Final Reflections

Goals

'During my internship, I hope to accomplish one major language goal. Since I am already bilingual, and have been since I was born practically, I want to ameliorate my english and make it richer. If I want to work as a translater in the future I need my english to be very professional. I do make mistakes sometimes when I write or speak english, so I want to make this better and learn the right words and expressions.'

This is what I had written in my #1 blog entry. I think I have not yet achieved the goal 100%, but my english did get a lot better. Maybe not just because of the internship, but it did helps. I think what restrained me the most is that I worked mostly from and for a french twitter, but I still managed to ameliorate certain aspects of my english, and I had to do translation from the english tweets to french, so it was a huge plus! 

Strategies 
From the article Profile of a Succeful Language Learner, I used the communication and motivation ways to ameliorate. Communicating with other people is what works best for me, because I notice a lot when people talk. For example at home, my mom has a very high level of english, and I learn new vocabulary all the time thanks to her. Motivation is a huge part of it, it is necessary in my opinion. To be honest my motivation did get a little low during the semester, but it is my fault. I still worked hard and pulled myself back up. These two strategies, for me, will always be important. Communication is a key for learning and for having good relationships with people.

Language

My english has improved a lot since I have moved to Montreal. My accent is less pronounced, I have a better vocabulary, and I ameliorated my fluency and accuracy. The most challenging was (and still is) the pronounciation of certain words and the structure of sentences sometimes. I need to work on it and improve. The most easy for me was the accent notion, since I have moved to montreal my french accent does not really have an effect on my english one anymore! 

Growth

I have learned a lot with this internship. I realized that organization is a must, and that I need to prepare better and stop doing my work at the last minute. I have noticed that I am not always good with too much pressure on my shoulders, but that I am strong and find a way to motivate myself after. I haven't changed my perception of anglophone culture, it still looks amazing to me! I will remember this internship, it was fun to me! Participating in sports events and taking care of a twitter are things I like to do, and Daniel even told me to stay in touch and keep him as a contact for future references. This internship may have not been the best for me on the language side, but it was awesome for the human side! Great people I have worked with.

The internship 

I would probably try and be more organized. It would help me, because I kind of didn't help myself bu not being organized. I realized that when you know what you want to do in advance and that your work is done, you feel a lot more freedom.

Gratitude

I do not have the text with me, but I thanked them enormously for giving me a chance to work with them. I said they were both great hosts, and that I hoped to have lived to their expectations. I said I was glad to have worked for a great organization, and thanked them for making me meet Mathieu Darche. I also thanked them for welcoming me warmly into the internship and making me feel appreciated, because there is nothing better for confidence. I didn't write this in the letter because I didn't know, but Daniel will try and get me an internship with the Montreal Canadiens, which is my dream, and I thanked him a lot in person for it. In the letter, I also wished them the best and told them not to change, because they are great men! 

The placement 

I definitely would, it was great working for them. Always happy to work with me, always giving me good advice, and interesting activities! To me, it was awesome. I had a great time, I felt no pressure from them, just constant encouragement.

Dialogues

1.Interaction with Daniel (host) where I made a mistake

In person interaction

Me: Hi Daniel!How are you?

Daniel: Hey Ariane I am good, how are you doing?

Me: Hi, I am doing very good

Daniel: It's nice to see you again!

Me: Yes it is, I wish I would have seen you and Mike more than two times!

Daniel: You meant twice? And I agree. We are glad to have had you as an intern!

Me: Oops! Yes I meant twice. And thank you Daniel! You and Mike were great hosts.

Daniel: Thanks Ariane. We have to start filming, talk to you later!

What I would say in the future

Me: Hi Daniel!How are you?

Daniel: Hey Ariane I am good, how are you doing?

Me: Hi, I am doing very good

Daniel: It's nice to see you again!

Me: Yes it is, I wish I would have seen you and Mike more than twice!

Daniel: I have to agree. It was great to have you as an intern!

Me: Thank you Daniel! You and Mike were great hosts.

Daniel: Thanks Ariane. We have to start filming, talk to you later!

4. Write out part of an informal dialogue that you heard or participated in during your internship. What makes this conversation informal? What words or structures are informal? (e.g. If you interact with people your own age or hear your supervisor speak with a friend) 

2. Interaction with students

Me: Hi what is your name?

Student: My name is Mike.

Me: How are you doing Mike?

Mike: I'm good you?

Me: Good thanks. So how did you like the press conference today?

Mike: Oh, it was cool.

Me: Did you find it inspiring?

Mike: Yeah, it helps when you see popular people that have gone throught the same things as you. 

Me: Do you practice sports outside of school?

Mike: Yes, I play soccer.

