Goals description and improvement!

Hi!

When I went back to read my goals in my first blog post I realized that I did not put a lot of description and now since this is my final blog post I would like to review them and tell you how I improved. 

1-don’t be shy:

 When I’m saying don’t be shy I mean when speaking before I didn’t like speaking English because of my pronouncing mistakes. I was too shy and only spoke English with my teachers and at work that did not helped me because I couldn’t practice. But at some point I realized that I had to speak more to improve. The internship really helped me because I practiced more and was less inhibited.

2-when not comfortable with something ask for help:

A lot of time I tried to do my best when speaking but sometimes I lacked words and did not know what the English word was. But instead of instantly changing to French I asked to an English speaker by describing what I was trying to say. Also, if I did not understand what we were asking me to do I would ask an explanation and it really helped me to as for help.

3- Try your best:

Without motivation it is really hard to improve. In my explorer class we tough me that motivated students have more chances to learn a second or third language. I think motivation helped me a lot trough my internship I always worked hard and tried my best to learn from my colleagues and from my surrounding during the internship.

4- Golden rule speak English no matter what (or try your best to):

Often I got back to speaking French because customers and even sometimes my partners I’m the internship. I think I really respected this rule I really wanted to speak English to improve it and even if sometimes I couldn’t or just forgot to speak English by mistake I always tried trough explaining what I’m trying to say  and asking what does this or that mean.

Finally

I would recommend this internship to anyone who is interested in a welcoming internship with a lot of cultural varieties, in practicing English while learning new things and in helping underdeveloped countries. For me this experience was really about helping and being helped because of the fair trade policy and mission of Ten thousand villages. 

Phone interaction with and without preparation

I wrote two examples not a real experience the first one is a phone call that has not been prepared or practiced because most time when not prepared we get nervous, we forget what we want to say and it doesn’t leave a good impression. The second example is prepared I wrote what I wanted to say and then practiced a few times before actually calling it helps in a lot of ways to prepare beforehand.

Phone interaction without preparation

Me: Hello? ...

Man:  Hello?

Me: Can I speak to Mister Man?

Man: Yes it’s me (impatient)

Me: I want to ask questions.... it’s for a survey about your daily routine.

Man: Daily routine?

Me:  Yes

Man: I don’t have the time. I’m not interested (hangs up)

Prepared phone call

Me: Hello could I speaking to Mister Man?

Man: Hello I’m Mister Man what can I do for you?

Me: I work for a survey company I would like to take a little bit of your time to ask a few question.

Man: Could you call later? Right now I can’t but at 5h30 I would gladly answer your questions

How my English improved so far during my internship?

Listening comprehension

It’s a lot easier for me to understand the people I work with since from the beginning until now of my internship I’ve been alert of my surrounding. That really helped me to improve fast because I listened to the way they speak, the vocabulary they used and the expression and their meaning.

Accent

My English accent from the beginning of the internship to now has changed a lot because I got to listen often to true English speakers and to have the right pronunciation. A few days ago my friend asked me how we pronounce the word ‘’sheet’’ she said: ‘’sh*t’’ instead! And it made me aware that many people when learning a new idiom don’t let go of their first language accent because from a language to another it is really hard to let go of what we teach us. This brings me to another point that I already speak 3 different languages and this since childhood (French and Spanish in my family) (English in high school). In French, English and Spanish ‘’e’’ is pronounced but when we only know one way to say as for a single lingual speaker, we pronounce it with our first accent. That is why for me it is easier to switch from a language to another and let go of my different accent.

Fluency

I think my fluency is more accurate I can speak about almost everything nut I know I still have to improve my switching to French when I’m faced with some difficulty. I still did improve my fluency because I don’t let it get in my way like before. Per example when I don’t know how to say something I try to describe it and when I’m really hesitant I ask in French how we say English.

I don’t have new word but I have an anecdote about expression:

Once I was going back home and was thinking about new words I might have learned and then two ladies walk past me I heard one say to the other: ‘’I’m not going to break my head’’ just from that I figured that she was an French speaker because she tried to translate it from the expression: ‘’je ne vais pas me casser la tête ‘’.  

Cultural observation

My cultural observation comparing both Quebecois culture and Anglophone.There’s not religious difference that I saw but I think it’s at the same level as Quebecois since there wasn’t any manifestation of any religious belief in my internship because it is not a place for that. The music we listen in then internship is different from what we usually listen in shops because it’s from a lot of countries I think it’s due to the fact we sell fair traded products that come from different countries which creates a different ambiance from what we see in shops in general. The news paper they read is the one from the neighborhood I did not get the chance if it was In English or French.

The type of English I’ve been exposed to is the everyday common one but I can see that there is more politeness with Anglophones then francophone speaker. I did not read a lot but sometimes my superior asks me how to say some words in French or I realize that we almost have the same expression in French but with little variations. Also there some times when I help my colleagues when they don’t know how to say something in French it’s a great chance to practice my understanding and comprehension skills and we actually are helping each others with our linguistics issues.

