One traditional celebration that I remember particularly well was a New Year's celebration with my extended family. It was a special occasion because several relatives who lived in different cities came together, so it was one of the few opportunities we had to spend time with everyone in the family. The celebration involved a large traditional meal, music, and several customs that had been passed down from older generations. Before dinner, everyone helped prepare the food, and later in the evening, we gathered together to share stories and talk about our hopes and goals for the coming year. What I enjoyed most was listening to my older relatives explain the meaning behind some of the traditions, because it gave me a deeper appreciation for my cultural background. I still remember the celebration because it was much more than simply a party or a family dinner. It brought different generations together and reminded me of the importance of preserving traditions while adapting to modern life. Looking back, I felt a strong sense of connection, both to my family and to my cultural heritage.
Speaking Task 2: Talking About a Personal Experience
Speaking Task 2: Talking About a Personal Experience belongs to the Speaking component of CELPIP. The task gives you 30 seconds to prepare and 60 seconds to speak. Responses are rated on 4 areas: Content / Coherence, Vocabulary, Listenability, Task Fulfillment.
- Preparation
- 30 seconds
- Speaking time
- 60 seconds
- Prompts here
- 23 published
Place it, tell it, say why it stayed
Our method for this task — study advice, not an official rule.
- 1
Place the listener quickly
When it was, where you were, who was with you — one sentence, then move on. Answers that skip this leave the listener guessing for the rest of the minute.
- 2
Tell one event from start to finish, in the past
Pick a single experience and follow it through in order. Keeping the past tense steady while you narrate is part of how clearly you come across.
- 3
Keep your last sentences for what it meant
Prompts in this task usually ask why the experience mattered. Answers that spend the time on background never get there; stronger ones leave room for it.
One experience, told all the way through.
A second story started to fill time costs more in coherence than it adds in content.
These entries give you the storytelling toolkit for a personal experience: time linkers that move a story forward, feeling words that go beyond happy and sad, and phrases for reflecting on what an event taught you. Every example is set in ordinary Canadian life.
Think of a story as three beats: what was happening, what went wrong or changed, and how it ended. Choose one time linker and one feeling word for each beat during your preparation, then finish with a single sentence that looks back on the event. Keep your verbs in the past tense throughout.
- Three parts are asked for — what it was, what happened, why it stayed with you. The third is the one candidates drop.
- Name the occasion in one sentence and spend the time on what actually happened during it.
- One or two customs described properly beat a list of everything that took place.
- Close on why it was memorable to YOU, not on why the tradition matters in general.
- 1Switching to another story when the first one runs out early.
- 2Drifting from past into present tense halfway through the story.
- 3Spending the time on background and never reaching the point of the experience.
- Content / Coherence
- How relevant, developed and well organised your ideas are.
- Vocabulary
- How varied and precise your words are while you speak in real time.
- Listenability
- How easily a listener can follow you: sentence control, flow, pace, and how often you pause or fill silence.
- Task Fulfillment
- Whether you answered what the prompt actually asked, and all of it.
One strong response to this prompt, written for our own question bank to show a way through it. It is not a Paragon answer and not an official benchmark; a real response is judged on the four areas listed above.
Try one yourself, under the clock
Reading a good answer is not the same as producing one. Write or record your own answer and get an estimated CLB level on each rating area, with the lines that decided it.
Start with a free account
Practise on questions built like the real test, have your Writing and Speaking marked by AI, and see how far you are from the CLB you need.
Create your free account →- What does Speaking Task 2 ask me to do?
- Its official name on Paragon's test-format page is Talking about a Personal Experience. For example, an {brand} practice prompt might ask you to describe a time you helped a neighbour or a day that did not go as planned. Paragon encourages drawing on your own experience, so a real memory usually gives you more detail to talk about.
- Can I plan my story before I start speaking?
- Yes. Paragon's Speaking advice refers to the preparation time you get before each response. Use it to choose one specific event, not a general habit, and to note a few time linkers such as at first, just as and in the end so your story flows in order.
- Why focus on feeling words and linkers?
- Vocabulary is one of the four areas Paragon lists for rating Speaking, alongside Content/Coherence, Listenability and Task Fulfillment. Precise feeling words like delighted or overwhelmed widen your range, and time linkers help a listener follow the order of events. The CLB tags on each entry are our own estimates, meant to help you prioritize.
- ·Getting Lost in an Unfamiliar Place
- ·Help from a Stranger
- ·A Surprising Coincidence
- ·Achieving an Important Goal
- ·When Plans Suddenly Changed
- ·Something Unusual in Public
- ·A Fundraising Event
- ·The Best Movie You Have Ever Seen
- ·A Teacher You Remember
- ·A Memorable Trip to a Foreign Country
- ·Learning Something Unexpected
- ·A Memorable Family Celebration
- ·Helping a Stranger
- ·A Memorable Trip
- ·A Memorable Day at Work
- ·A Surprise at a Restaurant
- ·A Memorable Live Concert
- ·A Time You Felt Proud of Yourself
- ·An Unexpected Positive Experience
- ·An Important Decision
- ·Trying Something for the First Time
- ·A Meaningful Gift