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 ‘’.