Lesson 01 - Introducing people in formal and informal situations

Introducing people in formal and informal situations

Introduction

During this week you will begin to learn how to communicate with people in English
and acquire information from various English-based sources. In order to communicate
we need to get to know people. Therefore, the lessons this week will help you to
master the language functions related to introductions, mechanics of writing an
effective paragraph, basic skills in reading and the grammar required for these
functions.

Reading the Dialogues

Dialogue 1

Ms. M : Hello, I don’t think we’ve met before. My name is Sumana Mendis.

Mr. Ricko : I’m Paul Perera. Pleased to meet you. Ms. Mendis.

Ms. M. : Where are you from Mr. Perera?

Mr. R. : I am from Llyods . Perhaps you have heard of them? I’m a Soft ware
engineer there. And what about you? What do you do?

Ms. M : Of course the famous Lloyds! I am in hardware development at Logos
International.

Mr. R. : That’s interesting. Perhaps you can tell me …….

In this dialogue you would have noticed how the two speakers introduce themselves.
Read the next dialogue and see how some one else is introduced

Dialogue 2

Minoli: Kamalika, I don’t think you know Tom Perera?

Tom, this is Kamalika Mendis from Del Com.

Kamalika: No, I don’t think we’ve met before.
Nice to meet you Mr. Perera

Tom: Pleased to meet you too.
Do you also work with Minoli?

Kamalika: No, I’m from ComCode Finance


You would have noticed that both dialogue 1 and 2 take place in formal situations.
Now listen to dialogue 3 and find out if the situation is different.

Dialogue 3

Saman: Hello, Ruwani

Ruwani: Hi, Saman. Why not join us and meet Prasadi?

Saman: I’d love to. Hello Prasadi. Are you a batch mate of Ruwani?

Prasadi: Hi, yes we are both specializing in IT.
How about you?
Did you notice that while dialogue 1 & 2 take place in formal situations dialogue 3 is
in an informal situation.
Read the next dialogue and note how Saman introduces Suresh to his boss. What type
of a situation is this?

Dialogue 4

Sunimal: Sir, this is Suresh Kanagaraja

Suresh, this is Mr. Lakshith De Mel , the Director of our company.

Director: How do you do?

Suresh: Fine, thank you, sir
Glad to meet you.

It is definitely a formal situation. More formal than the second situation.

The Grammar focus – Writing a simple sentence

An English sentence usually has two main parts – a subject and a predicate.
Look at the following sentence.

During the week, introduce yourself formally and informally to four people.
Find out information about them and fill the following table.
1 2 3 4

Name
Country/Town
Profession/Course
of study
Company/institution


Introducing People in Formal and Informal Situations 5/13

Rani / is a teacher.

Subject Predicate

Subject is the topic in the sentence.
Predicate describes or says something more about the subject.
Note the subject and predicate in the following sentences.

1. A pen drive / is very useful.
2. Saman’s brother / likes to be a computer application analyst.
3. The email / you sent was very interesting.

By now you would have realized that a predicate of a sentence can consist of many
elements and as a result it can become very long.
Depending on the different elements in a predicate, there are different types or
patterns of simple sentences.
In this lesson you will identify three types.

Pattern 1

An example of the simplest form of a sentence in English is given below.
Example
Dogs bark.

These type of sentences as you can see contain only a subject and a verb.

Hence Pattern 1 is
Subject + Verb
Let’s now identify the second pattern.

Introducing People in Formal and Informal Situations 6/13

Pattern 2

Look at the following sentences.
1. Raja brought….
2. Srimalee accompanied

Are these sentences complete?

No. unlike in pattern 1 these sentences are incomplete as the verbs here cannot
stand alone. These verbs are called transitive verbs and they are to be followed by
an object.

Here we will want to know
What did Raja buy?
Raja bought a shirt.
Similarly
Whom did Srimalee accompany?
Srimalee accompanied her sister.
Therefore, this sentence pattern is
Subject + verb + object.
Raja bought a shirt.
Srimalee accompanied her sister
In these sentences the verb points to the object.
In writing sentences in English you must also remember another rule.

Pattern III

Let us now examine this sentence.

Raja is a software engineer.
How does this differ from the earlier sentence?
In this sentence the verb points both to the subject and the words that complete the
sentence. Here the verb “is” links the subject and the other elements in the
sentence.
You will notice the same pattern in the following sentence as well.
Kumudu was busy.
When a verb links the subject with another word or word group that describes or
renames the subject that word or word group is called the complement.
Thus the third pattern in a simple sentence is

Simple Present Tense

Introduced yourself and got to know some of the friends who follow
the course with you.

