Interactions and Observations

Interactions :

The most interaction I have had in my internship was when I attended the speech for the stay in school program & hockey game between McGill Redmen and Concordia Stingers. When I arrived to JFK High School, I got to meet journalists, hockey players (for exemple Mathieu Darche and the captains of the two teams named earlier) and schoolboard employees. It was intimidating because some of these people are popular and show a lot of class, so I had to stay calm. I think I did a pretty good job! They all had great vocabulary but easy to understand, all smiling and shaking hands like normal, respectful adults. I could tell by their body language that they were all excited about the press conference. It helped me, as a language learner, to see how adults behave and it's always good to know so I can start to behave well early. I also got to take a picture with Mathieu Darche, and it meant a lot to me as the big hockey fan I am. He is a very nice and kind man.

After the great press conference by Mr.Darche, the team captains, the team coaches and some employees from the school, I had the chance to interview some students from JFK and Mathieu Darche. The students had a normal level of English, they were shy but it was expected, I had to help them think about the questions but they were nice. They had appreciated the conference, mostly repeating that they were 'inspired' by it. Great to see. As for Mathieu well he's an adult, used to be a hockey player and now he is an analyst on a sports channel, so his language level is high. It was very fun to interact with him, he seemed relaxed.

Observations of anglophone culture :

I did not notice that big of a difference with french environment, but I did find that people were more polite. The quebec french has a sound of its own, where it sounds less classy than english. People would greet each other with handshakes and smiles and, if they knew each other well, by their first names. Otherwise they would greet with their family names. These people were respectful and serious, but also funny and relaxed when it was the time to be. I remember Mr.Cohen, one man I work with, was joking about hockey with me and Mathieu at some point. When these people were joking, it was never in a mean or too sarcastic way. Always funny. They were also very polite, as I tried to be. Saying hi to everyone with a smile, and seeming happy. The man who spoke in front of the students were dressed in suits, but the rest of us were dressed casually. It was fun to see that they were all on time and ready to go, it showed me that being on time is something really important because it tells a lot about your personality to other people.


I have not really learnt new words in English with this activity, but I did hear rich words that you don't always hear in real life. For exemple when the director of the school or Mathieu would speak to the students, they would try to have a classy, but casual language. It's more in between the adults that the rich language was used.