IELTS SPEAKING | Moving Away From Home

IELTS CUE CARD QUESTION & ANSWER - Talk about a person you know who has moved away from home. You should say: who the person is, why they moved, where they moved to, and say how you felt about them moving away.

There are many possible ways to answer this type of IELTS question. Moving away from home could refer to someone who has moved to another country permanently (as in this example) or temporarily, maybe studying or working overseas for a six-month contract or something similar or a family member, friend who has moved away to another city or part of the country, away from their home, for some reason.

This might include a sister/brother/friend, etc, who has moved to another part of the country to work, live, study, or serve in the military for example. As long as they are no longer living at home you can easily talk about the move, why they left, where they went, and how you felt about it.

You could even talk about yourself and your own experience of moving away from home.

EXAMPLE ANSWER:
My best friend moved away from home about six months ago. She went to live and work in the USA. We had been friends since elementary school and always lived near to each other as we were growing up. We went to school together and shared a lot of childhood memories.

After graduating from high school we both attended different universities; the first time we had not gone to the same place, and it was strange, but at least we still lived close by and saw each other regularly.

However, I knew that my friend had always wanted to live abroad, so it was no big surprise when she announced that she had started the immigration process to go to the USA. I was sad when she told me but happy for her because I knew how important it was for her, it was her dream.

We knew that one day soon she would probably be leaving and that things between us would change quite a lot as we would no longer be able to share the same experiences and spend time together like we had always done in the past.

She’s been away from home now for about six months and although we stay in touch, it’s not the same. I really miss her, but I know she’s happy there and it sounds like she is really enjoying her new life in the USA, so that makes me happy.

She managed to get accepted for a position as a research assistant in UCLA, so of course we were both very excited as it’s a tremendous opportunity for her to advance her professional career. She’s coming home for Christmas this year, so I’ll be looking forward to catching up with her and finding out all about what she’s been doing since we last saw each other.

Hopefully, next year I’m going to plan a vacation to go and visit her there in the summer and she can show me around where she lives and we can spend some time together again, just like old times.

Although I was sad when she left and the first few months felt strange without her being around, I’m super happy that she’s achieved her dream of going to the USA and that she’s enjoying it so much.

I know that even though we’re thousands of miles apart – we’ll always be good friends, even if we don’t see each other every day or spend as much time together as we used to do in the past.

Good luck with your IELTS Speaking Test!