Describing Personalities

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'll trying to describe a personality. You will learn a tons of new words.

Exactly, and as you said we're gonna describe people's personalities, not their physical attributes, we're gonna concentrate on how they are, and 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 back in a moment to talk about some of these great words. Dialogue first time 0:40- 1:40

All right, we're back. So a we're gonna divide this up into "language takeaway" parts 1 and 2. So lets start with five keywords now on "language takeaway". Voice: 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. Eh that means moving out, going out. Outgoing means someone is very comfortable talking to strangers. Or talking to people that they don't know very well. E.g.: My brother is very outgoing, he loves meeting new people. He loves starting conversations with strangers.

So the opposite would be shy.

That's right.

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 eh it's hard to describe, since everyone's superstitions are different. In many cultures there are different superstitions. So e.g., 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, you're superstitious? Do you think that black cats bring bad luck?

No, not at all.

No, interesting ??3:15

All right. And this is also an interesting word, a way to describe people who are very believing, a person that is naive.

Okay, so that's already naive, means that someone generally beliefs most things that you tell them.

Right.

So if I told you Marco: hey did you know that it's supposed? 3:36 to rain frogs tomorrow?

No way, really!

Eh yeah, really. If Marco believes me, he is naive. That means that, you know, probably not gonna rain frogs tomorrow but he .. he believes everything I say, 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 are being naive, it's offensive, eh so you have to be careful when you say this.

Okay, moving on we also had an interesting adjective eh that describes 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. E.g., 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, eh it was all about young students at High school who are clumsy. And so they should buy this this special folder for their .. their .. eh their schoolwork, to help them cuz 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. Eh 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. Eh.. there are worse things to say. Eh but if someone often drops things you can call them clumsy. Or you can also say: oh, you are such a butterfingers.

Butterfingers.

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 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 2. Voice: Language takeaway

All right, so in this part we're going 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, extraverted, extraverted.

A person that is extraverted.

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 extraverted, often meets new people, goes out and does social things, goes to the movies, goes out with friends, meets .. meets strangers, talks to strangers. Again, it's like being outgoing. Someone who's comfortable with new people.

And eh what about the opposite? So we said that shy is the opposite of outgoing, what would be the opposite for extraverted?

Extraverted's opposite is introverted. Intro means in, not out. So that means someone who is very shy, who is uncomfortable with new people.

Okay, and well apart from being extraverted, the test also said that this person is very diligent.

Eew, diligent is a great word. This is a word you wanna 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 kinda sounds like monogamy, but it's magnanimous.

Magnanimous, 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 the person who does things for the benefit of other people. Someone who is thinking about the well being and the health and the life of others.

So it would be a person that likes to share, or a person that is not selfish.

Right. So if you donate half of your salary this month, to victims of an earthquake, I would say: Marco that is so magnanimous of you, you're so magnanimous.

Okay, awesome. And apart from being magnanimous, eh 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. You know, someone who is eloquent uses big words, but is also very good at making other people listen.

Okay. So it's usually about speaking, so he is ... you would say he's an eloquent speaker.

That's right. So someone who is eloquent is a g.. fun or good or interesting to listen to.

Okay, and our last description for personalities and eh the way people are, is the person that is 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 eh 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 is 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 sky diving.

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 ten keywords, here, a lot of adjectives, but they are a great way to describe yourself, maybe if you had a job interview, they .. they you know sometimes a typic question is "how would you describe yourself in three .. using three adjectives?".

I'm extraverted, I'm diligent, and I am open-minded.

Yeah, that's awesome, see. You sound really professional when you say things like this.

eewh eew, give me ?10:28 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 you biggest faults?". So you can say well maybe I am superstitious and naive. Right.

You would not gonna??? 10:45 say that in a job interview

in a job interview . Ha ha. But I mean na I don't know, maybe. Because you have to say something right!.

You do, but I would say eh sometimes I'm a bit too daring, or, sometimes I take things personally, eh so well we can talk about that another time, but I think for now, it would be good if we could listen to today's dialogue one more time, and really got a good sense of how to use these words. Dialogue second time 11:10 - 12:10

All right, we're back. So now going into descriptions. What are three adjectives that you would use to describe someone that i... that you hate the most. So going back to describing people, how would you describe like 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.

All right. So I see what you're saying well?12:41 I really like extraverted hard working people. Eh but in English we have a word to describe someone who is too extraverted, too hard working. We call this person a type A personality. Type A.

Type A.

The letter A. And this means someone who works very very hard, who's very very serious, but who is always anxious, always needs to get things done. Right. And so these people can be very hard to work with. Because they're controlling, and they're never calm.

So they're not easy going.

Not, they're not easy going. 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, because you know with friends it's hard to be around with 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 are 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 the website, Englishpod.com. Let us know more about you.

Okay, we'll see everyone there. C,M Bye.