Hello, I ‘am
Lesson I
Yourselves and Environment…
When the night comes, and you are alone in your room, have you ever thought of yourselves? Have you ever tried to find out about you yourselves? Have you ever thought of what have you done today?
Finding yourselves is the most important thing said Gertrude Moskowitz (Moskowitz, 1978: 61).
To know yourselves, you may explore your physical features and your personality and characteristics.
A. Physical Features
Physical features will give you a description about your outer performance. You may describe yourselves by mentioning the general features first, let say I am tall and dark. I have fair skin and round face. Now, let’s take a look at the expression used to describe you yourselves.
Complexion : fair, dark, black
Height : tall, short, average height
Age : young, old, elderly, middle-aged
Figure : skinny, muscular, small, tiny, big, slender, slim, plump, obese,
pleasantly plump, fat, stocky
Look : attractive, beautiful, handsome, charming, pretty, cute, cool, sexy,
funky, plain, ugly
Now, read the following text about physical features
Hi, I am Intan Savitri but my friends call me Intan. I come from Cirebon but I am in Solo now. I am 20 years old. I weigh 45 kilos, while my height is about 165 cm. My friend say that I am pretty and attractive. I have long and beautiful hair and fair skin. I like having sports so that my body looks sexy.
Activity 1
Identifying your general features
You have to identify your general features and tell your partner.
Verb
When we give physical features in English, we use a complete sentence. A complete sentence has a Subject (Italic) and a Predicate (Underlined). Let’s check the examples:
My name is Intan Savitri. My friends call me Intan.
I come from Cirebon, but now I am in Solo.
I am 20 years old now.
I weigh 45 kilos; meanwhile my height is 165 cm.
Yes/No Question with be
Is Intan from Cirebon? Yes, she is
Is Intan 21 years old? No, she is not 21 years old
Is Intan 170 cm height? No, she is not 170 cm height.
Wh- and H question with be
What’s your name? My name is Intan.
Where are you from? I am from Cirebon.
How tall are you, Intan? I am 165 cm tall.
What is your height, Intan? I am 165 cm.
How much do you weigh? I weigh 45 kilos.
What is your weight, Intan? I am 45 kilos.
How old are you Intan? I am 20 years old.
What is your age, Intan? I am 20.
Activity 2
Using Wh- and H question
Pair up with your friend and ask your friend about his/her physical features using Wh- and H question
Key Words
There are some words you can use to describe your physical features
ebony bright kinky chubby plump
blue narrow curly slender pleasantly plum
blond bald flat slim cleft-chin
You can also describe part of your body using the following words
Hair : curly, kinky, long, short, wavy, crew cut, blond, red,
black, white, grey
Face : long, oval, round
Eyes : small, round, bright, slanted
Nose : small, flat
Cheeks : hollow, chubby
Shoulder : narrow, wide
Legs : slender
Body : muscular, skinny, slim, slender, fat, flabby
Activity 3
Write your physical features using the words you have learnt
B. Your Personality
To know yourselves, you have to also know about your personality and your characteristics. It deals with what the person is really like.
If everyday you do not want to do anything, just lay on your bed, what kind of personality do you have? If you are deserve to get angry with someone who makes mistakes, but you forgive him, what kind of personality do you have?
Activity 4
Identifying your personality
Diligent honest humorous creative passive
Lazy tidy serious fussy selfish
Emotional stingy lively aggressive intelligent
Patient thrifty ambitious active energetic
Friendly untidy cheerful independent naughty
Activity 5
Find out the antonyms of the personality on activity 4
Activity 6
What are your personality
1. Your friend borrows your book, but he forgets to give the book back to you on time.
2. Your friend keeps disturbing you when you take your rest.
3. Your friend calls you in the middle of the night to ask for your favor.
4. Your friend accuses you of stealing his wallet and next day he finds his wallet under the pile of books.
5. Today is your payment day and you want to have this week end with your best friend to spend your money.
Adjective to describe your personality
In English, we use adjective to describe personality traits. Adjective is a word that is used to modify another word (noun) and also has the function as a complement in a full sentence.
Let’s take a look at the examples
Intan has a long hair.
Her hair is wavy and blond.
He likes to be a soldier, his hair is always in crew cut style.
Adverb to describe your personality
Instead of using adjective, adverb can also be used to describe your personality.
Take a look at the example of using adjective (underlined) and adverb (italic).
Intan is very tidy. She tidily clean up her room.
Intan is also an honest She admit her mistake honestly.
His father looks so calm. He calmly gives us best advice.
Activity 7
Using adverb to describe your personality
C. Personality and Environment
Sometimes we forget that we all have our own personality and characteristics. We are born with strength, talent, confidence, images and also power. Then, although we have already had them all, sometimes we often fail to recognize a number of them. Frequently we are more aware of our weakness than our strengths and powers. In addition we are programmed to keep our strong points to ourselves or others will see us as immodest.
In building self-confidence and a strong self-image, individuals must be aware of their strengths, get feed back as to what positive qualities are seen in them and be able to acknowledge their attributes.
Activity 8
Identifying your strength, confidence, talent and power
Some might say that the personality is influenced by the environment. Some also say that your personality is influenced by the time you were born. It is about horoscope either Western or Chinese. Do you believe in horoscope?
Activity 9
Identifying your personality, horoscope and environment
Personal Pronouns
Personal pronoun refer to :
1. the speaker, called the first person
Singular : I
Plural : we
2. the person spoken to, called the second person
you (singular and plural)
3. the person or thing being spoken of, called third person
Singlar : he (male); she (female); it (for things; also for live beings whose sex is unimportant to the speaker.
Plural : they (for all live beings and for all things)
Activity 10
Use third person to tell about your partner’s personality.
Reference
Agus Dwi Priyanto, S.S., English for All. Pratama Mulia Computer Course. Surakarta.
Fletcher, Mark. 1994. Making Polite English. English Experience. London
Frank, Marcella. 1972. Modern English, A Practical Reference Guide. New York: New York University.
Interchange 1
Tillit, Bruce, et. all. 1985. Speaking Naturally. Cambride: Cambride University Press
Yayasan LIA. 1996a. All about People. Jakarta. PT. Siwibakti Darma.
Yayasan LIA. 1999. All That I Want to Know. Jakarta. PT. Siwibakti Darma.
Yayasan LIA. 1999. Finding Our Identity. Jakarta. PT. Siwibakti Darma.
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