Entry #8 - Overall Reflection

This blog will be a overall reflection about all my internship since the first day. I will tell you how well my internship went. I will also explain to you how this internship had help me to improve my English and how I enjoy my time there. 

Goals:

During this internship, my principal goal was to improve my English. Also, I was looking to improve my grammar in speaking, to learn new vocabulary and to have more fluency when I am talking with Anglophone. I think, I have accomplished most of those goals. At Eco-Quartier, I really had the opportunity to learn new vocabulary and to improve my oral because I was in an total immersion environment. I can say that I have improve my grammar because Julie & Bill taught me some lesson and some rules to use the good word in my sentence. I am really happy because I can say that I am less shy to speak in English and to express myself. I think I really improve my improve because I was alone by myself so I have no other choice but to try and to speak English no matter what. Well,  I am glad to say that I have accomplished most of my goals for this internship.

Strategies:

For this internship, I can approve that I have used a lot of strategy. I had chosen to use the strategy of repetition,guessing, Communicates in whichever way possible and maybe other strategy but I will just talk about these. Well, I have used a lot of the strategy "repetition" at the beginning of my internship. My co-workers were talking to fast and I couldn't understand them really well, so I asked them often to repeat and to talk slowly. The guessing strategy helped me a lot to try even if I wasn't so sure. It help me to try even if made some mistakes. It also helped me to try by my own and not to always ask for help each time that I am not sure of something. After that, I also used the strategy of " Communicate in whichever way possible". Even if I didn't know which word to use and how to say my sentence correctly, I tried, no matter what. Even if the structure was not so good, the people understood me even though. 

Language:

Like I said before, I really improve my English and my grammar. I had also learned new

vocabulary, so now I can express myself more easily and spontaneously. I will continue to

practice my English by talking with people and I will also watch the television in English

so I will not loose what I have learned so far.

Growth:

Well, when I started my internship I had no expectations and I had no idea that I would learn that much about the English culture. At the beginning, it was difficult for me to adapt myself to a new environment, but I finally adapt myself really easily. I am grateful to the people of Eco-Quartier, because I learned a lot during my time with them. Also, because I was in an environmental organism, I have learned many ecological stuffs and facts. Now, I know what is good or not. I know how to change and how to do my civic duties. Unfortunately, this is not a career that I consider to do later, but therefore it was really pleasant and I enjoy my time there.

The internship:

This internship has been a excellent opportunity for me to improve my English and to learn new thing that I didn't know I would like. This internship helps me to me more confidante with myself and to be less shy when it's time to speak in English with people.

The placement:

Finally, I would certainly recommend this internship placement to another student. The people that works there are so kind, dynamic and cheerful. When you arrive there, you are happy to be a volunteer for them and you really want to learn. I think it's the right place to improve your English because the people that works there are here to help you practice in different way. Finally, I enjoy my time there with them and I am really happy of my experience at Eco-Quartier.  It was a great time and I would do it again!

Entry #7

**This blog will not follow exactly the guide of English in Action because I did not have any dialogue experience**

This week, I passed most of my time will Bill and Julie at Eco-Quartier because Nikki was on vacation. I am really happy because I have learnt not know them and they have taught me a lot about the language. I found that English is really different that in French and it's easier, I think to learn English as a second language than French. 

An interaction I had in English and what I learnt from that

Last week, I was alone in the office of Eco-Quartier with Julie and Bill. Julie asked me to write a text about my experience of being a volunteer at Eco-Quartier. After I finished to write down my text, I asked her if I could read my text at loud so she could tell me if it's good or not. While I was reading my text to her, Bill interrupt her and tell me that I couldn't say some words because it was to much familiar or even because we can't say that in English. So, he decided to correct my text and at the same time Julie explain to me that in English, people always use the "you". There is no "vouvoiement" in English. I didn't know that we say "you" for everyone, for children and for adult. I was really surprise,so that day I learnt that in English there is only one way to use  to call a person. After that,  I talked a little more about about the differences between English & French with Julie, an anglophone. I have learnt that French is much more difficult to learn than English. In French, we have a lot of different type of pronouns than in English. Finally, I learnt a lot of thing during that day with my discussion with Julie and Bill. Now, I know how to use the "you" correctly and I know how to use the word correctly in my sentence and not to much familiar. I am really glad that I learnt something on that day with those two people and that'S why I decided to talk about this because I found that important.

For example, I wrote in my text "the people I am working with" when I should have said " my co-workers" or even "my colleague". It is much more professional in a text. 

Example in English: Hi, what are you doing?

In English, "vous" could mean vous, tu, te, toi, on, at the same time, in French.

Example in French: Bonjour, que faites-vous? ( polite)

Example in French: Allo, que fais-tu? ( familiar)

Well, sometimes it'S difficult to accept that you are making a lot of mistakes, but therefore, people are there to help you to become better and to make less mistakes. I am really glad that Bill and Julie were there to help me, because I improve my English and they are a part of my learning. 

Vocabulary:

Bins:  It's a container or enclosed space for storage.

Example : I checked their recycling bins.

Duties: An act or a course of action that is required of one by position, social custom, law, or religion.