I did not learn new words recently but since now it’s been more than 12 hours that I’ve been in my English learning internship I feel like I get the chance to practice more and even use a wider vocabulary since get the chance to practice with Anglophones. I’m really happy about that and feel that I am getting closer to my goals or at least trying my best to. This experience is really helping!  

Bonjour, Hi!

Hello everyone!

My last anecdote in my internship is more an experience that may be odd (I think it’s really interesting). It’s more something that I realized then anything else. It is when you enter in a shop usually we say; “bonjour” if the neighborhood is more francophone and ‘‘hello’’ if it’s an Anglophone one. But the experience I got from my summer part time job makes me say both “bonjour” and “hi” I think I do that because customers are both tourists and francophone. Also maybe the fact that I am trilingual influences the way that I communicate with other and it applies not only to me but everyone.  Most of the time when I enter a shop they will say just “bonjour” and if you speak English they will start to speak English but there is one shop, where I went, (Dollarama) in a mall where the cashiers say; “Bonjour” “Hello” and the most surprising “Holla”. When I first heard I did not pay attention to it but now that I am more aware of different cultures and languages in Montreal I think that depending on the language you speak it may change the way you say things like me who greet customers saying bonjour hi to give them the chance to communicate with the language they are more comfortable with. Finally I think that the more language you can speak with, the more you can communicate and share with others cultures and different culture with that you can say that it also gives you more opportunities in a lot of ways.  

How is learning English different in your internship than in a classroom?

I am able to acquire without the traditional  structured because I get to listen to real Anglophone and it help me learning in which sentence I can use or not a word (the patterns and structures) trough repetition and a casual environment. It is also more amusing learning “casually” then in the more formal way of a classroom. The strategies I use to learn is guessing which I think give more confidence when you already have a basic or common knowledge of the language you are trying to learn. I also ask to explain when I don’t know a word or I am not sure of its meaning. For now I didn’t face any challenges.

In the Internship at Ten thousand villages, there is a colleague that is trying to learn french I asked him what techniques he used to learn frech I remembered what my Explorer class taugh me I tryed to tell him a little bit about it and with that I realized that it may be easy for me because I'm taugh how to learn a foreign thong but for others it might be difficult. This anecdote made me realize that I’m am more aware of my learning strategies in general thanks to what I learn! And the constant contact I have with Anglophones really helps me learning new word and expression like ‘hawk eyes’ and so on.

My observation about culture is more about culture in general I think that culture can’t be told by language it is more about your social surrounding and background. I think culture depends really of what you like or don’t and who you are as an individual but maybe I’m mistaken with personalities. Just a little detail I don’t if it really has to do with Anglophone or culture but I think it could be personal space about personal space. A few time when I was in my internship customers and even my colleagues get to close to my personal space and I don’t like it to much but instead of saying it out loud or jumping far away from them and by doing that creating a ‘‘wall’’ between  us I do it subtly so everyone is happy.

Expressions and new words

My supervisor told me to keep my eyes open in the in the store to have; hawk eyes. Another one more funny is ‘holy cow’ but I won’t say that I don’t know if it’s a negative expression if someone could tell me it would be appreciated. Another thing I’ve learned is that cashier is the person behind the cash register which is the right word for it I kept saying cashier instead of cash register.  For now it is all !

You speak french?

Hi again!

Like I said before I will keep in touch with my experience trough my internship and tell you my anecdotes and misadventures during the internship. Today I will tell you about my first impression.

Well the first day I went to the internship I won’t lie I was more than nervous! But once again I worry too much I know but I think that by saying that I can make people who like me get really nervous about new environments and unfamiliar things feel better because you’re not alone.  Well on my first day the first thing I noticed was the ambiance because if the new environment you are in is hostile I don’t think it is easy to be at ease. In my case it was really a nice ambiance so it helped a lot during my first day.

The first day I went to the internship I must admit I did not really prepare myself well enough so for my second day I tried to set me some rules for better preparation:

1.        Don’t be shy it is normarl to ask question when you are new
2. When not comfortable with something ask for help
3. Try your best
4. GOLDEN RULE  SPEAK ENGLISH no matter what (or try your best to)

Now you may wonder why my last rule is speak English, I mean of course I will speak English, but something not that tempts me, but make me break the rule and is quite funny when I notice is as soon as people in general (mostly English speaker but French also) notice that English is not your mother thong, have accent or have some difficulty to say something they will not correct me but will speak French to me instead of correcting me. Also strangely when you say English is not my mother thong automatically we will speak to you in French. When I first noticed that I tried to come with a solution and the first one that came to my mind was to go back to speaking English subtly. But I still need to find a better solution (and I will) for now if I find anything new I’ll tell you!  Thank you  for reading!