Describe a tradition your family keeps.
A card that works with something small — a Sunday meal, a New Year phone call, a particular dish — better than with a grand festival everyone describes.
The task card
Describe a tradition your family keeps.
You should say:
- what the tradition is
- when and how it started
- who takes part and what each person does
and explain why it matters to your family.
Now say it yourself
Record your own two minutes on this card and have it transcribed and marked against the Speaking criteria. Practising is free; the band estimate is part of Pro.
Record my answerHow long you have
- 1 minute
Preparation
The examiner hands you the card, paper and a pencil. Make notes — a few words per cue point, never sentences.
- 1–2 minutes
Your long turn
Speak until the examiner stops you at two minutes. Finishing early is the most common self-inflicted problem in Part 2.
- 1–2 questions
Rounding off
The examiner may ask one or two short follow-up questions, then moves straight into the Part 3 discussion on the same theme.
Part 2 takes three to four minutes in total. The whole Speaking test runs 11 to 14 minutes across three parts, and Part 3 that follows lasts four to five minutes.
How to approach this card
Small and specific beats large and generic: 'every first Saturday my grandmother makes the same lentil dish and everyone must come' is richer material than a national holiday.
Use the 'who does what' point to bring in two or three named roles — who cooks, who is always late, who tells the same story. That structure gives you a full minute of natural detail.
For why it matters, go one level deeper than 'it brings us together': it is the only time four generations sit at one table, or it is how a grandparent who has died is still present.
Ideas you can actually use
Three angles on this card. Pick the one closest to something real in your own life — invented material is what makes candidates hesitate at ninety seconds.
Small traditions beat large festivals
- A weekly meal, a Sunday phone call, who always sits where, a dish only one person makes
- A birthday ritual that is slightly absurd and has never been questioned
- Something that started as an accident and hardened into a rule
Assign the roles
- Who does what — the cook, the person who is always late, the one who makes the toast
- What happens if someone is missing, and whether it still counts
- How the roles have shifted as people have aged, moved, or died
Why it matters
- It is the only fixed point in a family that no longer lives near each other
- It transmits something — a language, a recipe, a story told the same way each time
- Concede that some people find it a chore; that honesty makes the answer credible
What your one minute of notes should look like
Not sentences — a few words per cue point. This is the level of detail sixty seconds actually buys you, and it is enough to speak from for two minutes.
- WHAT — Sunday breakfast, ~11am, always my aunt's flat
- STARTED — after my grandfather died, ~12 yrs ago, no decision made
- ROLES — aunt cooks / uncle late / cousins wash up / I make the tea
- WHY — only time all 9 of us are in one room; nothing is planned
Model answer
Speak your own answer first. Examiners are trained to spot memorised speeches and mark them down — use this to study structure, pacing and naturalness, never to recite.
Show the model answer
The tradition in my family is Sunday breakfast, which is a fairly unremarkable thing until you look at how rigid it has become. Eleven o'clock, my aunt's flat, every week, and it's run for about twelve years. What is interesting is that nobody started it. My grandfather died in the spring of that year and for a few weeks afterwards people were dropping in on my aunt because she had been the one caring for him. Somebody brought bread one Sunday. The following week two people came. And at some point — and no one can tell you when — it stopped being people checking on her and became a thing that simply happens, to the extent that you now have to give notice if you aren't coming. Everyone has a role, and none of them were assigned. My aunt cooks and refuses all help with the cooking specifically. My uncle arrives between twenty and forty minutes late every single week and has done for twelve years, which has stopped being annoying and become a joke. The younger cousins do the washing up, which they inherited when the older ones did. And I make the tea, which isn't a skilled position but is mine. Why does it matter? Because it's the only time all nine of us are in one room, and, more importantly, nothing is planned. There's no occasion, so there's no performance. At weddings and at Eid everyone is being a version of themselves. On a Sunday morning people are just tired and eating. I will be honest — there have been stretches where it felt like an obligation, particularly in my twenties when Sunday mornings were expensive. But I moved away for two years, and I missed it in a way I found genuinely surprising, and I haven't questioned it since.
Why this works: The origin story is the strongest part: a tradition that nobody decided to begin, traced back to a specific loss, which is far more memorable than 'we have always done it'. The roles section gives four people distinct behaviour, including a twelve-year running joke. The final bullet argues why an unremarkable ritual matters — no occasion, no performance — and then concedes that it once felt like a chore, which is the honesty that makes the whole answer believable.
Useful vocabulary for this topic
- it goes back to my grandparents' time
Simple way to give the tradition depth.
- everyone has their unofficial role
Warm, specific, and true of most family rituals.
- we keep it up even when it is inconvenient
Shows the tradition's real pull.
- a thread that connects the generations
Use once, at the end, not throughout.
The same phrases in a full sentence
A phrase list is only useful if you know how the words sit around it. Say each of these aloud once before you attempt the card.
- it has been going on for years
- “It has been going on for about twelve years and nobody remembers deciding to start it.”
- we all muck in
- “Everyone mucks in — one person cooks and the rest of us clear up.”
- to keep a tradition alive
- “My aunt is really the one keeping the tradition alive, and we all know it.”
- it is set in stone
- “The time is set in stone: eleven o'clock, and if you are late you eat what is left.”
Part 3 discussion
After your long turn the examiner moves into a four to five minute discussion on the same theme, working from two related discussion topics with about three questions each. The first stays close to your own experience; the second widens out. Answer with reasons and examples, not one-line replies.
Family traditions
Example questions
- 1What kinds of traditions do families keep in your country?
- 2How often do all the generations of a family meet?
- 3Why might some people not enjoy family occasions?
Traditions and change
Example questions
- 1Do you think family traditions are disappearing?
- 2How do traditions change when families move to another country?
- 3Should schools teach children about local traditions?
More on how this family of cards is discussed: People and relationships. Model answers for Part 3: Part 3 questions and answers.