E.V. Makarova, T.P. Kraule, O.V. Demidova

Part I

GETTING TO KNOW EACH OTHER

Unit 1

Introducing People and

Starting a Conversation

Listen, read and talk about...

• yourself and others

• rules of introducing people

• good manners

• culture of communication

Learn how to...

• introduce yourself and others in a formal situation

• introduce yourself and others in an informal situation

• ask questions

• start a conversation

Practice in ...

• introducing yourself and others

• asking questions

• having ‘small talk’

Revise...

• vocabulary and speech patterns

• basic word order

• word order in questions

Unit 1

Introducing people and starting a conversation

 building vocabulary for greetings and introductions

1 In different social situations we need to introduce ourselves and others. Usually we don’t think how to do it in our own language because we just do it. Sometimes we are not sure how to do it in English, so let’s discuss what we know about that. What do you say introducing yourself? Do you often take initiative in getting acquainted with people? How do you greet someone you know well? Are personal questions appropriate when you first meet a person? What are ‘safe’ questions? What sorts of hand gestures are common? What do they mean? Do people from different cultures have different rules of greeting and introducing themselves and others?

Developing Communication Skills:

Introductions

2 Are these greetings formal (F) or informal (I)?

1.	Hello. I’m Carol Brown.	
2.	Hello there!	
3.	How do you do?	
4.	Hi! Nice to meet you.	
5.	Ladies and Gentlemen! It gives me great pleasure to welcome you all to the Faculty meeting.	
6.	Good morning, Mr. Brown.	

3 Choose suitable responses for these expressions.

1. Nice to meet you.

a. Pleased to meet you too.

b. Hello!

2. How do you do?

a. Hi! Haven’t seen you for a long time!

b. How do you do?

3. Hello, Jane. How are you?

a. Nice to meet you.

b. Fine! And how are you?

4. Allow me to introduce Prof. Brown to you.

a. Hello.

b. How do you do?

5. Hi, mom. This is my fellow student Alex.

a. Nice to meet you, Alex.

b. How do you do?

6. Miss Follet, let me introduce my colleague, Mr. Brown, to you.

a. How do you do?

b. I’m glad to see you.

4 Read the dialogues. Decide whether they are taking place in formal (f), semi-formal (s) or informal (I) situations:

1.	– Mr. Smith, may I introduce a colleague of mine, Mr. Brown? – How do you do, Mr. Brown? – How do you do?	
2.	– This is John Green. He’s our Project Coordinator. – Pleased to meet you, Mr. Green. Did you have a good journey?	
3.	– Alan, have you met Linda? She is my groupmate. – Hi, Linda. Nice meeting you. Is this your first visit to the USA?	
4.	– Hello, everybody. I’m Nick. Nick Salt. I’m a first year student of philosophy. – Hi, Nick. This is Ann and this is Mary. They are from the Institute of Journalism. – Nice meeting you. How do you like being students?	
5.	– Miss Lane, I’d like to introduce you to a colleague of mine. – Certainly. – Miss Lane, this is my colleague, Mr. Kent. Mr. Kent this is Miss Lane. – How do you do? It is a pleasure to meet you Mr. Kent. – It is a pleasure to meet you too, Miss Lane.	

5 Choose from Appendix 1c. Making introductions the most suitable phrases to introduce yourself to:

• your teacher

• your groupmates

 6 To get to know each other better introduce yourself and add a sentence or two about yourself. Use some of the following ideas to begin:

Let me introduce myself, my name is Maria and I have high hopes of becoming ... My favourite pastime is ...

Hi, everybody! My name is Pavel. My ambition is ....

My name is Julia. I’m glad to meet you all. I graduated from school ...

Hello everyone! My name is …. I’m happy to be a student. I enjoy ...

 PRACTICING IN ‘small talk’

1 – Hi, Maria! You’re from the Department of Philosophy, aren’t you? – Yes, I am. Are you from the Department of Psychology? – Yes, we are. Have you already had your classes of English? – Yes, we had a Placement Test last week and I’m in an advanced group. – Congratulations!

• 2 Practice the conversations with a partner. Match a line in a with a reply in b and a further comment in c.

A	B	C
What a lovely day it is today!	I am enjoying it.	Was it a good game?
It’s very wet today.	Yes, no problems.	That’s very kind of you.
How are you today?	I’m very well, thanks.	We had a pub lunch and went for a walk.
Did you have a nice weekend?	No, I missed it.	The plane was a bit late, but it didn’t matter.
How are you finding living in London?	Thank you.	Makes you feel miserable, doesn’t it?
Did you have a good journey?	Thank you very much.	I got it in Paris last year.
Did you watch the football yesterday?	Yes.	How about you?
What a lovely coat you’re wearing?	Yes, it was lovely.	It was a bit strange at first, but I’m getting used to it.
If you have any problems, just ask me for help.	Mm. Horrible.	Beautiful, isn’t it?

T 1.1. Listen to the tape and check.

T 1.2.

1. Maria and Jean-Paul are foreign students in Britain. Their teachers are trying to be friendly. Listen to two conversations and decide:

• Which conversation is more successful?

• What makes one conversation more successful than the other?

2. Listen again. Think of necessary additions to Maria’s short answers.

 Act out the first conversation to make it more successful.

 getting acquainted with your groupmates

1 Take a look at the ‘Group portrait’ presented by some students who united under the motto ‘Life-Long Learners’. Restore the questions they asked their groupmates to make this portrait. Write them down.



1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

2 Think of three questions you would like to know about your groupmates .

FOR IDEAS: their favourite food, favourite music, favourite subject, countries they have visited, pets they have, exercises they do to keep fit, their experience in learning English, etc.

 Go round the class and ask your questions to get material for your short reports. Report to the class what you have found.

 3 Work in groups of three and decide how to present the findings of your surveys together. Choose one of these options:

• to write an article “We are people with common interests, yet we are different”

• to make a poster “Group Portrait”

• to draw a diagram illustrating your common interests and differences.

Be ready to make a short report at your next class.

 AdDressing with GOOD manners