我是还是我叫

[Indiscriminate Justice]

我是还是我叫

Which is better for what situations?

我是 seems more natural.

我叫 seems very formal.

In English, I almost never say "My name is (name)", I almost always say "I'm (name)".

[OneEye]

First, you need to forget about relying on how you say things in English, because that doesn't have any correlation to how people say them in Chinese. The only thing you ought to worry about is "how do native speakers tend to say it in Chinese?"

I don't think 我叫 is "formal", but I believe I hear 我是 more often, at least here in Taiwan. A quick search on Google for "我叫建國" (11,500 hits) and "我是建國" (1,010,000 hits) bears that out. Interestingly, the imbalance is not nearly that big when I searched for a Western name (約翰, about 100,000 to 800,000), which may suggest that foreigners tend to go with what they learn in their textbooks rather than paying attention to what people actually say in real life.

[Indiscriminate Justice]

"First, you need to forget about relying on how you say things in English, because that doesn't have any correlation to how people say them in Chinese. The only thing you ought to worry about is "how do native speakers tend to say it in Chinese?""

I knew someone was going to say that! I knew it! I knew it! I knew it!

Thanks for the reply

[Audrey]

I think “我是......” is more formal when introducing oneself. You can answer "我叫……" when someone asks you "你叫什么（名字）？"

[creamyhorror]

For colloquial situations, this is the way I understand it:

我叫 introduces yourself to someone who doesn't know you: "I am [name] - [nice to meet you]"

我是 indicates who you are when it may not be clear who you are (e.g. over the phone, or on a TV show): "I am [name/role]"/"This is [name/role]"

If I were meeting someone for the first time, I wouldn't say "我是creamyhorror[，很高兴认识你]。" I would use 我叫/我名叫 for that.

It's possible 我是 might be used for introductions in formal situations (which I basically never encounter), but in everyday life, it's always 我叫 for me (我叫 is very informal). Usage might differ in other regions, though.

[Audrey]

I kind of agree with @creamyhorror~

[crystal123]

我认为，我是＂谁＂，我叫＂什么名字＂。

Ex:我是李明的爸爸，我叫李大伟。

Ex2：问：你是哪一位？

答：我就是刚才给你打电话的那一位，我叫佟大为。