English Skill : Communication
How to introduce yourself?
Intermediate level / CECR : B1
1st Part
Video & Vocabulary
2nd Part
Understanding
3rd Part
Grammar
English skills
Communication
- Skills : Improve your presentation and introduction. Identify the post powerful approach to connect with people
- Niveau : B1
- Topic : Communication
Watch the video
Transcription
Translation
| Thank you. Hello, my name is Kevin Bahler. I am the grant writer for Allentown Symphony Association. I always find that a strange way to introduce myself. It’s not that I don’t like my job – I’m very proud of it – but why is that our only introduction? When I was five, I have lots of introductions. “Hi! My name is Kevin, and my favorite color is green.” “Hi! My name is Kevin, and I have a cat named Tiger.” “Hi! My name is Kevin, and I love finger-painting!” Admittedly, that last one was kind of playing it safe because, let’s be honest, who doesn’t love finger-painting? But I didn’t pick it because it was safe, I picked it because I was always honest and upfront about who I was and what I loved. When I was in elementary school, I changed my introductions to match my newest interests. “Hi, my name is Kevin, and I like watching Power Rangers.” “Hi, my name is Kevin, and I do the martial art Aikido.” “Hi, my name is Kevin, and my favorite food is quiche.” Yes, I was a very weird boy, and I admit it. But there reaches an age when being honest and open about yourself is the social equivalent of getting “kick me” tattooed across your forehead. So as I got older, I slowly picked the safer options. By the time I was in high school, I had changed my introductions to match what was normal. “Hey, I’m Kevin, and I like watching The Simpsons.” “Hey, I’m Kevin, and I like eating corn-pops.” I didn’t even tell people I did martial arts. And it’s not I ever lied about myself, I just told people the parts of me they expected to hear. How come? Well, in case you don’t remember high school very well, you need to fit in. And whether you want to fit in with the popular kids or if you want to fit in with a counterculture, If you want to have any friends, you need to have something in common with somebody. And the safer your introduction, the more likely you are to connect. So I figured out how to say the right things and I survived high school without being ostracized as a “quiche-gobbling wannabe Ninja,” and that was a victory. But when graduation day came, I was so excited for college. This was a place where people paid the money to learn. It had to be filled with incredibly passionate people, right? Yeah, guess how wrong I was; I’ll give you a hint. It was a lot. It turns out that passionate or not, everybody on campus had one introduction. “Hey, I’m Kevin, and my major is …,” and nobody cared what your major was. It was just the only allowable introduction. But you know why? Because everybody had one. It was this way to kind of define yourself, but always within the safety of the established programs. I have to admit: I have not always been the charming, charismatic, sharp-dressed man you see before you. In fact, I used to be a huge nerd that would do anything to have friends. So when I was in college, I mastered the safe introduction, and I mastered the safe conversation, and I mastered the safe friendship. And you know what? Safe friends are boring! We didn’t do anything. We sat in our dorms, complained about teachers and homework, and that was ‘hanging out.’ By the time I was in junior year,I had more ‘friends’ than I had time to spend with them. And I wasn’t even enjoying myself. When I realized this, it pushed me over the tipping point, and I finally stopped caring about fitting in, and I started caring about being happy. So instead of being safe, I started being honest. “Hi, I’m Kevin, and I’m fascinated by chemistry and physics.” “Hi, my name is Kevin, and my favorite band ever is Muse.” “Hi, my name is Kevin, and I love finger-painting!” You don’t grow out of it, you don’t. And the funny thing about allowing myself to just be me is that all those boring people stopped wanting to hang out with me because I wasn’t safe. And all the people who stuck around were awesome! These were people who did things: we hiked, we swam, we practiced martial arts together, we could discuss anything from black holes to stand up comedians, from Wittgenstein to Winnie The Pooh, and all the while, we were laughing. And it is so easy to get lost in having a good time. So I made sure to remind myself of one simple fact: I would never have my true friends if I wasn’t willing to be rejected by everybody else. So when I graduated college, I was ready to enter the real world. I’d learned to let go of the safety of conformity, and I was ready to meet other self-actualized adults. And guess how many I met. Yeah, about the same as you. It turns out that it was just the same introduction from college, only now, with wore a suit, or more often, a name tag. “Hello, my name is meaningless, and I am my job.” Now, like I said