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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 104 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 6-7

    So today I am going to talk about a time when I talked in a foreign language for the first time. So it was a time after my board exams, I was bored at home and I wanted to hang out somewhere. So I told my parents to went out somewhere. So we decided to go abroad. The name of the country is Kuwait where my father lived since 5 years. So we just visited there and it was very unique and different experience for me to talk with different people and also in different country. One day we just walked on a small road and I met with a stranger guy. He asked me about my qualification, about my culture. I told him about culture. It was so fascinating and he was feeling so glad to talk with me and I was flying over the sky. Firstly, when I started talking with him, I felt cold feet. But after that, after some conversations, we felt like friends and I gave my introduction in English which is my second language. So for that, it was not easy for me to mention everything. But at last, at the end of the day, I felt flying over the sky because I felt proud.

    Band 6-7

    India is a very diverse country. Many people live in this country. So, I live in there, but my uncle live in Canada. In 88, they went to Canada for higher studies. After completing the higher studies, they were shifted there. But after sometime, back to India. So, my uncle referred to me Canadian language in the first time. So, I think it is very valuable language for me because I want to shift in the UK because I am not like to hot weather. So, I prefer to dry weather and cold weather. So, I want to shift in Canada for my higher studies. So, I try to new activities for related my foreign language. So, it should provide me more knowledge about foreign language. I talk about Canadian language because I want to shift there. My uncle suggest me about few channels for speaking Canadian English. So, I try to some new activities.

    Band 6-7

    I don't remember talking to any foreigner in a foreign language in my entire life, but yeah I remember meeting a stranger who belonged from the overseas in a social networking app known as OmeTV which helps to connect people internationally and you can socialize with them, explore various mindsets, talking to people from various regions of the world. So yeah, coming back to the topic, first time in my life I talked in English with a stranger and I am sort of proud of it because in my past I used to fumble a lot and I used to have anxieties while speaking in public or to anybody especially in English, but for the first time in my life I was talking to somebody entirely in a foreign language for quite a long time I must say and I wasn't fumbling, I won't say that I wasn't fumbling but I was fumbling in not that much which I used to previously. So yeah, I think it has improved quite a lot.

    Band 6-7

    I was attending a seminar in a neighboring college where a German professor came to give a presentation on his recent research work and it was very, I was very curious about the topic and I wanted to learn more. So I did some research sitting there and I with my friend with whom I attended the seminar and after that I went outside the seminar hall and reached out to the professor who was talking to other professors and then I asked him if I could talk for a minute and he nodded and we talked about if I could get a PhD position in his lab.

    Band 6-7

    After my post-graduation, I've completed my Bachelor of Education and then I started as a teacher in a school. It was my first year teaching experience in a school, taking the classes for the students of 6th, 7th and 8th. I was with the students of 8th class for the first time. I've started taking my science lecture where I was able to teach the concepts in science but I couldn't talk to the students by the general conversation. In addition to that, the students have started telling me what kind of words to be used to improve my knowledge. They were talking about what are the words to be used in the future and past. It was my first experience. I have felt a little bit low confident but still I was able to manage by handling those students. Overall, that was my first experience where I was supposed to improve my English speaking skills. From then, I've started listening to the people who are speaking good. Even I used to listen to my students, how they were communicating with each other, what kind of advanced words they were using. I've noticed, started building my vocabulary. Slowly, I've started using the phrasal verbs overall.

    Band 6-7

    The first time when I spoke in a foreign language was when I was in Dibimbashi. It is a country in Central Africa that is the Democratic Republic of Congo. I was there in the year 2005. I was about 6 years at that time. So I remember the first time when I spoke in French was when I was in class. And I was asking a question to the teacher because I had a doubt regarding some of the content that she was teaching. I felt very proud because I was able to speak in a different language that was new to me. And I had learned it to the point that I could express my thoughts and I could convey what I wanted to as a teacher. And I was also confident enough to speak it out in public. So I naturally felt better after that and I started practicing my French speaking skills, the grammar and vocabulary. And I gradually got better, maybe more confident. I also started speaking to the locals nearby, made a few friends. And then I got my command of the language that was pretty good. I started liking the language. I felt like I could teach my cousins and show them that I have learned a new skill which made me feel even better about myself. And it made me overall a confident individual.

    Band 6-7

    It was a time when I was travelling in Delhi metro. I was coming from my work regarding college admissions when I saw a foreign couple coming in the metro and they were asking for a station for a help and there is no one to tell them. Then I entered in the conversation and helped them and speak with them in a foreign language. And I was with my younger brother and the experience was really good when I talked to the foreign couple who were just in our country. It really gives me a sense of proud to help in the country where no one is their own which gives me a sense of proud. And after helping them they were asking about a station where to go about the location. I told them you should go this way and they literally thanked me and just appreciated me a lot. This is after that appreciation in the metro it feels like everyone was looking at me and in their eyes I can see that everyone is happy and very proud for me that oh this guy helped them.

    Band 6-7

    So, I've never learned a foreign language and I've never spoken or had a conversation with anyone in any other language except for those that are, you know, culturally rooted in India. However, my sister is studying in PDU. She's doing her bachelor's degree and they have this flexible course structure where it allows her to study French. And very interestingly, she came home one day saying that, I've taken the subject, I'll be studying it and you will have to help me out with French. I said, I have never studied it so I do not know how to help you out but what I can do is, I can also learn it with you. That was just a promise which I made which I could not fulfill, sadly. So, at today's time, she is the one who knows a foreign language plus all the other languages that both of us commonly knew which was Kannada, Hindi, English, Marathi and Gujarati. So, when she talks in French with her friends, that is the moment when I start thinking that yes, foreign languages are important and if you have a prospect of going and working there in such countries, it's very important for you to understand the way those languages work. Every language has a different set of grammar, different nuances, a different social structure, I would say. Because the way they address people of different age groups, elderly people, young kids or you know their partners, it's very different in every language. In English, we call you to someone whom we are addressing but in Hindi, if you say, we call you which is a tone of respect for the elderly person. These nuances are not there in all the languages across the world but whenever you learn a foreign language, there would be some other substitute to this which we need to understand.

    Band 6-7

    Last year I had the chance to travel to Russia to meet some of my friends who were pursuing their MBBS studies there. During that time, after I landed in Moscow, I had to navigate to the nearest railway station where all my friends were waiting for me. For this I had to seek help from the local tourists and people around me. And the most challenging part was my limitations in Russian. I initiated broken conversations with my basic knowledge of language and tried to narrate them and ask for directions. People were very welcoming and some of them even laughed at the kind of accent and words I was using but it was sort of understandable and they were generous enough to offer help. At the end, the weather was very pleasant. I could not help but remember the scenic beauty of the beautiful city of Moscow and eventually one of the persons helped me to book a cab. I then talked to the cab driver briefly who dropped me close to my friends and hence the experience ended and the memory is beautiful.

    Band 6-7

    Actually I live in village, so everyone knows village people have their own native language. So in terms of when I first spoke in foreign language. So nowadays I currently work in a big MNC. So when I first interact with the client in that company, in my company, this was my first foreign language conversation ever. So my experience was quite good and good learning also. I speak with the client, I explain him about our project, what we do, what will we improve in the future and what we can provide you. So he explains I have a lack of foreign language skills, so he understood and he get understand my language by words like small breakable words. He understand how, he value not only my language, he value what, how I get present at my knowledge and about the company. So it was good thing about me like someone who has a good position, they don't have ego. He just value their knowledge, not only the language.
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