How to introduce yourself & other people

Hi. I'm Rebecca from www.engvid.com. In this lesson, you'll learn how to introduce yourself

and also how to introduce people who don't know each other. Now, sometimes, you learn

a lot of English and you don't... You still feel nervous, you don't feel confident doing

simple things. So, this is one of those simple, but important things, but you need to be able

to do. To be able to walk up to someone, to introduce yourself, and also to know how to

respond when someone does that. And that may be true, whether you're at a business conference

or at a party. Okay? So, let's get started.

So, here, first we'll talk about the formal situation. So, let's say we'll start over

here. "Hello. I'm Bill White." Their response is: "Hi. I'm Susan Jones." So, he says, then:

"It's a pleasure to meet you." And she says: "It's a pleasure to meet you, too." Okay?

Pretty straightforward, pretty simple. Why? Because, especially at this part, you're just

repeating what the other person says, except that you're adding the word: "too". Okay?

Let's try it again. "Hello. I'm Bill White." Now, at that point, you probably want to also

shake hands. So, let me mention that. So, the things that you should do in addition

to what you say are these things: you should try to maintain a straight posture because

you look more professional that way, especially in a business situation. In a North American

context, also, we establish eye contact. All right? That shows that we're not afraid, that

shows we're not hiding anything. All right? Shows confidence. And, you want to give a

firm handshake. Okay? Don't keep your hand really weak. Keep it firm. Not hard. Don't

squeeze the other person's hand, but make a firm handshake. And this is true whether

you're a man or a woman. And usually, we smile because it's a little bit... It shows that

you're a friendly person and you're happy to meet the other person, even in a business situation.

So let's get started. And what I was saying is about the handshake, you could shake hands

right here. So, you could say: "Hello. I'm Bill White." Or, you could say it at this

point when you say: "It's a pleasure to meet you." Okay?

-"Hello. I'm Bill White." -"Hi. I'm Susan Jones." -"It's a pleasure to meet you." -"It's

a pleasure to meet you, too." And if you want, one thing you can do is to mention the person's

name when you're saying: "It's a pleasure to meet you." Okay? But sometimes in a business

context, you're not yet sure whether to say: "Ms. Jones", or: "Susan", so you could try

it, and you could say: "It's a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Jones." And she might say: "Oh,

you can call me Susan. It's a pleasure to meet you, too." And so on. Okay? But main

thing is this part is just repeated.

Next, in an informal situation. So, here, instead of saying: "Hello", we're just going

to say: -"Hi! Hi! I'm George." -"Hi! I'm Maria." -"Nice to meet you." -"Nice to meet you, too."

Again, we're just repeating. So, what happened? Here, it's a little more formal, so we said:

"It's a pleasure to meet you." And here, because it's informal, we just said: -"Nice to meet

you." -"Nice to meet you, too." Okay? So, just repeat that. And also, instead of: "Hello",

we're just saying: "Hi!" All right? -"Hi! I'm George." -"Hi! I'm Maria." -"Nice to meet

you." -"Nice to meet you, too." Okay? So, try that. Next I'll show you how to introduce

people who don't know each other.

So, let's see how to introduce people to each other. First, we'll do this in a formal situation.

Okay? So let's pretend in this scenario that there are three people. You are Carol Smith,

and you know Scott Topper, and you know Steven Shaw, but they don't know each other. But

you don't know that, so you have to find out first, because sometimes people do know each other.

So, Carol is going to speak first. So, Carol knows both of them. All right? So she says...

Carol Smith says: "Have you met each other?" So, let's say she turns to one of them or

to either of them, and she says... So, Scott answers and he says: "No, we haven't." Sometimes

this person will answer, sometimes both of those people will answer kind of at the same

time, say: "No, we haven't." Doesn't matter. And then, Carol says, if it's a formal situation:

"Mr. Topper, this is Mr. Shaw. Mr. Shaw, this is Mr. Topper." Now, sometimes this part is

not necessary, because it's kind of obvious. So, usually... Usually, if you just say the

first part, people will start introducing themselves then to each other or continue

with the: "Pleasure to meet you." But if you want to know the traditional way in which

it's done, it's done like that. Okay?

So: "Mr. Topper, this is Mr. Shaw. Mr. Shaw, this is Mr. Topper." And, at that point also

when you're deciding whose name to say first, some of the rules of protocol are if there

is an older person and a younger person, you introduce the older person to the younger

person. Okay? So, let's say in this situation that Mr. Topper is older, then you would say

Mr. Topper's name first. If they're both about the same age, it doesn't matter. Okay?

So, then, Mr. Topper, remember the earlier lessons we learned? What we learned just now?

The expression? "It's a pleasure to meet you." And Mr.... And Shaw says: "Pleasure to meet

you, too." Okay? You don't always have to repeat the entire expression: "It's a pleasure

to meet you." Even in a formal situation, it's fine to say: "Pleasure to meet you, too."

because that's the critical part. All right? So, now, that's the formal scenario.

Let's go through it one more time. -"Have you met each other?" -"No, we haven't." -"Mr.

Topper, this is Mr. Shaw. Mr. Shaw, Mr. Topper." -"It's a pleasure to meet you." -"Pleasure

to meet you, too." And remember, at this point when Mr. Topper says: "It's a pleasure to

meet you", that's when Mr. Topper will put out his hand for the handshake and Shaw...

Steven Shaw will take his hand and shake his hand.

Now, if it's an informal situation, it's pretty much the same way at the beginning. -"Have

you met each other?" -"No, we haven't." So, then you can say: "Scott, this is Steven.

Steven, this is Scott." And then they will use the informal expressions. -"Nice to meet

you." -"Nice to meet you, too." Okay? So, these expressions: "Pleasure to meet you",

"Nice to meet you", they can take you a long way in introducing yourself and introducing others.

Now, of course, there are many ways to introduce yourself; not only what I've said here, not

only what I've taught you here. But I always advise my students that it's better to learn

one way properly than to learn three different ways, and then get mixed up. Okay? So make

sure you have mastered one way to introduce yourself and to introduce other people, and

then you can move on to other variations because you are definitely going to hear a variety

of variations on this. Okay?

So, if you'd like to practice this a little bit, go to our website: www.engvid.com and

you can do a quiz on how to introduce yourself and how to introduce other people.

Thanks very much for watching. Bye for now.