at the beginning, I am proud of my job. I’m privileged to be able to earn my living by raising money for the symphony; but when I was nine, I never introduced myself by saying, “Hi, my name is Kevin, and when I grow up, I want to be a grant writer.” I wasn’t that weird of a kid. And even today, as an adult, there are things that I’m far more passionate about than mailing out project budgets and annual reports. And passion is what this is really about. I find it so mind-blowing that so many people have so many passions and so badly want to share them with the world, but they don’t for fear of being criticized by people they don’t even care about. I’ll talk about my passion with anybody: some crowd at a party, the woman in line at the grocery store, and you there in the back, whoever, because, if some stranger doesn’t think old kung fu movies are totally awesome, so what? I’m probably never going to see them again, and it doesn’t make me love them any less. But if that person is totally into “The 36th Chamber of Shaolin,” then I just made a new best friend. So no matter what, I win. And so can you. The ultimate question here is how do you introduce yourself? That’s tricky. You know me pretty well by now, but I’ve a good eight minutes to tell you who I am. How do you convey all of that in a single sentence And that’s something you have to figure out for yourself, and I challenge you to do it. But I know that it helps to have an example to inspire you so allow me to close with my introduction, “Hello, my name is Kevin Bahler, and I love it when people are truly happy. Thank you |
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| Thank you. Hello, my name is Kevin Bahler. I am the grant writer for Allentown Symphony Association. I always find that a strange way to introduce myself. It’s not that I don’t like my job – I’m very proud of it – but why is that our only introduction? When I was five, I have lots of introductions. “Hi! My name is Kevin, and my favorite color is green.” “Hi! My name is Kevin, and I have a cat named Tiger.” “Hi! My name is Kevin, and I love finger-painting!” Admittedly, that last one was kind of playing it safe because, let’s be honest, who doesn’t love finger-painting? But I didn’t pick it because it was safe, I picked it because I was always honest and upfront about who I was and what I loved. When I was in elementary school, I changed my introductions to match my newest interests. “Hi, my name is Kevin, and I like watching Power Rangers.” “Hi, my name is Kevin, and I do the martial art Aikido.” “Hi, my name is Kevin, and my favorite food is quiche.” Yes, I was a very weird boy, and I admit it. But there reaches an age when being honest and open about yourself is the social equivalent of getting “kick me” tattooed across your forehead. So as I got older, I slowly picked the safer options. By the time I was in high school, I had changed my introductions to match what was normal. “Hey, I’m Kevin, and I like watching The Simpsons.” “Hey, I’m Kevin, and I like eating corn-pops.” I didn’t even tell people I did martial arts. And it’s not I ever lied about myself, I just told people the parts of me they expected to hear. How come? Well, in case you don’t remember high school very well, you need to fit in. And whether you want to fit in with the popular kids or if you want to fit in with a counterculture, If you want to have any friends, you need to have something in common with somebody. And the safer your introduction, the more likely you are to connect. So I figured out how to say the right things and I survived high school without being ostracized as a “quiche-gobbling wannabe Ninja,” and that was a victory. But when graduation day came, I was so excited for college. This was a place where people paid the money to learn. It had to be filled with incredibly passionate people, right? Yeah, guess how wrong I was; I’ll give you a hint. It was a lot. It turns out that passionate or not, everybody on campus had one introduction. “Hey, I’m Kevin, and my major is …,” and nobody cared what your major was. It was just the only allowable introduction. But you know why? Because everybody had one. It was this way to kind of define yourself, but always within the safety of the established programs. I have to admit: I have not always been the charming, charismatic, sharp-dressed man you see before you. In fact, I used to be a huge nerd that would do anything to have friends. So when I was in college, I mastered the safe introduction, and I mastered the safe conversation, and I mastered the safe friendship. And you know what? Safe friends are boring! We didn’t do anything. We sat in our dorms, complained about teachers and homework, and that was ‘hanging out.’ By the time I was in junior year, I had more ‘friends’ than I had time to spend with them. And I wasn’t even enjoying myself. When I realized this, it pushed me over the tipping point, and I finally stopped caring about fitting in, and I started caring about being happy. So instead of being safe, I started being honest. “Hi, I’m Kevin, and I’m fascinated by chemistry and physics.” “Hi, my name is Kevin, and my favorite band ever is Muse.” “Hi, my name is Kevin, and I love finger-painting!” You don’t grow out of it, you don’t. And the funny thing about allowing myself to just be me is that all those boring people stopped wanting to hang out with me because I wasn’t safe. And all the people who stuck around were awesome! These were people who did things: we hiked, we swam, we practiced martial arts together, we could discuss anything from black holes to stand up comedians, from Wittgenstein to Winnie The Pooh, and all the while, we were laughing. And it is so easy to get lost in having a good time. So I made sure to remind myself of one simple fact: I would never have my true friends if I wasn’t willing to be rejected by everybody else. So when I graduated college, I was ready to enter the real world. I’d learned to let go of the safety of conformity, and I was ready to meet other self-actualized adults. And guess how many I met. Yeah, about the same as you. It turns out that it was just the same introduction from college, only now, with wore a suit, or more often, a name tag. “Hello, my name is meaningless, and I am my job.” Now, like I said at the beginning, I am proud of my job. I’m privileged to be able to earn my living by raising money for the symphony; but when I was nine, I never introduced myself by saying, “Hi, my name is Kevin, and when I grow up, I want to be a grant writer.” I wasn’t that weird of a kid. And even today, as an adult, there are things that I’m far more passionate about than mailing out project budgets and annual reports. And passion is what this is really about. I find it so mind-blowing that so many people have so many passions and so badly want to share them with the world, but they don’t for fear of being criticized by people they don’t even care about. I’ll talk about my passion with anybody: some crowd at a party, the woman in line at the grocery store, and you there in the back, whoever, because, if some stranger doesn’t think old kung fu movies are totally awesome, so what? I’m probably never going to see them again, and it doesn’t make me love them any less. But if that person is totally into “The 36th Chamber of Shaolin,” then I just made a new best friend. So no matter what, I win. And so can you. The ultimate question here is how do you introduce yourself? That’s tricky. You know me pretty well by now, but I’ve a good eight minutes to tell you who I am. How do you convey all of that in a single sentence And that’s something you have to figure out for yourself, and I challenge you to do it. But I know that it helps to have an example to inspire you so allow me to close with my introduction, “Hello, my name is Kevin Bahler, and I love it when people are truly happy. Thank you | Je vous remercie. Bonjour, je m’appelle Kevin Bahler. Je suis le rédacteur des subventions pour l’Association symphonique d’Allentown. Je trouve toujours que c’est une façon étrange de se présenter. Ce n’est pas que je n’aime pas mon travail – j’en suis très fier – mais pourquoi est-ce notre seule présentation ? Quand j’avais cinq ans, on me présentait beaucoup. “Bonjour ! Je m’appelle Kevin, et ma couleur préférée est le vert.” “Bonjour, je m’appelle Kevin et j’ai un chat qui s’appelle Tiger.” “Bonjour, je m’appelle Kevin et j’adore peindre avec les doigts !” Il est vrai que cette dernière phrase était un peu une sécurité, car, soyons honnêtes, qui n’aime pas faire de la peinture au doigt ? Mais je ne l’ai pas choisie parce qu’elle était sans risque, je l’ai choisie parce que j’ai toujours été honnête et directe sur qui j’étais et ce que j’aimais. Lorsque j’étais à l’école primaire, j’ai modifié mes présentations pour qu’elles correspondent à mes nouveaux centres d’intérêt. “Bonjour, je m’appelle Kevin et j’aime regarder les Power Rangers”. “Bonjour, je m’appelle Kevin et je pratique l’art martial Aikido.” “Bonjour, je m’appelle Kevin et mon plat préféré est la quiche.” Oui, j’étais un garçon très bizarre, et je l’admets. Mais il arrive un âge où être honnête et ouvert sur soi-même est l’équivalent social de se faire tatouer “kick me” sur le front. C’est pourquoi, en grandissant, j’ai lentement choisi des options plus sûres. Lorsque je suis arrivé au lycée, j’ai modifié mes présentations pour qu’elles correspondent à ce qui était normal. “Hey, je suis Kevin, et j’aime regarder les Simpsons.” “Hey, je suis Kevin, et j’aime manger des corn-pops.” Je ne disais même pas aux gens que je faisais des arts martiaux. Et ce n’est pas que j’ai menti sur moi, j’ai juste dit aux gens les parties de moi qu’ils s’attendaient à entendre. Comment cela se fait-il ? Au cas où vous ne vous souviendriez pas très bien du lycée, il faut s’intégrer. Et que vous vouliez vous intégrer aux enfants populaires ou à la contre-culture, si vous voulez avoir des amis, vous devez avoir quelque chose en commun avec quelqu’un. Et plus votre introduction