Giving Advice- Personality Problems

Personality problems giving advice speaking

character adjectives, advice phrases, and too and enough

Imagine you have a problem with the personality of someone, e.g. someone you know through your work. Choose one of the words below, explain why it is a problem, and ask for your partner’s advice. Listen to their suggestions and respond, continuing until you agree on a good solution. Then switch roles and do the same again.

Useful language for explaining the problems

Personality problems to talk about

… am/ is (too)…

… ‘m not/ isn’t… (enough)

 

• adaptable/ flexible – unadaptable/ inflexible
• ambitious – unambitious
• amusing/ humorous/ funny – serious
• careful – careless
• confident – nervous
• conservative/ traditional – adventurous/ radical
• creative – uncreative
• direct – indirect/ diplomatic
• dynamic/ a self-starter – passive
• efficient – inefficient
• energetic – unenergetic
• friendly – unfriendly
• hard working – lazy
• helpful – unhelpful
• intelligent/ smart – unintelligent
• knowledgeable – ignorant
• moody/ unpredictable
• motivated/ driven – unmotivated
• optimistic – pessimistic
• polite – impolite/ rude
• positive – negative
• practical – impractical
• punctual – unpunctual
• quiet – loud/ noisy
• relaxed – stressed
• reliable – unreliable
• shy – outgoing
• sociable – unsociable
• strict – easy-going
• superstitious – unsuperstitious

 

Possible people to complain about

• I…
• My colleague/ One of my colleagues…
• The person at the next desk…
• The head of my team/ section/ department/ division/ company…
• A member of my team/ section/ department/ division/ company…
• My direct boss (= My line manager)…
• New employees…
• Young employees…
• (Middle) managers…
• Executives/ Directors…
• The person in charge of…
• The new…
• A customer/ client…
• A supplier/ service provider…
• One of my business contacts…
• My husband/ wife…
• One of my children…
• My father/ mother…
• My local…
• My (next door) neighbour…
• My (English) teacher…

 

Asking for advice

What do you think I should do?

Do you have any advice (for me)?

What would you recommend that I do?

What’s the best solution?

How can I solve this problem, do you think?

 

Useful language for giving advice

You (really) should…

I recommend…

My recommendation is to…

 

Useful language for reacting to advice

Thanks. That’s a good idea.

I’ll try that.

I’ll do that.

Are you sure that’s a good idea? Wouldn’t it make more sense to…?

I’m not so sure that will work. Do you have any other ideas?

 

Ask about any words above you don’t understand, working together to make related problems and solutions each time.

Personality word synonyms and opposites

Without looking above for now, write at least one word in each gap below. Words divided by a slash (/) should have (more or less or exactly) the same meaning, and words divided by a dash (–) should have opposite meanings. Words not above may also be possible.

 

adaptable/ flexible – _______________/ ___________________

ambitious – ___________________

amusing/ humorous/ funny – __________________

careful – ______________________

confident – ______________________

conservative/ traditional – _________________/ radical

creative – _________________________

direct – _______________________/ diplomatic

_________________/ a self-starter – passive

efficient –  ____________________

energetic – ____________________________

friendly – __________________

hard working – _______________

helpful – _________________

intelligent/ _______________ - unintelligent

___________________ – ignorant

moody/ __________________

motivated/ driven – _____________________

optimistic – ___________________

polite – impolite/ _____________

positive – _______________

practical – __________________

punctual – _________________

quiet – loud/ ____________________

relaxed – _________________

reliable – ___________________

______________ – outgoing

sociable – _______________

________________ – easy-going

superstitious – _________________

 

Compare your answers with the last page. Other answers are possible, so please check if you wrote something different.

Choose one of the people above, e.g. “line manager”, work together to select a top five most important characteristics and five worst characteristics for that person to have.