A.

Introducing Yourself

When we meet someone for the first time, you need to introduce yourself to
other people and get acquainted with them as well. There are various ways of
doing that. Let us see a few of such instances.

Example: A Conversation

Veena: Good morning. I am Veena.

Ravi: Good morning. Nice to meet you Veena.
Veena: What is your name?
Ravi: I am Ravi.
Veena: Nice to meet you Ravi. Where are you from?
Ravi: I am from Nagpur.
Veena: What do you do Ravi?
Ravi: I am an architect. I work with RK Designs.
Besides name, place, age, profession, we need to include likes, dislikes,
strengths and weaknesses in the self introduction.

Hi! I am Linda. How are you?

I am all good Linda. Nice to meet you.

Hello! My name is Anna. What is your

name?
 Paul: Hello! My name is Paul. What is
your name?
Jessica: Hi! Nice to meet you Paul. I am
Jessica.
Paul: Nice to meet you Jessica.

Yusuf: Hello! My name is Yusuf.

John: Nice to meet you Yusuf. My name is
John.
Yusuf: How are you John?
Yusuf: I am fine.

.
B. Self Introduction

Introducing yourself is an elaborative introduction of your. It may take

place at formal situations like job interview or informal situations like
get-togethers, parties, social gatherings etc. It needs to mention many things like
name, age, educational qualification, occupation, likes, dislikes, strengths,
weaknesses and goal of life etc. Let us see some examples of such self
introductions.
Examples:
1. Good Morning. I am Mr. Ganesh More. I am an Assistant Professor at
Vivekanand College, Kolhapur. I am 30 years old. I am from Kolhapur,
Maharashtra.
2. Hello, my name is Krishna. I am 29 years old. My hometown is Mumbai and
I really enjoy living there. I always dreamed that someday I would be a famous
singer, and that dream has come true. I am very happy and proud of it! There are
many things I am good at and one of them is singing folk songs.

Exercise

Q. 1. Fill in the blanks with your own information

Hello everyone!
 My name is ……………
I am ……………years old.
I am from ……………
There are …………… members in my family. My …………… ………and I.
Now I would like to talk about my likes and dislikes. I love …………..
…………… is my favourite holiday destination.
I do not like/I hate ……………
My strength is …………… and my weakness is ……………
I want to become ……………
Thank you.

Q. 2. Fill in the blanks in the following instances of introducing yourself

with correct/proper expressions.
1. Hi! What is ……….. name?
2. My ………… is Jyoti.
3. I am Satish. How ………you?
4. I am ……….. Thamk you.
5. I am Vishal. Nice to ………you Pooja.
C. Talking about family

At many occasions you need to talk about your family. You introduce
your family to other people. You mention the number of members in your
family. You list the members and talk about their profession and occasionally
their special features. Let us see two instances of introducing your family.

Examples:
1. Hello. I am Maya Ghatage. I am 18 years old. I am from Parabhani. Now I
am studying in the first year of B.A. at Vivekanand college, Kolhapur. There are
five members in my family. My father, Mr. Ajit Ghatage is a Civil Engineer and
my mother, Mrs. Kalpana Ghatage is a Bank Manager. I have a younger brother.
His name is Nikhil. He is 12 years old. My grandmother, Mrs. Ramabai Ghatage
is 70 years old. We are a small and happy family.
2. Hello, Welcome to my home. My name is Sangeeta. I am 18 years old and
this is my beautiful family. There are seven members in my family including I,
my father, mother, my elder sister, grandfather, uncle and aunt. My father
Ashok, is a doctor. He is 45 years old. He is a very kind person. My mother
Radhika is a teacher. She is 40. She is an excellent cook. My sister, Maya is 19
years old. She is doing MSW at SCIBR College. My uncle Suresh and aunt
Ragini are doctors. My grandfather, Mr. Shrikant has got retired from Indian
Army. So this is my sweet family.

As you can see in the above example, we have used particular sentence structure
to talk about family:
Number of family members: There are 5 members in my family.
Profession of parents: My father is an Engineer and mother is a bank manager.
Siblings: I have a younger brother.

