Describe A Time When You Received Money As A Gift

IELTS Speaking Part 2: IELTS Cue Card

Describe a time when you received money as a gift.

You should say:

When did you receive it? 
What did you do with it? 
How did you feel about it?

Note: You will have to talk about the topic for one to two minutes. You have one minute to think about what you are going to say. You can make some notes to help you if you wish.

Model Answer 1:

Introduction:
Well, giving and receiving money is quite common in Indian culture. There are many occasions when I get money as a present. Today, I would like to talk about a time when I received money as a gift.

When did you receive it? 
I vividly remember, that last year there was my 18th birthday. My parents organised a grand night party at home and invited my kith and kin.

On that special day, I dressed up in a formal suit. Moreover, my house was decorated with lights and balloons because I love the decoration of lights.

Actually, my maternal uncle lives in Canada and luckily he came to India last year and attended my birthday party. On that day, I received many gifts from my near and dear ones.

My maternal uncle gave me 200 Canadian dollars as a present. Firstly, I refused to get that money but he told me that this is a token of love.

Honestly speaking, I was on top of the world after receiving Canadian dollars as a gift despite I had numerous other gifts.

What did you do with it? 
I used that money to buy a new laptop. Because my exams were around the corner. So, I had to make presentations.

How did you feel about it?
To be honest, that money proved quite fruitful for me.

Conclusion:
Overall, this was an occasion when I received lumpsum money as a gift.


Model Answer 2:

Introduction:

  • It always feels nice to give and receive gifts.
  • However, I normally, don’t like to receive money as a gift because my mother takes it from me and I never get to see that money again.
  • Today, I am going to talk about a time, when I actually got to spend the money I got as a gift.
  • In Indian culture, when we visit an elder relatives house for the first time, they give us money as a present.
  • It’s a tradition.
  • Recently, I visited my father’s cousin for the first time.
  • He used to live in the US, but he shifted back to India after his retirement last month.
  • He was very excited to see me and we had a wonderful time at this house.
  • When we were leaving, he handed me a small envelope with money.

When did you receive it? 

  • I expected it to be a small amount but it was actually 100 dollars.

How did you feel about it?

  • So, I was completely shocked.
  • At the same time, I was sad too because I knew I would never get to spend it.
  • My mother told me to return it, but my uncle refused to take it back.
  • I knew my mother was going to take it from me so before she could, I handed it to my grandma for safekeeping.
  • This is how I outwitted my mother, if I had given it to my mother, she would have told me that she spent it buying food for me and paying my electricity bills.

What did you do with it? 

  • Then after a few days, my phone broke and I had to buy a new one.
  • So, I used the money to buy myself a new Samsung phone.

Conclusion:

  • The first thing I did was to take a photograph of the phone and send it to my uncle along with a thank you note.

Model Answer 3:

Introduction:

  • Money as a gift is extremely popular in my country.
  • In fact, it can be called a tradition as well.
  • People usually gift money to each other during weddings, birthdays etc.
  • Today, I would like to talk about one such occasion (out of so many others), when I received money from someone instead of an actual gift item.
  • The occasion was my 18th birthday.
  • And as per Indian laws I became an adult on this day.
  • My parents gifted me a motorbike on my birthday as I was now eligible to drive a motor vehicle.
  • When my friends came to know about this, all of them wanted a party from me.
  • Unfortunately I did not have much savings at that time, to give a party to my friends.
  • But luckily my grandparents were visiting us during that time.
  • They had come to spend their winters with us.
  • I love my grandparents a lot, they are really humble and polite.
  • They always teach me a lot of good moral values and they love me a lot as well.
  • Since my grandparents are tool old, they could not go to the market to buy a gift for me.
  • Moreover they were not sure about what gift they should buy for me, which will make me happy.

When did you receive it? 

  • So they decided it was best to give me money as a gift, so that I can use it for buying anything I like.
  • Initially I refused to accept the money but then my parents said I should not say no to the elders as it would be a disrespect to them.
  • I then thanked my grandparents and they gave me their blessings as well.
  • I also told them that I had everything that I need but my friends were asking for a party so I will use that money for the purpose of celebrating my birthday.

What did you do with it?  and How did you feel about it?

  • My grandparents were happy that I was using the money to spend a good time and share happiness with my friends and not spending it alone on myself.
  • They wished me good luck for the party.
  • I had a great outdoor party with my friends.

Conclusion:

  • So, this was one of the occasions when I received money as a gift and I used it for celebrating with my friends.

IELTS Speaking Part 3 : Follow up Questions

Here some examples of follow up questions that you may asked during your speaking part 3 by examiner related to cue card “describe a time when you received money as a gift”.

1. Is it important for children to have a right attitude towards money?
Yes, it is very important for children to have the right attitude towards money. Children should learn the importance of money and saving it/not wasting it starting at an early age, so that this habit continues in the future when they start working and earning.

2. What do you think of the saying; love of money is the root of all evil?
I think this saying has a lot of truth in it. Love or obsession for money is not only the root cause of unhappiness, but also brings many other problems in a person’s life, like insecurity, not being able to trust others, unhappy family life, selfishness, etc.

3. Is it important to teach children how to manage their pocket money?
Yes, it is very important to teach children to manage their pocket money so that in their adult life they understand the value/importance of money, not waste it and are better at managing their finances in the future.

4. What kind of occasions require people to send money as gifts?
Occasions like birthdays, weddings, congratulating someone on the birth of a baby, and some other such occasions require people to send money as gifts, especially in the Indian culture.

5. In your country, do parents give children money for doing housework?
In my country, India, it is not very common for parents to give money to their children for housework. There maybe very few parents who do this and it is mostly considered as the children’s responsibility to help with the housework. In terms of money, children get pocket money for their daily/weekly/monthly expenses.


Credits

Photo by micheile dot com on Unsplash

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