Hello everyone and welcome to EnglishPod.
My name is Marco.
My name is Catherine and today we've got a very, very interesting lesson for you all about building your vocabulary.
So we're trying to describe personalities.
You're going to learn tons of new words.
Exactly.
And as you said, we're going to describe people's personalities, so not their physical attributes.
We're going to concentrate on how they are in personality-wise and stuff like that.
Their character.
That's right.
So let's take a listen to today's dialogue for the first time and we'll be back in a moment to talk about some of these great words.
Okay class, settle down.
I have the results of your individual personality tests.
I am going to hand them out and if you'd like, you can read them out loud to the rest of the class.
I'll read mine.
Okay, go ahead.
It says here that I am adventurous, outgoing, and easygoing.
It says that I'm a little superstitious and occasionally naive.
That's not true.
Well, the test isn't 100% accurate.
Is that all it says?
No.
It also says that I'm open-minded with great ambition but that I can also be reckless and clumsy.
This is stupid.
Okay.
Everyone else wants to read theirs.
I'll go.
It says that I'm an extroverted, well-balanced person.
It says I am generous, outspoken, and very diligent.
This is so true.
It also says that I am a magnanimous, eloquent, and daring.
This is totally me.
Whatever.
These tests are baloney.
Alright, we're back.
So we're going to divide this up into language takeaway parts one and two.
So let's start with five key words now on language takeaway.
The first adjective that came up was adventurous and outgoing.
Outgoing, that's a good one.
Outgoing is a great one.
So think of the word out.
That means moving outgoing.
Outgoing means someone is very comfortable talking to strangers or talking to people that they don't know very well.
For example, my brother is very outgoing.
He loves meeting new people.
He loves starting conversations with strangers.
So the opposite would be shy.
That's the opposite.
Okay, so outgoing.
And then it also describes this person as being a little superstitious.
Okay, superstitious is very interesting because it's hard to describe since everyone's superstitions are different.
In many cultures, there are different superstitions.
So for example, in America, we say that walking under a ladder is bad luck.
Okay, or opening an umbrella inside is bad luck.
So if you believe that your actions will bring you bad luck, you're probably superstitious.
Okay, very good.
So if you are superstitious, you believe in superstitions.
That's right.
So Marco, are you superstitious?
Do you think that black cats bring bad luck?
No, not at all.
No.
No.
Interesting.
All right.
And this is also an interesting word, a way to describe people who are very believing, a person that is naive.
Okay, you said this already.
Naive means that someone generally believes most things that you tell them.
Right.
So if I told you, Marco, hey, did you know that it's supposed to rain frogs tomorrow?
No way.
Really?
Yeah, really.
If Marco believes me, he's naive.
Right.
That means that, you know, probably not going to rain frogs tomorrow, but he believes everything I say.
So he's a little bit naive or inexperienced.
So naive is not really a bad way of describing a person, is it?
No, but it can be.
So you want to be careful.
You know, some people, if you say that they're being naive, it's offensive.
So you have to be careful when you say this.
Okay.
Moving on, we also had an interesting adjective that described another person and it was to be reckless.
I can also be reckless.
Reckless.
Okay, so someone who is reckless often does things without thinking, sometimes things that are dangerous.
For example, Marco, I think that driving a car without wearing your seatbelt is very reckless.
Okay, that means that you're not thinking about safety.
Right.
So a person that is reckless is a kind of a synonym of being a little bit dangerous to be around.
That's right.
Or someone who does things without thinking about their consequences, their results.
Okay.
And also along with reckless, the test said that this person was clumsy.
Oh, I love this word.
There was a very famous commercial when I was growing up in America on the television.
It was all about young students at high school who are clumsy and so they should buy this special folder for their schoolwork to help them because they're so clumsy.
And they're dropping their papers and their books.
Exactly.
So someone who is clumsy often falls down or hits their head or trips or drops their things.
If I drop something on the floor and break it, my mother might say, you're so clumsy.
You should be more careful.
Yeah.
So clumsy, is this insulting if you say, oh, you're so clumsy?
No, it's not so bad.
There are worse things to say.
But if someone often drops things, you can call them clumsy.
Or you can also say, you're such a butter fingers.
Butter fingers.
That means that your fingers are like butter.
They're very slippery.
You drop everything.
Okay.
So clumsy and reckless, they are negative adjectives, right?
They're saying that you do things wrong.
So it's not really a good thing to be reckless or clumsy.
No, it's not really a good thing.
These are not positive characteristics.
Okay, good.
So we took a look at those five, which are very good about one of the people that took the test.
Let's move on now to more language and more adjectives on language takeaway part two.
Language takeaway.
All right.
So in this part, we're going to take a look at positive attributes about a person, right?
They're all good things about someone.
That's right.
And this first one is very good.
Extroverted.
Extroverted.
A person that's extroverted.
So a synonym of this word is outgoing.
Okay.
So it's pretty much the same thing.
That's right.
Because extra means going out.
Out.
So in this case, someone who is extroverted often meets new people, goes out and does social things, goes to the movies, goes out with friends, meets strangers, talks to strangers.
Again, it's like being outgoing.
Someone who's comfortable with new people.
And what about the opposite?
So we said that shy is the opposite of outgoing.
