I tried an exercise with a group of students recently where I gave each of them a different picture and asked them to describe the image. The subject matter of the photographs included serene landscapes, animals, especially monkeys with very expressive faces, and bizarre images. Although the group might be considered an ‘intermediate level’ (there’s that word ‘level’ again!), the adjectives that they used were fairly basic. The most frequent offerings were: big, small, nice, beautiful, funny, happy, sad and various colours.
It’s quite possible that there are cultural factors at play here in terms of how people from different places relate to and describe things and places but I have a feeling that it was more a case of ‘adjective fear’. People are generally afraid of saying something which may be considered ‘silly’ by others and when we describe something we are expressing a personal opinion. We don’t want people to think we have silly opinions on top of making a mistake in class with the wrong word or phrase. The fear experienced is amplified. Consequently, the students ‘played safe’ and used generally well-known adjectives that were indisputable.
Imagine then, that instead of asking them to describe a picture I asked them to describe their skills, talents, experiences and achievements. You might call it a CV. Our ability to describe ourselves can be critical when we are applying for a new job. How would you describe yourself?