post layout

i’m a real newbie to css, very old html knowledge, i want to divide my posts like a table so i get text on the left and an image on the right.. presently i’m trying it like this

<table>
<td>hello this is my text for this post how does it look in this box</td>
<td><img src=”https://photos12.flickr.com/19144919_28dcd8a309.jpg&#8221; alt=”seh” /></td>
</table>

but from reading around everyone says NO to tables, what’s the correct/current way to achieve the same thing..