How to Answer What Are Your Strengths and Weaknesses

all right ty everybody welcome back to

our weekly live stream my name is Alisha

and today we’re going to talk about how

to explain your strengths and weaknesses

so strengths means your strong points

weaknesses means you’re not strong

points your weak points so in this

lesson I’m going to talk about

expressions you can use for job and

school interviews to talk about your

skill sets and then at the end of the

lesson I’m going to talk about casual

expressions you can use just when you’re

talking with your friends or your family

about the things that you’re good at and

not so good at so I hope that lots of

people can find something interesting

from today’s lesson while we wait please

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lesson a couple of points one first

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people Miguel hi Carolina Khan hello I’m

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hi and Jorge and Russel pure hello sorry

if I said your name wrong okay sorry

but hi everybody thanks very much for

joining us live again this week yeah

some of you are saying you’re writing

from like locked down places I know

there are many people who are maybe

staying in their homes a lot right now

kind of a strange situation so I hope

that we can enjoy our time together

today I’m going to share the lesson

myself I’m going to share the lesson

myself and then I’m going to get started

we’re going to begin today’s lesson by

talking about your strengths so

strengths means your strong points the

things that you’re good at doing I’m

going to talk about weaknesses in part

two and then in part three we’ll talk

about just more casual expressions that

you can use Oh yogi I have shared the

video so I will be good all right so

let’s get started let’s begin over here

with part 1 for today send me your

messages in the chat I will try to check

live but sometimes there is a lot to

check so I can’t promise anything anyway

let’s get started strings first a very

basic strength phrase again strengths is

the stuff that you are good at doing so

when you are in a job interview or a

school interview it’s common to talk

about the things you are good at what

did you study what are your skills what

are the things that you know how to do

very well so a very simple expression

you can use to talk about a strength is

I’m good at mound phrase I’m good at

your preposition here should be at I’m

good at noun phrase some examples I’m

good at project plan

so projects planning two words this is a

noun phrase this is an activity so your

noun phrase should be some like maybe

activity or like a software perhaps I’m

good at project planning or I’m good at

social media marketing so what is your

skill I’m good at that thing a note you

might sometimes hear I’m good with

something this is used in like to talk

about maybes you might hear like

software I suppose used with wit like

I’m good with computers or something

like that I’m good with software but we

use this to talk about like groups of

people or we use it to talk about like

specific objects so I just said like I’m

good with computers that means maybe

like I have good technical skills or you

might hear people say I’m good with kids

that means I’m good working with kids so

when you hear this I’m good with think

about it like I’m good at dealing with

that thing or I’m good at dealing with

that kind of people I’m I’m good with

customers is another example so you

might hear people use with when they

want to talk about a specific group of

people or like a specific object that

they have some skill with but when

you’re talking about your skills in most

cases using at plus the noun phrase is

going to be the best

some examples are coming in ah Andrew

said a lot I’m the same one-minute time

so I’m good at cooking and I’m good at

baking hi okay so other examples son kid

says I’m good at learning math okay cool

that’s maybe a good one for your studies

uh hi everybody on Facebook I see lots

of people saying hello on Facebook

please send me your example sentences on

Facebook I will try to check them there

so again this pattern you can use this

to talk about your work or your studies

if you’re a student right now you can

use this to talk about the things you’re

good at in your in your schoolwork so

like I’m good at studying for tests

I’m good at preparing for tests whatever

that might be for you

rendell on YouTube says I’m good at

guitar nice

okay I don’t see anything else he says

I’m good at eating yeah me too

I am also good at eating but maybe don’t

say that in a job or a school interview

yeah so let’s kind of let’s try to think

of some like professional examples we

can use someone else has said I’m good

at sleeping that is maybe my greatest

skill sleeping oh my gosh mom and dad if

you’re watching it you know that’s true

okay let’s go to the next pattern which

is I like and infinitive or Jared so

many of you who have asked me questions

about infinitives and gerunds so

infinitive if you don’t know infinitive

this word infinitive refers to the two

plus a verb so like to cook to eat to

run to sleep that base form of the verb

the basic form of the verb is called the

infinitive form that’s the infinitive

form the gerund or a gerund is a verb

with an ING at the end so it’s verb plus

ing

but it’s not the progressive form so

like when we say I am sleeping or I am

cooking or whatever that’s the