Exercise:
Q. A. Imagine your new friend is visiting your house and write how you
will talk about your family to him/her

D. Talking about Likes and Dislikes

After knowing each other’s names and other details one wants to know
the likes and dislikes of other people. We need to talk about our likes and
dislikes in formal as well as informal situations. Accordingly we need to choose
the correct expression. If you are introducing yourself during a job interview
you should includes the likes and dislikes that are related to the job you are
applying for. You should not say that I like to watch TV or I like to sleep late.
This will be totally unprofessional. Some sample expressions have been given
bellow to express your likes and dislikes.
Likes Dislikes
 I do not /don’t like……..
I like…………………
I dislike…………………
I love…………………
I hate……………………
I enjoy………………..
I can’t bear……………...
I adore………………..
I detest………………….
I am crazy about…………
I can’t stand……………

Examples:
Likes Dislikes
I like dancing/to dance. I do not like wasting time
I like creative writing/ to write I dislike lazy people
creatively. I hate eavesdropping
I love travelling/ to travell. I can’t stand a liar
I enjoy swimming/ to swim. I detest hypocrisy.

Here is an example of expressing likes and dislikes

Ricky: What kinds of films do you like the best?
Vicky: I like comedies. And you?
Ricky: I’m more into action thrillers.
Vicky: Really? I rarely watch them. Who’s your favourite actor?
Ricky: Tom Cruise.
Vicky: Don’t you watch Indian films?
Ricky: Yeah, I do.

A Few observations

Likes and dislikes are expressed in simple present tense

Formula: S + V1 (Present Tense form) + O
I like tea and I dislike coffee.
I hate dogs but I love cats.

When our likes and dislikes are actions, they can be told in two forms:
Infinitive: to read, to swim, to travel
Gerund/ Present Participle: reading, swimming, travelling
Example: I like to read thrillers
I like reading thrillers

A related section is to tell, ‘What are you good at?’ The answer will be given in
the context of the question.
So sample expressions are as follows:
● I am good at spoken English. I have done B.A. in English.
● I am good at multitasking.
● I am very good at cooking.

It is related to another section: Talking about hobbies. Hobbies are activities

that we do regularly in our leisure time for pleasure. We can mention our hobby
by simply saying:
● My hobbies are reading and swimming.
● My hobby is to paint.
● My hobbies are playing guitar and singing.

Exercise:
Q. A. Use any of the expressions given above and express four of your likes
and dislikes.
Q. B. Write about any two things that you are good at.

E. Talking about strengths, weaknesses and goal (future plan)

When we talk about ourselves in day to day scenario/situation we may

not mention our strengths, weaknesses and goal. But when we give an official
self introduction, mentioning strengths, weaknesses and goal makes it more
impressive. However, they should be genuine and precise. We should consider
the context and keep it formal. Weaknesses should be told constructively.

Example:
Good morning everyone. I am Jeevan Deshmukh. I am 26 years old. I am a
fashion photographer. Right now I am working with RK Studios in Mumbai.
My hobbies are photography and travelling. Unflinching focus is my strength
which has helped me a lot in my profession. But I am a bit weak at multitasking.
I put my whole focus on one task at a time. I want to become a successful and
famous fashion photographer.
The sentence Construction that are to be used:
● My strength is………………(Positive thinking/ multitasking/ clarity/
determination/ Good communication skills/ strong focus/ Strength of
character etc)
● My weakness is ………………(weak time management, monochromic
person/ over thinking/ introvert personality/ sensitivity)
● I weak at ……………. (Stress management/multitasking/handling critical
moments etc.)
● My goal is to become……………..(a successful teacher, lawyer, public
servant, businessman, etc.

Introducing others

Now we will see how to introduce others. Mostly we talk about physical and
mental qualities of the person. In the previous module ‘Description’, we have
learnt how to describe a person. We have learnt the vocabulary related to it.
Look at the following instances of introducing someone for the first time.

Hello Steve. Meet my colleague

George. He is the head of Finance
department in my company. He is a
very intelligent and hard working
person.
 Hello everyone. Meet my fiancé
Nigella. She is a software engineer
and works with a multinational firm
in California.

Hi John. How are you? Meet my

friend Annie. She is from Mexico.
She is doing Masters in Arts in Ohio
University. She is a very talented
student.

While introducing others we make use of third person pronouns:

Subjective: He, she, it
Objective: him, her, them, it
Possessive: his, her, its, their.
Exercise:
A. Prepare a self Introduction for the following situations:
1. You are meeting your colleague for the first time.
2. Self introduction for a job interview for the post of Assistant Professor.
3. Self introduction to be given before a Presentation at the office.
B. Introduce your father to your class teacher.
C. Introduce your class teacher to your mother.
D. you are introducing yourself to new class fellows. Tell them your likes,
dislikes, strengths and weaknesses.
E. Introduce your new college friends to your parents.