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
make sure to send us a message in the
chat so that we can say hello to you and
please also like and share the video so
that other people can find today’s
lesson a couple of points one first
there’s free stuff for you from the link
below the video if you are watching on
YouTube above the video if you’re
watching on Facebook if you’re watching
an Instagram please check YouTube or
Facebook there is free stuff free
vocabulary sheets to download you can
choose whatever topic sounds interesting
to you grab it study with it may be good
for those of you who are at home right
now a lot I hope that it’s helpful
that’s announcement one announcement two
again I really really want to emphasize
you should send me your questions um
this is a screenshot from our weekly Q&A
series question and answer series called
ask Alicia where you can send me your
questions and I will maybe answer them I
was filming some I filmed a new episode
yesterday and will be filming more new
episodes in the coming weeks so if you
think of a question about grammar about
vocabulary about culture whatever if you
have a burning question and you just
think it would be fun to talk about in
the series please send it send it to me
I really do read all of them
you can find the link for this um at
English class 101.com slash asked -
Alicia if that’s too long to remember
please search our YouTube channel
English class 101 for ask Alicia is
the turquoise a light blue color
background is the picture so please
check this out send me your questions
and I will read them and maybe answer
them so that’s that we have our Facebook
and our YouTube loaded up today hi
everybody on YouTube I see lots of
people Miguel hi Carolina Khan hello I’m
wolf fearless new rule son kid hi
everybody and on Facebook a couple
people there hi Boresha but and Pierre
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
from the link below the video or above
the video or don’t I showed you some of
these otherwise take care enjoy your
week as much as possible and enjoy your
weekend and we will see you again soon