Where do you place your identity?

In college I had a professor who once argued that even the most basic labels are subjective. He went on to declare: “I’m a teacher, I’m a surfer, I’m a lover”. Back then I was not a aware of the fact that he was probably paraphrasing the lyrics of the old slacker anthem “The Joker Song”  by the Steve Miller Band whose lyrics go like this: “I’m a picker, I’m a grinner,I’m a lover, I’m a sinner I play my music in the sun I’m a joker I’m a smoker”. It’s a fun song that included a nonsense word (pompatus) invented by the singer for no apparent reason. Anyhow, in case you are wondering where you’ve heard those words before let me just say that they feature in an old 90s Levi’s commercial that was massively popular both in the United States and in Spain.

Anyway, I am discussing this because personal descriptions are an integral part of both the B2 and the C1 syllabus and we sometimes fail to remember that people can be defined in an awful lot of different ways. For obvious reasons, you may think of me as your English teacher but my wife sees me as her husband and a bunch of session musicians in Biscay think of me as a singer songwriter. How do I see myself? That’s an interesting question that I will not answer because this blog is not about me but about how English can be used. So just ask yourselves. How do you see yourselves? Is it through your job? Do you view yourselves in terms of your passion, your nationality, your sexual orientation, your religion, your race or your favorite hobby? Based on your viewpoint you may come up with different descriptions. You should think of the word person as a mere synonym for human being or homo sapiens. Not exactly an interesting choice. Someone can be your roommate, your patient, your co-worker, an old flame, a passer-by, a potential customer or simply a pain in the neck. By using that vocabulary you steer clear of bland descriptions which may be correct but lack nuance.

Those looking for inspiration may want to watch the clip below, in which world famous musician Yo-Yo Ma discusses this very topic and even his memorable encounter with Pau Casals (Pablo Casals in the English-speaking world) who arguably was the best cellist in the world in the first half of the 20th century.