progressive form of the verb when we use

the verb in the ing form as a noun a

gerund is a verb used as a noun this is

called a gerund so some examples of this

I like planning trips I like planning

trips planning here is like the gerund

form I like planning trips so I’ve used

this pattern infinitive or a gerund

because many of you have asked like

should I use the infinitive form should

I use like the ing form here what should

I use when you use the verb like you can

choose either both are fine this

question it depends on the verb that

comes before your infinitive or your

jaren with the verb like you can use

either the two verb or verb ing form so

I like planning trips or I like to plan

trips both are perfect both are correct

they have the same feeling

meaning you can choose which you prefer

another example I like working in a team

I like working in a team so again I’ve

used the gerund form I could say I like

to work in a team also totally correct

totally correct Kim says I like

listening to music yes so again this

pattern I have it here to introduce your

strengths so some of you are talking

about your hobbies yes you can use this

pattern to talk about your hobbies

that’s correct but this my intention

here my plan here is for you to talk

about your strengths so what do you like

to do at work what do you like to do at

school think about this in the context

like as if you were going to a job

interview so what do you like to do at

work I like working in a team or maybe I

like working alone or I like editing

video sometimes or I like teaching

things live on the internet so whatever

your work thing is you can express that

with I like to talk about your working

style that’s my intention here

everybody’s sending me sentences about

their hobbies so please send me

sentences about your work preferences

what are your work or your study

preferences you guys are being very

silly at which I can appreciate but I’m

not seeing many many sentences about

your work or your study styles Leah hey

Leah way to be a team player Leah I like

arranging files neatly yeah thanks Leah

can you please talk about Corona so we

can learn some expressions I’m thinking

about it I’m thinking about planning a

lesson for it I have it in my head yes

other examples don’t see any okay let’s

go to another example Byron has a nice

one nice I like working under pressure

good lovely says I like working very

fast and well good okay nice one Miguel

says I like making programs yeah okay

good you guys have got it you guys have

got it okay rubric examples okay let’s

go to this next one the next one is a

past tense expression for your topic of

study so if you have a university degree

bachelor’s degree master’s degree if you

have your PhD you can use this

expression to talk about your specialty

you are focused the thing that you spent

a lot of time studying and have become

good at doing so the verb here is I

specialized so past tense specialized I

specialized in is your preposition I

specialized in someone wrote

paleontology earlier I specialized in

economics I specialized in Japanese

language I specialized in topic of study

so you can send me now the for those of

you who have finished school past tense

I specialized in your topic of study if

you are in school now or if you are

maybe high school student you can use

the progressive test

I am specializing in or you can just say

I’m studying if you want to express

something you are doing in university

now you can say in university

my focus is is I was very weird like way

of delivering that in my university my

focus is thing you’re studying now or

past tense was something something

please however note my focus is or was

on your preposition changes in this

sentence my focus was on something

something or I specialized in something

something so please note that they are

there are different prepositions used in

these

tenses so please be careful examples uh

good examples are coming in hi on

youtube I specialized in systems okay I

specialized business get a specialized

in agriculture okay

I specialized in math education good I

specialized in accounting maybe hmm I

specialized in university okay so what

what was your topic of study in

university what was like your major the

thing that you focused on I’m

specializing in business law nice good

examples on Facebook I specialize in

public speaking says Sam very nice okay

good I specialize in English language

says hello cool I specialized in

accounting nice ones Edwin says when

should I use at university or in

university when you want to talk about

your location use at so like for example

now I am at the University so you can

talk about your physical location or you

can talk about like past tense like when

I was at my university I studied ba ba

ba some people will use in to talk about

their studies like in university I

studied something something something so

if you want to talk about your location

or the experience in your university

I’ve just used in use app to talk about

that if you want to use an expression

like when I was in university used in

depending on like a I’m like British

English or American English you might

hear people use different prepositions

there so I hope that that was helpful

for you good lots of examples coming in

now my gosh

Raj says I specialized in nature

photography whoo what’s that Karim says

I specialized in amphibian evolution

whoa that sounds cool that sounds cool

what’s gonna happen to salamanders next

