Teach English in China: Introducing Yourself: How to give a good self introduction
"Does it take skill to introduce yourself?"
Conversational English Skills Topic.
"Does it take skill to introduce yourself?"
As funny as it may seem, it does in fact take skill to introduce yourself. This is so because of the nature of an introduction. An introduction is your presentation of yourself, and your skill or otherwise at doing this, will effect the other person's judgement about who and what you are.
In Book One: Chinese Students ask: How Can I Improve My Oral English? I gave you an exercise to do involving answering 15 questions. That exercise was called: A Grammatical Exercise - An Informative Answer. Naturally many students can see that this is really just an exercise to get them to give an introduction. Unfortunately, once they realise this, they don't bother to follow the instructions for this exercise, and usually do a very bad job at doing a self-introduction.
They fail this test because they try to impress me, and in doing so, usually demonstrate a complete lack of conversational skill. The poorer students who just do what is asked of them, usually pass the test quite easily.
The truth is, that this exercise is not about you introducing yourself to me; it is about me teaching you how to organise your thoughts, and you then using good grammar to present those thoughts in a coherent monologue. It is about teaching you how to give an informative answer; the same written and spoken skills as required in any speech, presentation or written composition or essay. In trying to impress me, students who don't follow the formula, fail to impress me at all.
Let us now look at that exercise again.
A Grammatical Exercise – An Informative Answer
Step 1: Answer each question separately as a simple sentence.
Step 2: Using good grammar, link all the ideas to make three or four sentences. These sentences will be a long informative answer. (It is also an introduction).
Step 3: You will give me a copy of these 3 or 4 sentences, and then you will address the class and speak what you wrote.
This is a grammar exercise. Follow these instructions or you will fail the Test. (Yes! It counts toward your Exam).
1. What is your name?
2. How old are you?
3. Where do you come from?
4. How many people are there in your family?
5. Do you have any brothers or sisters?
6. Which high school did you attend?
7. Which university do you attend?
8. What year are you in? (= How many years have you been at University?)
9. What is your Major?
10. What career path do you want to follow?
11. Where do you want to work in the future?
12. Why do you want to do that work?
13. Where do you currently live?
14. With whom do you live?
15. Do you like living there?
The way to answer these questions is to write a simple sentence for each one. For example
1. My name is Piao Liang
2. I am 20 years old.
3. I come from YiChang (in Hubei Province in China)
4. There are five people in my Family.
5. I have one brother and one sister. [Didi Gege / not Biao Di - Biao Ge]
6. I attended YiChang Number One High School.
7. I attend Tsinghua university in Beijing.
8. I am in my first year at university.
9. My major is English Literature.
10.I want to become a famous writer.
11.I would like to live in Europe, perhaps in Paris.
12.I want to become a writer because I love European romantic novels.
13.I am currently a boarder living on campus.
14.I share a room with 3 other English Majors.
15.I love living on campus for many reasons, the most important of which is that my room mates share my passion for English.
The next Step is to put all the key points into just a few sentences. For Example:
My name is Piao Liang, and I'm a 20 year old, first year English Literature major at Tsing Hua university in Beijing.
I attended the Number One High School in Yichang, where my parents and my brother and sister still live, and although I miss them all, I love living on campus because my three room mates share my passion for English Literature.
I love European romance novels with historical themes, and One day I hope to become a famous novelist, and live all over Europe, especially in Paris.
This 'Three sentence' construct, which answers all 15 questions, can be called 'An Introduction'; 'An Informative Answer'; 'A Presentation', or a 'Speech'. It doesn't matter what you call it, what matters is the process by which it was created.
The Process.
The essence of good public Speaking is first found in the Preparation. A good public speaker knows exactly what to say, because they have developed very good preparation skills. When people have not properly prepared themselves and their speech, they lose track of what they are saying.
So often when people try to introduce themselves, they 'stumble and start', 'lose their way', and end up just 'babbling'. The person to whom they introduce themselves is often left wondering what to make of what they have just heard. For Example:
Hello. My name is Piao Liang and I go to university because I want to become famous one day and live in Europe and I love my room mates because they help me. Of course I miss my family in my hometown where I went to school.
We can see in this answer what thoughts were trying to be presented, but the construction of the introduction provides no real information, and the composition lacks coherency.
In order to be able to 'Present' the information, you first have to have a clear idea of what you want to say, and, what is appropriate for the occasion. Both of these require you to know in advance the type of information that the situation demands.
In a usual situation, you probably need nothing more than the first sentence. Perhaps you are attending a special event at another university, and someone sitting next to you says, "Are you a student at this university?" You can answer with an introduction:
No I'm not. My name is Piao Liang and I'm a first year English Literature major at Tsing Hua university in Beijing.
This answer will normally oblige the other person to introduce themself as well. But perhaps they will be so impressed with your answer that they will forget. Instead, they may ask: "Why did you choose English Literature as your Major?" You can then use the third sentence.
I chose it because I love European romance novels with historical themes, and One day I hope to become a famous novelist, and live all over Europe, especially in Paris.
Perhaps they will then ask: "Where is your hometown?" And you change the second sentence slightly and answer:
I come from YiChang, but I don't get much chance these days to go home and visit my parents and my sister and brother.
Each of these answers are Informative Answers.No.5 (Why are Informative answers Important?)
Each of these answers give the other person opportunity to ask more questions about the key words that you use, and as the conversation continues, the key words enable you to change topic until you find one that both of you wish to discuss. The important thing is that you are prepared / skilled at providing informative answers.
Preparation.
Preparation is always the first key to success in public speaking. Introducing yourself is a form of 'public speaking'. So too is giving a presentation to a group, or teaching a class, or giving a speech. They all require preparation.
The first things to decide upon in relation to public speaking, are,
"What is the Subject? - and -
What do I want to say? - or - What does my audience want to know? (This depends on the reason for your speaking activity.)
Once the subject (Topic) is decided, then you must:
Decide what you want to say - and then, - listing each point you wish to make, imagine some questions that could be asked about your key words.
Decide what the audience might want to know - by - asking yourself questions about the topic.
The basic preparatory skill, is asking yourself questions and finding the answers.
Once you know the questions, then, just like the exercise set out in this article, write out the simple answers. Once this is done, then use grammar to link all the key words into sentences and paragraphs.
These preparatory procedures apply to everything from knowing how to introduce yourself, to giving a presentation in class, to writing good essays or being involved in Group Discussions.
You must always be prepared.
I hope that his article has been of assistance to you.
R.P.BenDedek is from Brisbane Australia and is the author of 'The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran' at http://www.kingscalendar.com His academic articles set forth Apologetics for and results of his discovery of an "artificial chronological scheme" running through the Bible, Josephus, the Damascus Documents of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Seder Olam Rabbah.
He writes photographic 'Stories from China' and social editorial commentaries, both at KingsCalendar, and as a contributing newspaper columnist. He currently teaches Conversational English in China and in addition to his English Lessons at KingsCalendar, he has created specific sites for Students of English.
