“Why don’t we go around the room and introduce ourselves, and say a few words about what you do here.”

English Lesson: Why don’t we go around the room and introduce ourselves, and say a few words about what you do here.

You're leading a training session for a small group of people at work. You'd like for all of the participants to know a little about each other, so ask them to give introductions at the beginning of the training.

Why don’t we go around the room and introduce ourselves, and say a few words about what you do here.

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Why don't we (do something)

This is a way to make a suggestion to do something together. You use this when you expect the listener to agree with you:

I don't feel like cooking tonight. Why don't we order something out?

Why don't we make a deal: if I help you with this, you have to promise to come to my game on Sunday.

go around the room and (do something)

When you're in some kind of meeting or party, the phrase "go around the room and ___" means for each person to do something, one by one. For example:

Let's go around the room and introduce ourselves. I'll start.

This means that each person in the room is going to introduce himself or herself. The speaker is going to go first, then another person, then another person, and so on.

Here's another example:

I'll go around the room and ask everyone to vote.

This means that the speaker is going to walk to each person in the room, one-by-one, and ask each person to vote for something.

introduce (oneself)

To "introduce yourself" means to tell people some basic information about yourself – things like:

  • your name
  • your occupation (job)
  • where you're from

You can ask people to introduce themselves at a meeting or a party:

Please introduce yourself.

If you're giving a speech, you might say this:

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is...

say a few words (about something)

To "say a few words" means to talk about something in a public setting. You can use this phrase in situations like:

  • in a meeting
  • at a wedding reception
  • at a church service

Here's how you can use the phrase:

Excuse me. I'd like to say a few words.

Beatriz, would you like to say a few words about what your team has been working on lately?

what (someone) does

"What you do" often means your job. If you want to ask someone about their job, you ask this:

What do you do?

If you want to talk about someone's job or their responsibilities, you can talk about it like this:

I know that she works at a technology company, but I don't really know what she does.