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!

News!

Hello everyone!

I have a lot to tell you about the internship but first I would like to explain  a little bit more about  the goals I want to reach  for the English in action class!

My first goal and most important one will be to have a wider vocabulary because when I speak I sometime lack of words to express myself and to do so I will listen a lot during my internship when I’m having a conversation with English speakers.

My second goal is to be less shy when I speak English if I was less scared to make mistake I think I will improve my English speaking skills. I need to be more confident and have less inhibition. Everyone makes mistake when learning, it’s normal.

Third goal is more like a challenge because I do it lot. I will TRY my best not to switch from English to French when I don’t know how to say or what the word is actually in English, that’s why my first goal is to widen my vocabulary. I will put a lot of effort by looking for words that mean the same (synonyms), ask how to say it and even explain what I’m trying to say in English.

I think those are my main goals, for now, but maybe I will have new ones and more challenges along the way because I think we never learn to much I will tell you more about it!

Finally I have more news about my internship which is in Ten thousand villages a shop that sells fair trade products from other countries. Then I had to call my host for the internship to make an appointment. It made me really nervous but it went really well! Why? Because I prepared myself first, I wrote everything I needed to say and even practiced before calling it really helped me! I met with my host and talked about my schedule and duties during my internship. I’m really glad I prepared well and could finally meet my host!   

Hi!

Hi everyone! Well this is my blog for my English in Action class. You will see in here how my english skills will evolve with post of my experiences and anecdotes in the internship. I still don't really know what to expect or what I will do in the internship but I'm really excited about this project. Next post I will tell you more details!