SELF INTRODUCTION How to Introduce Yourself in English Tell Me About Yourself Interview Answer
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hello everyone and welcome back to
english with lucy today we are going to
talk about
self-introduction the answer to that
dreaded question
tell me about yourself now to some of
you
this topic may seem very basic
but learning to introduce yourself
properly
is incredibly important you might need
to introduce yourself
without any forewarning so you need to
be prepared
you may need to introduce yourself in
your english class
or in a job interview you might need to
introduce yourself
at a new job or at a new hobby or
leisure activity
you may even need to introduce yourself
at a big
event or convention in front of
thousands of people i feel very nervous
and anxious when i have to introduce
myself
to large groups of people and english is
my first language
for learners of english for my students
this is
incredibly intimidating in order to
successfully introduce yourself
you must have your self-introduction
pre-written
and learnt you have to be prepared
in this video i am going to guide you
through this process
at the end of this lesson you will have
a complete
self-introduction that is ready to use
and ready for you to learn
off by heart i encourage you to share
your introductions
in the comment section down below so
that the community and i may assist you
and correct you before we get started
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right let’s get on with the lesson
so let’s start with the basics of a
self-introduction
the very first thing that you’ll need to
say when introducing yourself
is a greeting now you can have formal
greetings or you can have
informal greetings it depends where you
are
the situation you are in let’s start
with formal greetings
obviously hello hello can be
both formal and informal but it’s fine
to use it in a formal situation
you also have good morning good
afternoon
and good evening make sure you pay
particular attention to what time of day
it is
i have said good morning in the evening
and good evening in the morning before
one thing to note is the use of good day
in british english
good day is considered very
old-fashioned
very very very formal it’s not commonly
used
however it is very common in australian
english
they kind of shorten it down to g’day
g’day and i would say that
good a i wonder what emma from english
will think
of me saying goodbye will she approve
i’ll ask her
but g’day is more informal but this
again is if you’re in australia it’s
just something i’ve noticed
people using in my comments section good
day
um i can see why you would use it it
appears to be a greeting
that is suitable for all hours of the
day when in reality in british english
it’s just a very very
old-fashioned saying also note that good
night
is normally a send-off an equivalent for
goodbye
you say it when you are leaving instead
of when you are greeting someone
if you’re introducing yourself in the
night time you would say
good evening now let’s talk about
informal greetings
it’s really important for you to find
one that you feel
comfortable with there are lots of
informal greetings
like hey what’s up hi
hiya yo
there’s even what’s good which is quite
an american one
honestly if i said yo
when i was introducing myself in an
english class or in a
less formal situation i would feel
really stupid
because it doesn’t suit me my particular
region
doesn’t use yo so it feels a bit forced
i really admire people who can just
stand up and say yo what’s good
but it’s not going to happen for me so
make sure you pick one that you feel
really comfortable saying
next of course we have your name
now there are many ways of introducing
your name the very basic ones like
i’m or i am i’m lucy i
am lucy or if you’re introducing
yourself
in a situation where the majority of the
audience
cannot see you for example on the
telephone
no one can really see you when you’re
speaking on the telephone you can say
my name is or my names with the
apostrophe s the contracted form
or if you’re in a very large auditorium
or convention center then you might want
to use
this is this is lucy on the telephone i
would normally say hi this is lucy
speaking
or this is lucy next let’s talk about
location where you’re from and where
you’re living there are many variations
of this i’m going to start with the most
basic
and move on to slightly more complicated
ways
of describing your geographical location
firstly we have i’m from and then the
place name
i’m from bedfordshire we also have i’m
and then the nationality objective i’m
british
i’m english if you are from somewhere
that is quite far
from the place where you’re introducing
yourself
you can say i come from and then you can
name that place
come from implies a little bit more of a
journey
if you want to say where you grew up you
can say
i was born and raised in place name
i was born and raised in england if you
were born in one place
but grew up in a different place you can
say
i was born in france but raised in
sweden
if you want to say that you are from one
place
but are now living in another place
there are various
options you can say i grew up in
i grew up in l.a but now live in new
york
i’m originally from edinburgh but i’m
now based in london
if you want to say how long you have
lived in a certain place
you can say i’ve been living in london
for three years
or i’ve spent the past few years in
paris
now those are the basics let’s talk
about some other options that you can
add
to your self-introduction a very
important option
is your position and your company for
example
i work at google in the marketing
department
you can say i work at or i work for
you would not say i work in and then a
company name
it’s at or for a company name you can
also say
i’m a manager at starbucks
i’m a position at company
again the at can also be replaced with a
four
if you just want to give a general idea
of the field in which you work
you can say i work in general area
i work in sales if you want to give the
specific
position you can say i work as a deputy
manager
i work as an accountant i work as an
accountant
you might also want to mention your
qualifications especially if you are
introducing yourself in a job interview