What would be the opposite for extroverted?
Extroverted's opposite is introverted.
Intro means in, not out.
So that means someone who's very shy, who is uncomfortable with new people.
Okay.
And well, apart from being extroverted, the test also said that this person is very diligent.
Ooh, diligent is a great word.
This is a word you want to hear from your teachers and your bosses.
Okay.
If someone says, Marco, you are very diligent at work.
What does that mean?
It means you're very careful.
You always do things very thoroughly.
And also quickly, right?
When you tell them to do something, they do it immediately.
That's right.
So a diligent worker always does a good job and does it in a timely manner.
Okay.
And moving on to our third adjective.
This one is kind of strange.
It kind of sounds like monogamy, but it's magnanimous.
Magnanimous.
All right.
Magnanimous.
This is a great word.
We hear this a lot in the newspaper or on TV about usually famous people.
He did something very magnanimous, or it was a magnanimous gesture.
This describes a person who does things for the benefit of other people.
Someone who is thinking about the wellbeing and the health and the lives of others.
So it would be a person that likes to share or a person that's not selfish.
Right.
So if you donate half of your salary this month to victims of an earthquake, I would say, Marco, that's so magnanimous of you.
You're so magnanimous.
Okay.
Awesome.
And apart from being magnanimous, if a person is eloquent, I guess that's also a positive attribute.
Oh, yeah.
This is another really good one.
Someone who is eloquent is a very good speaker.
Okay.
This means that when they talk, they sound very, very good.
Someone who's eloquent uses big words, but is also very good at making other people listen.
Okay.
So it's usually about speaking.
So you would say he's an eloquent speaker.
That's right.
So someone who is eloquent is fun or good or interesting to listen to.
Okay.
And our last description for personalities and the way people are is a person that's daring.
Well, this can be a good thing or a bad thing.
It depends on who you're talking about because sometimes daring people are also reckless, and this can be dangerous.
But sometimes someone who is daring can be doing good things, like a daring business person might take risks that other people don't take.
Okay.
So a person that's daring dares to take risks, right?
You are very daring.
You, Marco, are daring because recently you jumped out of an airplane, right?
You did some skydiving.
So that would be considered daring.
That's very daring.
I'm not daring like that because I would never jump out of an airplane.
Right.
Okay.
So we took a look at basically 10 key words here, a lot of adjectives, but they're a great way to describe yourself.
Maybe if you're at a job interview, sometimes a typical question is, how would you describe yourself using three adjectives?
I'm extroverted, I'm diligent, and I'm open-minded.
Yeah, that's awesome.
See?
You sound really professional when you say things like this.
Give me the job.
Yeah, exactly.
So and even if you took a look at some of the negative adjectives that we used, it's also a typical job interview question is like, what are your biggest faults?
So you can say, well, maybe I am superstitious and naive, right?
You wouldn't want to say that in a job interview.
But I mean, I don't know, maybe.
Because you have to say something, right?
You do.
But I would say sometimes I'm a bit too daring, or sometimes I take things personally.
So well, we can talk about that another time.
But I think for now, it'd be good if we listen to today's dialogue one more time and really got a good sense of how to use these words.
Okay, class, settle down.
I have the results of your individual personality tests.
I'm going to hand them out.
And if you'd like, you can read them out loud to the rest of the class.
I'll read mine.
Okay, go ahead.
It says here that I am adventurous, outgoing and easygoing.
It says that I'm a little superstitious and occasionally naive.
That's not true.
Well, the test isn't 100% accurate.
Is that all it says?
No, it also says that I'm open minded with great ambition, but that I can also be reckless and clumsy.
This is stupid.
Okay, anyone else wants to read theirs?
I'll go.
It says that I'm an extroverted, well balanced person.
It says I am generous, outspoken and very diligent.
This is so true.
It also says that I am a magnanimous, eloquent and daring.
This is totally me.
Whatever.
These tests are baloney.
All right, we're back.
So now going into descriptions, what are three adjectives that you would use to describe someone that you hate the most?
So going back to describing people, how would you describe one of the main things that really irritate you about someone?
Maybe if they are clumsy, it really bothers you that people are clumsy or reckless maybe.
Ah, I see what you're saying.
Well, I really like extroverted, hardworking people, but in English, we have a word to describe someone who is too extroverted, too hardworking.
We call this person a type A personality, type A, the letter A.
And this means someone who works very hard, who is very serious, but who's always anxious, always needs to get things done.
And so these people can be very hard to work with because they're controlling and they're never calm.
So they're not easygoing.
No, they're not easygoing.
They always want to do what they want to do.
They're usually not very good listeners.
And so this type A personality is something that I would say I'm not a big fan of at work or even when we're going out, with friends, it's hard to be around someone who always has to control you.
This is very interesting.
And I'm sure our listeners have a lot of different ways to describe things that irritate them, maybe about people or maybe attributes that they really admire about someone.
That's right.
And I want to give everybody a little bit of homework today.
Go home.
Or if you're at home, look up a word in the dictionary that describes yourself, an adjective to describe yourself.
I think this is a really good homework assignment because you'll be improving your vocabulary and then put it on our website, EnglishPod.com.
Let us know more about you.
Okay.
We'll see everyone there.
Bye everyone.
Bye.