Example: I have learned to do my civic duties.

Dumpsters: A trademark used for containers designed for receiving, transporting, and dumping waste materials.

Example: I went dumpster diving with Bill.

Entry #6

Listening Comprehension

Since the beginning of my internship, it is not easier for me to understand the people I am working with but it is not more difficult. It really stayed the same because at first, my colleagues don’t spoke with a difficult vocabulary, so it was easier for me to understand them right at the beginning. Also, now that I had asked them to talk more slowly, it helped me a lot to understand and to know what they were trying to say. Therefore, it’s true that sometimes I just don’t get what they say and what is the topics of they’re discussion. So, I ask for clarification to help me understand better.

Accent:

I think my accent is better than before my internship. I have always had difficulties to pronounce the words in English. I think most of the time it’s because I think of the pronunciation in French before than in English in my mind and when I say the word I makes some mistakes. I think it’s normal to makes mistakes when you are learning a second language, because I mixt my native language with the one I am learning. Therefore, I think my accent is better and because I have practice a lot since the beginning of my internship, I have more fluency in my sentence at the oral.

Fluency

I think I have become more fluent in English, because I have practice a lot my speaking, so I am gutting use to pronounce some words and I am less shy than before my internship. I have more confidence in myself, so I tend to make fewer mistakes. Still, when I don’t know a word, a ask questions. I also use the strategy of repetition when I don’t understand the meaning of something, so I can use this word later. Also, when I take my time to say something, it’s more fluent and all my words are saying correctly. I don’t have example in my mind, but I remembered that it helps me a lot.

Humour:

Unfortunalty, I didn’t hearded any jokes or funny facts during my internship. When I am at my internship, everybody is working hard and everybody is concentrates on what they are doing. Sometimes, they talked about something and it’s funny, but they were no joke I could remember during my time there.

Accuracy

For the accuracy, I have improved myself to pronounce the “s” at the end of each word. I have practice since the beginning of this internship, but my English course with my teacher Brett has helped me a lot to be able to pronounce this sound at the end of my word. For example, I say a singular word at loud, then I say the same word but plural. I really do the “s” sound with my mouth to help remember to say it at the end of each plural word.

Example: - One chair, two chairs.

  - One hand, two hands.

Entry #5 Cultural Encounters

Hello everyone, 

I have been so far to my internship for about 5 times and I really enjoy it because I am working with great people. 

At Eco-Quartier, I am working with different culture because it's a multi-cultural society which is localized in NDG.  I am working with people who came from different part of the world. For example, some of them came from Germany and other from Romania and other from Canada.

Yet, I haven't observed any religious symbols in the place where I am working. For sure, there is poster, but they talked about ecological and environmental stuff. Also, they don't listen to any music during work time, so I don't know if they listen to the same type than us. Unfortunately, I haven't had the time to ask them the question, but I have observed on the wall that there are some paintings that represent respect for the environment. There is another painting on the wall, a beautiful painting, but it represents the daughter of an Eco-Quartier's members.

Thus far, I did not see any newspaper, but I have seen some flyers and I have also written some of them. I can tell, they are written in French and in English. We can see with this how the society in NDG is bilingual. The people I am working with have a lot of magazine on their desk and they read the same magazine as me. For example, there was fashion magazine or even cooking magazine.

My host (Nikki) celebrates every holidays as us. She celebrates Halloween because she has disguised herself at work. She also celebrates Christmas and right now at work, we are preparing some ideas for Christmas gifts made by hand.  She also celebrates Thanksgiving who is a holiday to gather family. For the other holidays, they didn't told me about if they celebrates them like us or differently. 

Thus far, I had not heard any slang during my internship. I have also done some writing task; I have translated some text from French to English. I have learned a lot of things that I didn't know before. Also, I have done some reading tasks; I have read some articles to know more about the organism and what they do to helps people. I didn't have the opportunity to use the idioms from our class, but I will try to use them next time.

So far, the most difficult aspect of the internship was to be in a new environment all by myself and in English only, but I had to adjust myself and now I will enjoy this internship. My best part of this was that I learned a lot of new thing on a subject that I didn't really know already. I am really glad that I learned new aspects about the environment and I hope to learn more about it soon.

Entry #4: The world is your classroom :)

Linguistic Interference:

During my internship experience this week, I really focused on my interference between French & English. I approve, I do have some interference between those two languages. I interfere more when I communicate in English than in French. During our course in class, we have talked about interference and it's called «cognates». It means when one words means the same in English and in French. Sometimes, I wanted to say something and I started to say my sentence and then, I stopped in the middle of it because I don't know the words in English. Each time, when I say the word in French, confused, the person I'm talking to told me that it's the same word in English than in French. In my head, it's like it can't be the same and I’m become confused. I have a blank memory and I can't remember what word was said during my discussion that is the same as in French.