Oh funny to me okay uh Mohammed on

Facebook says I specialized in medical

studying and medicine ah studying from

the Arabic

I specialized in medicine I specialized

in medicine cool you have all studied

very interesting things okay go

let’s move on into this last group so

it’s very common in interview situations

to give and I recommend this to give

examples to to support these ideas so if

you say I’m good at social media

marketing or I’m good at like working in

a team or whatever

give an example of that and this part is

true for your cover letters and for your

resumes if you don’t know when you apply

for a job it’s common to in many cases

submit a cut cover letter or a resume

and it’s like an introductory letter to

introduce yourself so it’s important to

use these kind of like powerful verbs in

your cover letters so don’t try to make

yourself sound small in your English

cover letters you need to make yourself

sound kind of big like this is what I

achieved so when you talk about your

strengths at work and you give examples

of these things you can use expressions

like I achieved so this is past tense of

achieve or I launched so launched sounds

like bigger than just I started or my

team developed like some of you are

programmers I know so like my team

developed this new app that was very

popular in the App Store something or I

created or I built so these really like

strong verbs are important these verbs

are much better than just I made like I

made it’s like it’s kind of a it’s a

less powerful word choice so choosing

something like I created or I’ve built

it’s a little bit more powerful has some

more punch so please keep this in mind

okay that’s part one let’s take a break

I don’t see okay some of you are still

sending your specialization questions I

specialized in studying philosophy or

just I specialized in philosophy is fine

cool okay we’ll take a quick break and

then we’ll go to part two

I showed you a couple of these at the

beginning of today’s lesson if you want

to download a few things - oh sorry

you want to download a few things to

help you work on your vocabulary you can

check these out this is the business one

I kind of designed today’s lesson

thinking about job interviews on the

back of this business one hard to see I

know right here at the top these are

phrases for a business meeting but you

can use some of these in interview

settings like or you might rather hear

some of these and interview settings

like introductory questions let’s start

with or now I’d like to talk about so

what’s up so you can use this to study

up on your business vocabulary there are

lots of other topics too maybe these are

a little bit tricky at the moment given

the situation around the world but there

are lots of different things you can

talk this is a good one maybe to

practice now these your time activities

this one can be fun to review there are

genre vocabulary words and other things

on the back so take a look at these you

can find many different topics check

this out from the link below the video

if you’re watching on YouTube above the

video if you’re watching on Facebook if

you’re watching on Instagram please

check YouTube or Facebook and I cannot

see your comments let’s continue to part

do part 2 cool lots of people are

joining thanks very much for joining us

please make sure if you have not already

to like and share the videos or other

people can find our lesson this week Oh

key Nokia let’s go to part two

weaknesses so now let’s talk about

expressing your weaknesses weaknesses

that means your weak points those things

that you are not good at doing it is

very common and expected that you will

talk about your weaknesses in job and

sometimes school interview situations so

how do you do that how do you tell

someone what you’re not good at doing

like nobody wants to do that obviously

so how do we do that first let’s take a

look at a couple patterns you can use

but on the first one noun phrase is

challenging for me noun phrase is

challenging for me

so something-something is challenging so

challenging you could say is hard is

difficult or whatever I like challenging

because again it has kind of like a more

professional sound to it if I just say

like this thing is hard I think it

sounds kind of like a complaint or that

thing is difficult it also sounds like

I’m not really working to improve it to

me a challenging sounds a little bit

more like I’m actually you know trying

to work on this thing so for example

noun phrases then time management is

challenging for me this is true for me

I’m always late on these live streams

for example I always talk too much time

management is challenging for me time

management means managing your time like

using the correct amount of time for

things another example working by myself

is challenging for me or maybe for some

of you like working in a big group of

people is challenging for me so you can

talk about the kinds of things that are

difficult for you but I think if you

share it as a challenge it sounds like

something that you’re working to improve

yeah

Mahmood on YouTube says public speaking

is challenging for me but I’m working on

it nice example yeah public speaking

public speaking if you don’t know I mean

speaking in front of a big group of

people yeah like that’s kind of a that’s

a huge one that’s difficult for me too

the only reason I can do this is because

you’re all not in front of me like

making progress and teaching is

