First impression is important

You start your English classes after a long break. You meet new people in your work, school, etc. You simply go out and unexpectedly make new friends. What do you say about yourself in such situations? Are we even supposed to say more than just our name? Yes, we are.

The researchers say that it takes us circa 7 seconds to decide if we like someone. The same applies to others that have the same time to know whether they like us. In this short time we barely can say anything but after we can prove if our speaker's first impression of us was right or wrong.

Think now of all the situations when you were asked to introduce yourself. How was it? In most situations it's quite stressful and people do not exactly know what to say. Meeting new people in our life is inevitable, so why don't we prepare for that properly?

Casual introduction 

This type of introduction should require some neutral info about us. The best reference is our hobby so that we can find out if we share interests with someone else. If you have pets, that's something you can mention at this point. Basically, any topic is welcome but try not to discuss politics, religion and other controversial topics. Take a look at the example below:

“Hey, I’m Mathias but you can call me Matt. I grew up in Germany and recently I’ve moved to Poland. I speak German, English and Italian. I love gaming, I can spend the whole day playing games. That’d be cool if you were interested in games, too.”

Business introduction

In this situation you’ll need a strategy for your introduction. You can use your casual introduction but try to make it sound more professional. If your hobby is Netflix&chill, think of your other hobbies. You don't have to pretend to be someone else but there's a number of things that are more preferable to say. Take a look at the example below:

“Hello, my name is XXX. I am a (provide your position) from (provide the company name). I am originally from the United States and I currently live in Poland. I have been involved in the company since 2011, and specialize in business customer relations. Before starting a professional career, I studied economics, management and philosophy at different universities, in different countries. That’s how I fell in love with travelling. In my free time, I also enjoy hiking, reading detective books, and exploring cities by e-scooter.”

After having read both examples, what are your thoughts? Are you inspired to work on your own introduction? Can you point out any differences between them?
And, finally, when was the last time you had to introduce yourself?

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