You should say:

• what it is
• when it happened
• how it affected you in your life

and explain why you still remember it

Follow-up Questions:

• Why childhood is important ?
• How did you spend your childhood?
• Who was your childhood hero? Did you want to be like him/her?

Sample Answer 1:

Childhood memories are strange things, because sometimes you can’t quite be sure if you really remember something, or if you just think you do because others have told you about it, or you have seen a photo of the event later on. I’m going to talk to you about a memory that I’m very confident is real. I’ll tell you what it is, when it happened, how it affected me and why I still remember it.

The memory is the earliest one I have of me and my Dad. I was very small indeed, I’m not exactly sure how old, but I’d guess about three years old, maybe even younger. My Dad was not a particularly tall or strong man, but I was small enough, and by comparison, he was big enough then, for me to stand with both my feet on one of his, and to reach up with my arms and cling onto his leg. I would then hang on and laugh delightedly as he tried to go about his daily business, walking around the house with me gripping on tightly refusing to be budged. It was a favourite game.

I don’t know that I can honestly say it affected me in my life. However, in my family we don’t really talk about things very much or do a lot together. We don’t live particularly close to one another so see each other rather infrequently. I suppose the way the incident affected me was by making me at a subconscious level feel close to my Dad even years later as we had shared that happy play time together when I was tiny.

I didn’t know I had held onto this memory until quite recently. Sadly my Dad died, he had been very ill for a long time, so it wasn’t unexpected, but of course it was very sad. I wanted to say something about him at his funeral, and I wanted to pick a memory that was personal just to him and to me. For some reason that image of me tiny and laughing and him solemnly ‘pretending’ that he hadn’t noticed I was there came into my mind and it seemed very appropriate somehow to share that one. It was a happy memory, but also an intimate one. I think he would have been really pleased that I could recall it so many decades later.

So why can I remember it? I’m not sure, but I like to think the memory was there dormant all the time just waiting for the moment when I needed to retrieve it. It is a comforting thing to recall. The human mind is an amazing thing!

[ Written by - Lucy Marris | Careers Adviser (UK), TEFL teacher (Vietnam) ]

Possible Answer 2:

I can still remember lots of thing I did in my childhood and things that happened when I was a child. Sometimes those memories seem so lucid that it seems those events occurred only few days back. Anyway, a childhood memory I can still remember so clearly is the first time when I saw massive death. I was a kid of class three or four then and one day I heard that there had been an accident near our home. My mother asked me whether I want to go or not. I went with her and speculated lots of thing about the accident but when I watched 10 dead people were kept lying in the ground and among them there were 2 kids too, I was devastated about the massive dead scene. I started feeling sick and started vomiting there. My mother took me back to our home and I was ill for about two days.

This memory was important to me because it helped me to think about the life in a different way. I could realize then what the dead is and how fragile our lives are. This memory helped me to grow faster and opened my eyes of vision.

Alternative Answer 3:

I was born in a beautiful urban area called ..... (say your birthplace name) and the place was full of magic and wonder. I spent my whole childhood there and the place is full with my childhood memories. Childhood, is perhaps, the most magical and beautiful time of our life and I cherish my childhood memory. The one particular memory of my childhood I would never forget is the time I first saw the devastating effect of accident. This event has a significant importance of my life.

Like most other newly school going kids, I wanted to be Superman or Spiderman. The life was full of dreams and fantasy. One day I was walking with my mom and heard from the neighbours that a severe accident has happened nearby. I was bit confused what was it all about. Finally I and mom reached at the place where the accident took place. We saw that people had made a crowd around the victims who were already dead. I observed the dead for the first time in my life. We did not stay there for a long. After returning home I felt sick. Later on I started realizing that our lives are fragile and are not eternal. We all will die someday no matter what we think we are. That event helped me growing up mentally. Not that I become pessimist from the event, but a realization always knocked me. I started changing some of my silly attitudes after the event. I started caring for my parents, relatives, known and unknown people. I learned that our days are numbered and we've to make best use of it. I was so deeply touched that I started praying everyday and became kind to insects and animals. Some people might think that the event was devastating for a kid, but to me, it revealed reality in front of me.

Tips for answering this cue card questions:

Start this cue card with a very brief of your childhood and how much you cherish your childhood. Mention that you have lots of childhood experience and you would like to talk about this particular one.

You can say one of the following positive experiences from your childhood:

1. First day you went to your school.
2. A major ceremony where many people came and you enjoyed it thoroughly.
3. The first exam in your life.
4. A new place you went to visit with your parents.
5. First day you went to a museum, art show.
6. First time you won a sports/ quick competition.
7. First day you came to stay at your school boarding and left home.
8. First time you were successful to swim, ride a bicycle, car.
9. An outstanding performance in arts, music or exam.

If you want to talk about some negative experience or memory of your childhood you can pick one of the following topics as well:

1. One of your close relatives died and you were very sad.
2. You had to watch a devastating incidence that you still can't forget.
3. Your first experience of sinking in water, hit by car, falling from a building etc.
4. Your fight with your neighbouring kids.
5. You had to leave your school and you felt very bad about that.

Similar cue card topics:

1. Describe something interesting you did in your childhood.
2. Talk about a bad experience you have from your childhood.
3. Describe your childhood.
4. Describe a typical day in your life when you a child.