challenging for me hmm do you teach

interesting Hamza says writing is

challenging for me

Shalala says learning new languages is

challenging for me okay nice good for

your studies I think - so yes again you

can use this for job or for school

situations

ok let’s go to another pattern it’s

sometimes hard for me to verb phrase

sometimes that’s sorry that’s very funny

to me funny huge as well ok it’s

sometimes hard for me to verb phrase so

hard for me to a big hint here is this -

I talked about the infinitive form

earlier yeah infinitive is do plus the

verb so that means your verb here should

just be the base form of the verb so

don’t worry about using ing or whatever

here it’s sometimes hard for me to

prioritize tasks and sometimes hard for

me to prioritize tasks in native speed

prioritize means choose which thing I

should do first to prioritize something

so it’s sometimes hard for me to choose

which things I should do first another

one it’s sometimes hard for me to focus

in noisy places so if you were working

maybe you’re studying in a very noisy

environment it might be important to

mention this so again I have written

it’s sometimes hard I’ve used hard here

and but I’ve kind of softened it with

sometimes it’s sometimes hard for me to

do this thing so you can choose one of

these patterns to talk about something

that is challenging for you example is

Oscar says learning by myself is

challenging for me good learning by

myself is challenging for me other

examples I don’t see any on Facebook

lots people saying hello and thank you

on Facebook cool hello thank you okay

then let’s continue to as we talked

about with your strengths with your good

points when you describe your weaknesses

it’s important to share about how you’re

trying to fix them or how you’re trying

to like

to improve yourself so if you say like

time management is challenging for me

you know this about yourself you should

probably also share how you’re working

to improve it how do you deal with your

weakness how do you handle your weakness

so like time management is challenging

for me because of this I communicate a

lot with my teammates or I create and

share project schedules publicly or I

ask for feedback about my work so think

of like the solution or something that

helps you to deal with this weakness to

deal with this like problem point that

you have and don’t say I’m perfect I

have no weaknesses like that’s actually

not a good strategy everybody has a

weakness so share your weakness and talk

about how you deal with it so like for

example we’re actually working by myself

is challenging for me because I like to

have lots of different projects and so I

kind of get like lost in what I should

do first sometimes so I because of this

I create and share project schedules

publicly that’s very true for me I will

share about like my deadlines or I’ll

talk about it on like social media I use

that to share my deadlines and keep

myself accountable like when I’m going

to put something out that’s a strategy

that works for me okay I don’t like to

make missed deadlines public deadlines

for sure okay cool because of anger

issues I started meditation and it helps

very interesting ok good strategy oh you

know five minutes left

oh yeah okay cool so I hope that this is

helpful for talking about your

weaknesses the things that you are not

good at doing

okay I’ll go on to a break and then

we’ll go to the last point then I’ll

share a couple more things I’m kind of

trying to choose things that I hope

might be helpful for you some topics

that might be helpful for you for those

of you who are stuck at home oh here’s a

good one

emergency words this one could be a good

one to review at this point in time for

some of you this one is about parts of

the body yeah

there’s parts of the body here and then

there’s a couple of other vocabulary

words these are like natural disaster

related emergencies everyday emergencies

oh that’s funny well it’s not actually

funny but just this is maybe interesting

lead time this is one to consider maybe

another one is this one this one is like

around your city something you can use

to practice vocabulary around your city

places stuff to do and so on again there

are many different topics so depending

on where you are and what you would like

to review you can download all of these

for free from the link below the video

on youtube or above the video on

Facebook if you’re watching on YouTube

please check YouTube or Facebook if

you’re just joining today’s topic is how

to explain your strengths and weaknesses

I’ve talked about part 1 and part 2 I’m

going to finish with part 3 some other

very casual expressions you can use

outside of your job or interview

situations do I live on YouTube or do I

do a live on you do guess this is live

on YouTube and on Facebook I think

that’s the question okay

oh yeah if you haven’t already please

make sure if you like and share the

video so other people can find the

lesson as well okay let’s go to these

casual expressions I have chosen three

things to finish today’s topic with

again these are for everyday life so

this first one I’m going to introduce

please do not use this in polite

conversations this is a very casual but

very common expression we use with our

friends and some of us with like our

family members and so on the expression

is I suck at something something

something I suck at something means I am

very bad at something we can also use

