months on a vacation. I was there with my family and I was speaking French with the localites there. I found French to be a very interesting language because it had different pronunciations of different words which I had not experienced before and I was not fond of either. I felt that speaking in French made my understanding of the French language a little better. I understood words. I communicated there with people about various topics such as the local food items and local greetings that people greet each other with and overall it was a very great experience for me as I learned about the French culture, the French language and the French community. I inspire to learn French and I wish I could go to France again and improve my French.

    Band 6-7

    When I was studying my 10th in Dubai, I used to study German language. When one day me and my friend was talking about the foreign countries and languages, she asked me to speak in Deutsch. So, I spoke some of the German I studied. She was very excited to hear a new language from me. I also felt very proud of myself that I know to speak another language. It feels like we have the capability to study another language. It was very nice to talk. I also talked about a festival known as...

    Band 6-7

    Okay, so I remember after my grade 10, I had to attend different school which was not in my hometown. It was in a big city named as Lucknow. It is capital of my state Uttar Pradesh. I was very tense to be very honest initially and when I, you know, got to know that I have to speak in English, I was so embarrassed. I thought that I could not speak in front of them. They would be very fluent. I was very hesitant. But after sometime, I gained my confidence and I went to that school and I was with my father. My father was also there. He does not know English well. Basically, I talked with the main principal about why I want to take STEM in class 11th and 12th and I explained my situation that how I scored in class 10th, what activities I was involved into when I was in class, like extracurricular activities. First, I thought they found my accent little hysterical but at my, like I was so shocked that they did not find it, you know, hysterical. And they really praised me about my communication skill that how good and flourish my, you know, fluency and command over English is. And I was so happy.

    Band 6-7

    The first time when I talked in a foreign language was in 4th grade. I had Spanish as a part of my school curriculum for the first time. I was speaking with my teacher and we were using very basic vocabulary to help us really understand the language better and help strengthen our base in the language. The first time I ever managed to speak an entire paragraph, I felt really incredible because it made me feel like I could understand some of my favourite songs which were in Spanish at the time. I felt like I could have a much better time going to places like Spain or Mexico where these languages are spoken and I really wanted to speak with the locals there with this language.
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