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.