ENTRY #5

Discuss linguistic interference

In the organization, we can't see cultural objects displayed. There is no flag, no religious symbol... There is only a very big graffiti painted on the wall but it represents the members' kids so it is nothing related to culture. There is a place where there are a lot of flyers and they are written in English AND French, which shows how bilingual Montréal is.
People here celebrate almost every holidays, except those who can't because of their religion (some don't celebrate Halloween, for example). The adults celebrate most of the holidays in family whereas younger prefer celebrating it with friends, except for Thanksgiving, because I was told that it is a holiday that has for goal to gather family.
What has surprised me about holidays here is that people are truly involved: for Halloween, I saw so many houses decorated, probably more than I have ever seen during 17 years in France. This is outstanding because there, I used to be the only one who was excited about this holiday.

Rewards and challenges

My main challenge was about my shyness.  This internship helped me overcoming it so now I am not so afraid talking in English and/or making mistakes. I am so much more comfortable at speaking English, even to strangers. The total immersion helped me to improve my English because it forces me to practice my english, I have no other way to communicate but in English. 

ENTRY #4

Discuss linguistic interference

I have a lot of interferences as my first language is French and also because speaking English every day is something I am really not used to.

The challenges I have to face are about it and they are caused by linguistic interference. Most of the mistakes I make are about vocabulary: when there is a word I cannot find in English, I use the French version but with an English accent, which is a very amateur mistake.

Other mistakes I usually make are about pronunciation but that is only when I have to read, thing I don’t often do in my internship.

Learning English in the internship V.S. in a classroom

In the internship, the learning is more “active”, it is a learning through practicing. We do not have the traditional structured classroom setting but I think it is still a good way to learn because we use variety of words, vocabulary.

In class, in contrary, the vocabulary we learn is more limited: the vocabulary we learn is according to the theme of the chapter and so on whereas in the stage, we can talk about anything anytime. 

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• seeds: Éco-Quartier supports the fact that everything is usable in various ways. During Halloweenm a lot of people buy pumpkins and dig tem to use it as decoration but then they throw the rest away. Nikki showed me that all the inside can be eaten, including the seeds (and it tasted so good)

ENTRY #3

Interactions 

Everyweek, when I go to Eco-Quartier, everybody seems busy. So, I talk to Ines, who is a german student who came in Canada to study french. We communicate in english and I can say that it is much more easier to talk to her, as young people, than talking to the rest of the Eco-Quartier team because I know she is not bilingual so I am not scared of making mistakes. 
I can say that I use (in whichever language) body language a lot, as I talk a lot with my hand: to describe, to explain, to ask... it really helps to make people understand me when I cannot fing my words.
 

Observations

About the greeting, I don't think there is a big difference between English people and French people: it starts with a « Hi » or « Hello » followed by a « How are you? » , « How was your week-end? » or even some « What's up? » from Billy, in a very natural way. (I thought it was a teenagers' kind to use this type of language)
I was really scared not to be able to understand English humour, because of the language but also because of the different cultures/humour, but I realized French and English humour is quite similar; people make wordplay, laugh at the same things.
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• drainning : as they asked me how was my weekend, I wanted to say how much I worked so I am tired now. This word will be really useful because I used to answer the same thing to the « How was your week? » question; « Good thank you. »

ENTRY #2

Actually, my first 3 hours stage began right after the meeting. My host asked me if I wanted to start immediately or the week after. As I was very excited about the stage, I started the same day as the first meeting, September 25th.

Observations  

Language observations

What I have observed about language is the speed. I don't know (yet) if it is because English is a foreign language but it seems that anglophones speak more quickly English than francophones do for French. This is, for me, one of the biggest issues (for understanding but also for speaking). 

Culture observations

Like I have noticed since I arrived here in Canada, people are much more friendly than in France. It is a pleasure to talk to people, even to whose we don't know and even if we don't speak the same language: when they see that I have difficulties to express myself, they try to help me and they are very patient, which decreases the potential anxiety I have when I have to speak English.

New language structures learnt

Many times, I think I may have made a strange face because Nicole gently laughed asking me if I understood what she just said; indeed I didn't. Consequently, that day, I have learned new words/expressions ; 

• a sprain 
• dumpster-diving which consists in seeking objects in good conditions and which could be reusable

ENTRY #1

My first meeting was on September 25th. I met Nicole Schiebel (my host), Christine who is a french-speaking volunteer and Julie, an other volunteer who is bilingual.

My goals and wishes

Through the internship, I hope, as it is its goal, to be able to Improve my English: I wish I will be able to speak fluently English but moreover, to understand quickly what people say to me (right now I don’t, as I have to translate everything in my mind before understanding) .

More than this, I want to know more about Canada’s and Québec’s culture; how do people behave here in North America. Also, I wish I learned more about ecology and the recycling system here in Quebec.

My learning strategies

The learning strategies I have chosen are the mnemonic techniques, guessing, practice, searching for meanings and analysing speech. I chose those ones because they are currently the techniques I use to learn English and Spanish.

The 1st meeting 

The first meeting with my host, went very well, as they are all welcoming and they made me comfortable from the minute I came into the office.

During half an hour she explained me how my internship was going to proceed, what I am going to do and who I am going to be with.
I am really satisfied Christi chose me this internship because I truly feel like this is the perfect environment for me to improve my english skills ; the people who work here are very sweet and quite talkative so it forces me to chat and go beyond my shyness. 

This is my blog.

Hey, welcome!
I am a 18 year-old student in the Trilinguism and Cultures program at the Cegep Andre-Laurendeau, in Lasalle.  
In a few days, I am going to start my first internship in an English-speaking environment and that is why I created this blog; I will write articles to summary every steps of the internship.