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When I was preparing for an interview with my teacher, I used to introduce

Myself Swapnil

so she told me it's wrong. We can't say 'Myself'. But I was watching a show and an artist introduced him as "This is John". Is it also wrong as well as 'Myself'?

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Self introductions like "this is John" are commonly seen on radio and TV (and even youtube) in addition to being a conventional form for telephone.

Radio became widely popular in India before TV and since radio is not a visual medium, announcers might have used 'this is' as with telephone. I suppose this style later carried over to television. Since youtube is also a type of broadcasting the 'style' may be used on youtube also.

I remember hearing anchors use "this is" to refer to themself on Indian music TV channels like MTV India and channel V as in

Hello this is VJ John signing off on your favorite music show, only on MTV!

This is VJ so-and-so and yaw (you're) watching Indipop Unlimited only on Channel V, etc.

It was supposed to be fashionable 20 years back, but I don't know if they still speak like that today!

'Myself, John' is an informal style that is grammatically incorrect. When introducing oneself to somebody face to face, the widely accepted form of speech is 'hello, I am John.' Some people may also say "my name is John."

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  • But @Clare says it must not have video. Actually I had watched this in youtube.
    – Swapnil
    Commented Apr 18, 2017 at 16:02
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    It is a style used in broadcasting, starting with radio (where you can only hear the voice, same as telephone) and later picked up on TV channels like MTV (Hello this is VJ John signing off on your favorite TV SHOW, etc.) -- since youtube is also a type of broadcasting the 'style' is being used in youtube also. But for real life face to face self introduction the correct form is "I an John" or "my name is John."
    – English Student
    Commented Apr 18, 2017 at 16:10
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I am a great fan of "The Late Show" an American TV talk show, presented by Stephen Colbert. The show is recorded (but he uses the term taped) in front of a live TV audience, five days a week. Every evening Stephen Colbert walks into the Ed Sullivan Theater and introduces himself to the audience as

Welcome to ‘The Late Show’, I'm your host Stephen Colbert (video)

Another TV talk show host is Samantha Bee who presents herself as

I am Samantha Bee. Welcome to ‘Full Frontal’ (video)

And if a TV anchorman stands in for another, he might present himself as

Hi, I'm Eric Bolling for Bill O'Reilly. Thanks for watching us tonight (video)

I'm not sure if I know of any American TV show hosts who present themselves as:

  • This is your host John Doe
  • Welcome to the show. This is John Doe your host

It's not ungrammatical, but it seems a bit odd to present yourself in the third person.

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  • I remember hearing anchors use "this is" to refer to themself on Indian music TV channels like MTV India and channel V as in "This is VJ so-and-so and yaw (you're) watching Indipop Unlimited only on Channel V, etc." It was supposed to be fashionable 20 years back, but I don't know if they still say "this is" nowadays! We Indians use English in strangely confident, odd, sometimes weird and always creative ways; and as for grammatical correctness, 99% do not give a ____ (as in Clark Gable's immortal line from Gone with the Wind) -- the same 99% will tell u, we Indians are like this only!
    – English Student
    Commented Apr 26, 2017 at 13:38
  • You are welcome! I read your question regarding Indians tending to use the lowercase i and can tell you that (as somebody rightly replied) it is used only in text messages, chat and hastily composed emails by people who cannot be bothered to correct their spelling errors before sending. There is no philosophical meaning of humility attached to self-reference with i and if a leading newspaper apparently used it in an editorial for some time, it could only be an isolated case of (possibly well-intentioned, but misplaced) journalistic fervor for dubious change, and not a national trend.
    – English Student
    Commented Apr 26, 2017 at 14:38
  • @EnglishStudent well in recent years the trend of the lowercase i has fallen, it still rears its head occasionally but I think the autocorrect tool on smartphones is much better at dealing with these l issues than ever before. So there's no excuse, not nowadays, unless you are making some sort of statement.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Commented Apr 26, 2017 at 15:11
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    @EnglishStudent I'm not quite old enough to remember this but my parents told me that during WW2 newsreaders on the BBC began to identify themselves to make it more difficult for the Germans to broadcast believable fake news on the BBC frequencies in the event of an invasion. Before then they had been anonymous "voices of the BBC". The point of all this is that they introduced themselves by saying things like "Here is news and this is Alvar Liddel reading it". Perhaps this is where the Indian newsreaders got the habit from.
    – BoldBen
    Commented Apr 26, 2017 at 16:09
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    That is very likely, and thanks for the rare tidbit from an intriguing era! Moreover, radio became widely popular in India before TV and since radio is not a visual medium, announcers might have used 'this is' as with telephone. I suppose this style later carried over to television.
    – English Student
    Commented Apr 26, 2017 at 16:12

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