Internship vs. Classroom:

Learning and practicing English in an immersion environment is really different than in a classroom. I realized that when I am in a classroom and I just don't know how to say the word in English or I don't want to speak in English, well I speak in French. However, when you are in an immersion environment, I am obligated to speak in English even if I don't know how to say my sentence, I tried and I make errors.  Also, not having a teacher beside you to correct you or to help you means that I had to develop some strategies to understand other people by myself. I use a lot the strategy of «guessing». My friends are not there with me, so I don't have any distraction and I really try to speak only in English the more that I can.  In my classroom, I’m in an environment that I am used to but at Eco-Quartier, the topics are often about ecological or environmental, so I don't have any vocabularies on that subject and I learned a lot of new words, but at the same time, it's really difficult because when I need to translate, I don't even know what the words means. Finally, that was a challenge for me to learn new words and to face obstacles like this. 

New Word or Expressions :

I had acquired some new words and expressions by talking with people, especially with Bill this weekend. It's was a funny day because I did not spelled the new words correctly and I made always the same errors, but I was trying so hard to say it right, it was really funny. For example, Bill wanted me to say « A wasp in a nest», but I was always saying « a waps in a nest» or a «wasp nest». I was always laughing because I was not able to say it correctly. Then, Bill told me that «waps» is a word that is bad, he told me that it's an insult in the Italian language. 

See you soon for another blog post :) Have a nice day everyone! 

Blog #3 :)

Hi everyone,

This week was my third day of internship and it was really fun. I have met a new person, his name is Bill. He was really sympathetic and gentle with me. They have received some vegetables and we had to decide which recipe we will do with those. I had no idea how to say those vegetables in English and Bill learned to me there name and how to spell it. For example I learned that «radis» in English is called radish, but if you have more than one it become radishes. After that, he also taught me some words that you can't say in English, like words that mean insult. Also, I did some painting, I paint some decoration with recycled materials and we talked about my life and my future. It was really comic because I wanted to say an expression that we say in French and I tried just to translate the expression in English, but it doesn't make any sense. I wanted to say «tomber dans les pommes», but in English you can't say fell in the apples. It was a great moment when we laughed and I learned from this.

This week, I did not learned new expressions from English, but I have learned a lot of new words and I am really glad. I have also learned that you can't translate French expressions to English because it doesn't make any sense I have observed that English speakers talked faster and more fluently that French speakers. I have also observed that English speakers give more importance on the verb when they pronounced it than the other words in the sentence. I think that it will help me to improve my English and to pronounce the words correctly, so I could become better English speakers like them.

Like I said in my Blog #2, when I met everyone, they only greet me with their hands like we say "hello" usually, but in the Quebec culture, we usually greet people with the hand shake when we saw them for the first time. In my internship, there is no Mr. or Miss before they're name. Everyone called each other by their first name. To show politeness, people in my internship said always please and thank you. I think it's really important for English speakers to show politeness and it's a good thing. People dress like everyone else, normal clothes. Finally, I don't know if they are punctual, because my internship is always at 2pm, so they are already working when I arrived.

This week, Bill talked to me a lot, so I can practice my English. He also asked me if I knew some hard vocabularies, but I didn't know most of it. Like I said before, he learned to me some vegetables names. Here are some examples:

Wasp: Is typically defined as any insect that is neither a bee nor an ant (guêpe)

Nest: A place used by insects, a refuge, a home.(Nid)

Plank: A long, flat piece of timber, thicker than a board.(planche de bois)

Peas: The round, edible seed of a widely cultivated plant of the legume family. (pois)

Radish/radishes: The crisp, pungent, edible root of the plant of the mustard family, usually eaten raw. (radis)

Nearsighted person: Seeing distinctly at a short distance only; myopic.(myope)

Entry #2: My first impression

What did I notice on the first day? : 

Well, I was place in an environmental environment that is called Eco-Quartier. This establishment is localize in Notre-Dame-De-Grâce. I was not really sure on my first day when I saw the place. I thought it was a petty place, but when I entered in the place, I felt immediately comfortable and I felt less shy. Everybody was really kind and hearty with me. They knew I wanted to improve my English and improve my fluency in my talking, so even if they can talk in French, they only speak English with me. 

Linguistic observation : 

I did not learn new vocabularies and I did not observe any strategies that they use when they talk with each other. All I did in my first day was translation and the text was really easy to me. Also, I did not learn any new words from them because they were doing tasks on their computer so it was a quiet day. Even thought, I already know that I have an accent when I am talking in English, but now that I worked with them once, I see a huge difference between them and I. I really need to practice my talking to improve that. 

Culture observation: 

I saw that English people use a much complex vocabulary when they are talking together then us when we talk in French. Even thought, it's easier to understand them. Also, I think that Anglophones are more outgoing than Francophone when they are speaking in their language. I found that our two cultures are really different one another. Also, when I met everyone, they only greet me with their hands like we say "hello" usually, but the Quebec culture, we usually greet people with the hand shake when we saw them for the first time. 

Mistakes or Misunderstandings ? 

I don't have any mistakes that I did in mind, but I remember that on my first day I had to ask Nikki, my host, to repeat some times because she was talking to fast and I did not understand anything  I didn't want to do the wrong thing. I misunderstand the task sometimes because she speak to quickly, but it's fine and with practice I know I will improve myself and become better. However, I had use the "Guessing" strategy with what I already know to understand what they are saying and what they want me to do.