Remember

As second language learners we must remember that in English the word order is
S +V+O
But in our First language the word order may be S+O+V

Imagine this was one of the self introductions .
I’m Sumith Bandara. I live in Kandy. My father works at the Divisional Education
Office.

Can you identify the verbs in this introduction? They are
Am
Live
Works
What is the tense used here? It’s the Simple Present Tense.
We use the simple present tense to talk about things in general, things we do as a
habit or as a general truth. It is not important whether the action is happening at the
time of speaking.
The above sentences describe things that happen everyday. Hence the present tense
has been used.
We can also say
Water boils at 100 degrees centigrade.
This is a general truth. So we use the present tense.
You would have noticed that Sumith says

I live…. but

My father works……..

Remember that when we use the simple present tense we always have to add an
“s” to the third person singular.

I live…..but He lives

They read………..But my friend reads

Don’t forget the “s”
Remember this simple rule ; in the present tense add ‘s’ to third person singular
verbs

Reading

Given below is a passage from the famous novel Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
There may be some words that you do not know. But don’t worry. Read the passage
and find the answers to the given questions.

Mr. Squeer’s appearance was not prepossessing. He had but one eye and the popular
prejudice runs in favour of two. The eye he had was unquestionably useful, but
decidedly not ornamental; being of a greenish grey, and in shape resembling the fan –
light of a street door. The blank side of his face was much wrinkled and puckered up,
which gave him a very sinister appearance especially when he smiled, at which times
his expression bordered closely on the villainous. His hair was very flat and shiny,

save at the ends, where it was brushed stiffly up from a low protruding forehead,
which assorted well with his harsh voice and coarse manner.

1. Who has been described in this passage?
2. Complete the following Table

Adjectives

Adjectives are words that describe nouns. They usually answer the question “what
kind?” about the nouns they describe. Generally, adjectives appear before the nouns
they qualify.

For example

I have a new wrist watch.
Adj. noun

He is a clever boy
You would have noticed that in these sentences we use the simple sentence structure
S+V+O and the adjective comes before the noun.
However Remember that adjectives sometimes follow the verb.

For Example

These stories are interesting.
They look tired.
But these same adjectives can sometimes come before the noun.

For Example,

These are interesting stories.
The teacher asked the tired boy to rest.
These sentences follow the sentence pattern S+V+C
There are several adjectives in the above reading passage. You have identified some
of them when you completed the Table.
If you read the passage again you will notice that most of the sentences follow the
S+V+C pattern and the adjectives follow the verb.

For Example

The eye he had was unquestionably useful, .not ornamental;
being of a greenish grey.
The blank side of his face was much wrinkled and puckered up,
However, if you like you can use them to describe nouns as well.
For example; Flat and shiny hair
Greenish grey eyes
Wrinkled and puckered up face
Sinister appearance
Harsh and coarse voice
In the next section you will be able to use these adjectives to describe people.

Describing people

We usually describe people or places that are of interest to us. However, there are
situations such as giving evidence, writing a notice to describe a missing person or
thing, we need to give very specific details which will help the reader to create a
clear picture of the person or thing.

Imagine that a group of friends went on a trip and one of you got lost. You decided to
inform the police and put a notice in the local newspaper. How would you describe
your friend?

What information should you include?
You should include a description of his

· Appearance – what he looks like
· Habits – what he usually does
· Qualities – what he is like

The short passage given below describes the missing person. It contains details of
appearance, habits and qualities. Can you identify them?
A young man named Jeya Kumar has been missing since 20th November 2006. He is in
his early twenties. He is well-built and of medium height. He is fair in complexion and

has a beard; He has dark hair, blue eyes and a wide mouth. He always wears neatly
and has the habit of looking at his watch frequently. He usually speaks in Sinhala
even though he is a Tamil. He is soft-spoken and well–mannered.

Describing objects

Read the following description
A ballpoint pen is a writing instrument. It consists of a case, a small rolling ball, a

socket and a reservoir. The case is made of plastic. It holds the socket, ball and
reservoir. The socket is made of metal. It holds the ball, while the plastic reservoir

contains the ink. The ink moves down the reservoir by the action of gravity and
covers the ball. The ball has two functions. When the pen is in use, the ball transfers
the ink to the writing surface. When the pen is not in use, the ball is stationary, and
it prevents the ink from drying out. The ink is a sticky liquid containing dye. The ball
is made of steel and it is generally 1mm in diameter.