est sûre, plus vous avez de chances de vous lier d’amitié. J’ai donc trouvé comment dire les bonnes choses et j’ai survécu au lycée sans être ostracisé comme un “aspirant Ninja gobeur de quiches”, et c’était déjà une victoire. Mais le jour de la remise des diplômes, j’étais tellement excitée à l’idée d’aller à l’université. C’était un endroit où les gens payaient pour apprendre. Elle devait être remplie de gens incroyablement passionnés, n’est-ce pas ? Oui, devinez à quel point j’avais tort ; je vous donne un indice. Il y en avait beaucoup. Il s’avère que, passionnés ou non, tous les étudiants du campus se présentaient d’une seule manière. “Hé, je suis Kevin, et ma matière principale est…”, et tout le monde se fichait de savoir quelle était votre matière principale. C’était la seule présentation autorisée. Mais vous savez pourquoi ? Parce que tout le monde en avait une. C’était une façon de se définir, mais toujours dans la sécurité des programmes établis. Je dois l’admettre : je n’ai pas toujours été l’homme charmant, charismatique et bien habillé que vous voyez devant vous. En fait, j’étais un gros nerd qui aurait fait n’importe quoi pour avoir des amis. Alors, quand j’étais à l’université, j’ai maîtrisé l’introduction sûre, la conversation sûre et l’amitié sûre. Et vous savez quoi ? Les amis sûrs sont ennuyeux ! Nous ne faisions rien. On s’asseyait dans nos dortoirs, on se plaignait des profs et des devoirs, et c’était ça “traîner”. En première année, j’avais plus “d’amis” que de temps à passer avec eux. Et je ne m’amusais même pas. Lorsque j’ai réalisé cela, j’ai franchi le point de basculement et j’ai finalement cessé de me soucier de m’intégrer et j’ai commencé à me soucier d’être heureuse. Alors, au lieu d’être prudent, j’ai commencé à être honnête. “Bonjour, je m’appelle Kevin, et je suis fasciné par la chimie et la physique.” “Bonjour, je m’appelle Kevin, et mon groupe préféré est Muse.” “Bonjour, je m’appelle Kevin et j’adore peindre avec les doigts !” On n’en sort pas grandi, on n’en sort pas. Et ce qui est amusant quand on s’autorise à être soi-même, c’est que tous ces gens ennuyeux ont cessé de vouloir passer du temps avec moi parce que je n’étais pas en sécurité. Et tous les gens qui sont restés dans les parages étaient géniaux ! C’étaient des gens qui faisaient des choses : nous faisions de la randonnée, nous nagions, nous pratiquions les arts martiaux ensemble, nous pouvions discuter de tout, des trous noirs aux humoristes, de Wittgenstein à Winnie l’ourson, et pendant tout ce temps, nous riions. Et il est si facile de se perdre dans le plaisir. J’ai donc veillé à me rappeler une chose simple : je n’aurais jamais de vrais amis si je n’étais pas prête à être rejetée par tous les autres. Lorsque j’ai obtenu mon diplôme universitaire, j’étais prête à entrer dans le monde réel. J’avais appris à renoncer à la sécurité du conformisme et j’étais prêt à rencontrer d’autres adultes accomplis. Et devinez combien j’en ai rencontré. Oui, à peu près les mêmes que vous. Il s’avère qu’il s’agit de la même présentation qu’à l’université, sauf que maintenant, ils portent un costume ou, plus souvent, un badge. “Bonjour, mon nom est insignifiant, et je suis mon travail.” Comme je l’ai dit au début, je suis fier de mon travail. J’ai le privilège de pouvoir gagner ma vie en collectant des fonds pour l’orchestre symphonique, mais quand j’avais neuf ans, je ne me suis jamais présenté en disant : “Bonjour, je m’appelle Kevin, et quand je serai grand, je veux être rédacteur de demandes de subventions”. Je n’étais pas un enfant aussi bizarre. Et même aujourd’hui, en tant qu’adulte, il y a des choses qui me passionnent bien plus que d’envoyer des budgets de projets et des rapports annuels. Et c’est bien de passion qu’il s’agit. Je trouve hallucinant que tant de gens aient tant de passions et veuillent tant les partager avec le monde, mais qu’ils ne le fassent pas de peur d’être critiqués par des gens dont ils ne se soucient même pas. Je parlerai de ma passion à n’importe qui : à une foule lors d’une soirée, à la femme qui fait la queue à l’épicerie, et à vous au fond, qui que ce soit, parce que si un étranger ne pense pas que les vieux films de kung-fu sont totalement géniaux, et alors ? Je ne les reverrai probablement jamais et je ne les aime pas moins pour autant. Mais si cette personne est totalement fan de “La 36e chambre de Shaolin”, alors je viens de me faire un nouveau meilleur ami. Quoi qu’il en soit, j’ai gagné. Et vous aussi. La question ultime est de savoir comment se présenter. C’est délicat. Vous me connaissez assez bien maintenant, mais j’ai huit bonnes minutes pour vous dire qui je suis. Comment faire passer tout cela en une seule phrase ? C’est à vous de le découvrir, et je vous mets au défi de le faire. Mais je sais qu’il est utile d’avoir un exemple pour vous inspirer, alors permettez-moi de terminer par ma présentation : “Bonjour, je m’appelle Kevin Bahler, et j’aime quand les gens sont vraiment heureux. Je vous remercie de votre attention. |