if you want to say that you are close
to graduation you can say i’m about to
graduate
you could also say i am a subject
graduate or postgraduate
i’m a marketing graduate i have a
bachelor of arts degree
in marketing or i have a ba degree in
marketing
or just a ba in marketing i’m a biology
postgrad
shortening it down to grad is more
informal so it might be something that
you do at a convention
or in your english class if you want to
talk about courses or other achievements
you can say i’m currently taking a
course in
subject maths now note the preposition
in versus on you can take a course
in something theoretical like
maths you can take a course on
something practical like jewelry making
or pottery
you can also remove the preposition i’m
taking a pottery course
if you want to say that you’ve finished
a course it’s now on your cv
you can say i have completed a 72-hour
course
in or on subject
for the time scale of the course you can
say the number
dash and then the unit of time and that
together forms an
adjective a 72-hour subject
course a three-day subject
course now if you want to talk about
experience
about your previous jobs you can say
i have number years of experience
in the field i have three years of
experience
in the neuroscience field at
whichever company you don’t necessarily
have to say field you can say
i have 10 years of sales experience or i
have 10 years of experience in sales
you can also say i’ve worked in field
for however long you’ve worked there
i’ve worked in the accounting field for
three years
or i’ve worked in accounting for three
years
now if you’re in a more informal
situation one in which you’re
introducing yourself
to make friends and to meet people and
to get to know each other better
you may want to talk about your family
now obviously there are the normal
things like i have a brother
i have a sister i have a mum and a dad
but what if you want to give a little
bit more information and also
show off your language skills one common
mistake i hear my students make
is when they’re trying to talk about how
large or how small their family is
they want to tell me how many family
members there are
in their family i often hear them say
we are five in our family this isn’t
correct in english
in english we say i’m from
a family of number i’m
from a family of four or we
are a family of four that’s a really
important one for you to remember
it’s a mistake i hear very frequently
if you want to talk about how many
brothers or sisters you have
you can say i am one of four siblings
siblings doesn’t specify the gender so
you don’t have to say
two brothers one sister you can just say
siblings
three i’m one of four siblings
or even if you’re already talking about
families you can just say
i’m one of four and they’ll understand
you if you have no brothers or sisters
you can say i am an only child i’m an
only child
you might want to talk about hobbies you
have all the usual phrases
like i really like running i really
enjoy
tennis a really good phrase i think is
i’m a big fan of i’m a big fan of
go-karting you can also say i am a keen
and then a noun for example i’m a keen
runner or i’m a keen tennis player
now i’ve left this one till last because
really it really isn’t as necessary
anymore
but it’s important that you know how to
say it it’s age
we have the basic one i am 25 years old
we can shorten it down i’m 25.
if you don’t want to specify your age
you can say
i’m in my early mid or late
and then your decade twenties thirties
forties fifties teens as well if you’re
really young
i’m in my mid-twenties she’s in her
early teens
he’s in his late forties you might also
hear people say
she’s a twenty-something marketing
graduate
or he’s a thirty-something accountant
that’s if you don’t know their age or
you think it would be rude to try and
guess their age
now the last point in this vocabulary
section of the lesson
i want to talk to you about the dreaded
fun fact
i’ve been to a lot of events i’ve been
to a lot of conventions
and i’ve had to introduce myself in a
lot of english classes
and something that teachers and speakers
love to ask you to do is give a fun
fact about yourself i must admit
i have asked my students to provide a
fun fact about themselves
it’s annoying because you have to stand
up and say my name is i know my job is
and my fun fact is
and that can be really really daunting
intimidating
to suddenly think of an interesting fact
about yourself
is really really hard so i highly
recommend that you have
a fun fact up your sleeve a fun fact
prepared think about an interesting fear
a weird like or dislike a good one is
always your pet
or a strange achievement or
extraordinary
experience i always say that i have
hypermobility
and then i’ll just show them my thumbs
or dislocate my shoulder blade that is
twice in a month i’ve done that on
youtube i need to calm
down have a think if you want to do
bonus
homework share your fun fact about
yourself but this is optional
i know how horrible the fun fact can be
now i’ve given you loads of different
options
i’ve given you the basics and then you
can add on the options
but you’ll be left with a lot of short
sentences
let’s see how mine would look good
morning everyone
my name is lucy i am 24 years old
i am from bedfordshire i work as an
english teacher
i am a marketing graduate i’m a big fan
of running and fitness classes
now whilst all of that is grammatically
correct and very clear
if i do say so myself i think it would
be a lot better
if i condensed these seven sentences
down into
two flowing sentences what do you think
of this
good morning everyone my name is lucy
and i’m a 25 year old marketing graduate
from bedfordshere
i now work as an english teacher and i’m
a big fan of running and fitness classes
so much better so much shorter so much
more natural
see if you can condense your
introduction down to two
flowing sentences minus the greeting
that could be a little sentence on its
own
i haven’t removed any of the information
right i really look forward to reading
all of your introductions
and your fun facts if you choose to do
so
feel free to correct each other and help
each other i will also be looking at the
first comments
and i’ll look at a handful throughout
the week as well when i can
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