this verb to suck to refer to other

things like that movies suck - I like

that music sucks or whatever that

expresses that something was very very

bad so please do not use this so when

you’re talking about your weaknesses

like if you say in a job interview like

I suck at time management it sounds

really really unprofessional but this

word is very common in everyday

conversations so please use this with

your friends only so we use this I suck

at noun phrase like an activity of some

kind for example I suck at singing or I

suck at travel planning whatever the

thing is that you’re very very bad at

doing you can express that with this

phrase so please be careful so again to

suck at something means to be very bad

at please keep in mind yes this verb

means like to remove the air from

something like a vacuum cleaner like it

it sucks things into it this use is like

it’s slang use so again very casual

rough word but very very commonly used

good examples are coming and I suck at

cooking’s that someone I suck at paying

attention good ok well not good but just

good example sentence ok good so this is

very very common you can use it to talk

about things you’re very bad

okay let’s be a little more positive

than and talk about this expression I’m

pretty good at noun phrase and other

activity I’m pretty good at something

I’m pretty good at cooking or I’m pretty

good at skiing so this pretty means

decently or somewhat a little bit but we

don’t say a little bit good we say I’m

pretty good I’m pretty good this is

different from very good if you say I’m

very good it sounds like you’re

confident if you say I’m good at cooking

it’s kind of neutral if you say I’m

pretty good at cooking it sounds a

little softer like maybe you have some

confidence but you don’t need to be like

the best you just you feel pretty good

you feel a little confident about your

skills Oh Kai says I’m pretty good at

math excellent I’m not very good at math

well I mean I am like you know but like

I don’t know I got to like quadratic

equations in high school and then I

don’t think I really want beyond that

very much like precalc precalculus yeah

I didn’t really explore it much anyway

uh on to the next one I can’t plus the

infinitive verb form or or a verb phrase

at all

I can’t infinitive verb or verb phrase

at all for example I can’t speak Chinese

at all I can’t speak Chinese at all or I

can’t play guitar at all so infinitive

verb by this this part I mean you can

use just a vert like I can’t cook at all

that’s fine I can’t sing at all just the

verb alone is okay or you can make a

phrase I can’t speak Chinese at all I

can’t play guitar at all so you can use

those this expression finishes it’s

maybe a little bit hard to see here this

expression finishes with at all at all

this is like an idiomatic expression

which means totally not able to do

something I can’t do this thing at all

means totally not able to do that thing

so you can use this at the end of your

expression to emphasize

this is correct if you say I can’t speak

Chinese or I can’t play guitar totally

correct but at all gives emphasis to

that statement Hamza says I can’t speak

French at all

excellent

Mahmud says I’m pretty good at solving

JavaScript algorithms excellent Jorge

says Alisha an Instagram oh yes indeed

well okay that’s common let’s see I’m

pretty good at eating but I can’t cook

at all oh if you if you learn how to

cook that’s a good skill I recommend

learning to cook I like cooking I’m

pretty good at cooking

someone says on Facebook I’m pretty good

at eating many of you were pretty good

at eating of us are pretty good at

eating

durka says I’m pretty good at speaking

nice nice like public speaking speaking

in front of a group it’s a good skill to

have definitely uh Rob you’ll says I

can’t talk in English at all you gotta

practice yeah so don’t just watch me

you gotta practice at your computer too

um Edwin could can at all be used in

positive sentences we use it really in

negative sentences we use it to talk

about things we are not able to do we

don’t really use it in positive

sentences ah I can’t run for a long time

at all tax tax reform okay interesting

username other examples good I’m happy

there are many positive and lots of

positive examples

I’m not good at painting this as someone

okay I think you guys have it I think

everybody has it very nice I’m late as

usual because time management is

challenging for me so I’ll end there

we’ll finish there next week’s topic is

something so we’ll be back next week

I’ll be back next week now 10:00 p.m.

Eastern Standard Time that is New York

City time different uses of have has and

had everybody asks me all the time

forever about these questions so I’m

going to do another lesson about this

next week so please join us again next

week Wednesday 10:00 p.m. New York City

time Google your local time or just set

a notification on Facebook or on YouTube

so that you don’t miss us so that will

be a good grammar lesson you can review

past lessons about this topic before the

before the livestream if you want to be

prepared and ready with your example

sentences so please join us again next

week for next week’s topic please be

safe please be well please take care and

I hope that you check out all kinds of

good stuff to do if you are stuck at

home of course we would be very happy if

you choose to study with us you have

free stuff you can pick up from us

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