Me: And are you able to concentrate fully on your studies even with soccer in your life?

Mike: Yeah, it's hard sometimes but I'm tryna do my best. I wanna play soccer for a long time.

Me: Alright thanks Mike!

Mike: Thanks, bye.

I chose these dialogues because I think they represent what has been happening a lot in my internship. When I was with Mike(Cohen, not the student above) or Daniel alone, it would be more relaxed. The 'two times' mistake, as I said in my other post, still happens to me once in a while, mostly when I am a little stressed. On that day of the McGill game, there was a lot of kids and action around, and it was not always easy to go around without being distracted.

The second dialog was at the JFK High School, for the Stay in School conference, where I had to interview students before interviewing Mathieu Darche. The kids had more of a formal language, and since they knew I was young, I think they didn't watch their language as much! It just showed me, in a span of 20 minutes, how much difference there is between adult langage and young language. 

Breaking It Down

Because I have only seen my internship hosts twice, I will aslo integrate my real life experience in these blig posts. If not, I would not have enough examples to give.

Listening Comprehension

  

I used to live in Saint-Hyacinthe, a french town, and I moved in Montreal over the last summer. I was already bilingual, but moving to Montreal has helped my english to ameliorate a lot. Of course, working within an english internship has also brought more to my english, because working with adults brings a different way of communicating than communicating with friends for example. My english has changed since I have moved to Montreal, mostly because I speak a lot more in english here (with my mom at home or with friends and teachers at school). It might not seem like it when you just think about it, but in reality it helps. I have learned some new vocabulary and have made it richer as well. I also make a lot less mistakes now. I used to switch words from french to english, or try to translate when I could not find the word by myself. I remember I used to say 'close the lights' a lot or say 'do my bed', when in reality the right terms are 'turn off the lights' and 'make my bed'. To restrain myself from doing the same mistakes, I try and repeat them in my head, or I get my mom to correct me. Whenever she hears me say something wrong, she corrects me, and usually at one point it stays in my head. 

Accent

According to my mom and my boyfriend, my accent is now less pronounced than it used to be when I lived in a french environment. Now, I have less diffculty to pronounce words the way they should be, but I still have a hard time with certain words. For example, I always have had a problem with the sound made by the letters 'thr'. If you ask me to pronounce the words 'three, truth, thriller' or any other word slowly, I will be able to do it. On the other hand, if I say these words quickly in a sentence I usually have a difficult time and I need to say it twice or more to get it correctly. Some words I have learned to pronounce the right way, for example 'thought' or 'twice'. I used to say 'tought' and 'two times', but my mom taught me the right words. When I speak, I can feel my mouth is more confident in a way. Before, I was sometimes scared or not sure of my words before speaking english. Now, I am much more confident.

 

Fluency

I have become more fluent in english. I can now give my opinion on what I want, and it is better when you feel more confident. If there is one subject that still causes me hesitation, it is politics. Oral presentations are also something that I have difficulty with. I have never been a fan of politics, and I do not have a wide knowledge of it, so when people talk about it, I feel like I have nothing to say. I wish to learn more about politics and about how they work, because I know the basics, but not enough to have a fluid conversation with someone else. As I said, I also have a hard time with oral presentations. I do not like to talk in any manner in front of a group of people. It makes me intimidated, and I become as red as a lobster! It is not a proper 'subject', but I thought it would be pertinent to involve it. Oral presentations require a lot of fluency, and I have to work on being less stressed and choosing the good words when talking in front of people.

 

Humour

I think what I have noticed the most about english humour, is that it is very direct and it involves a lot of puns. I remember once during my internship when we were meeting with people who were taking care of the McGill-Concordia hockey game, Mike, one of my hosts, introduced me as a 'professional tweeter'. It made everyone laugh, including me, because I am a simple student. It's the kind of humour that I like, simple but funny! On the other hand, I do not always comprehend english humour. The other day, I posted a picture on twitter of a spider. One of my friends commented and said 'where's the boot?' as in 'where is the boot so I can squash it?' but I did not understand the joke and had to ask him to explain. I find that english and french humour are very different, in a way where english is more sarcastic and involves puns, where on the other half french is less sarcastic. I find, personnally, that French humour uses a lot of derision towards other people or objects and their weak points. English humour, however, has more of a link with self derision. I have noticed as well that french people like mixing up letters or words just to fool around with their sentences, where english people do not.

Accuracy

I make an attempt to speak more accurately every day I can. For example, the words 'once' or 'twice' are words I kept forgetting before, and saying 'one time' or 'two times' instead. Sometimes, I also switch verb tenses that have the same sense (speak/talk, make/do) to me, but in reality they do not. Fluency is also something I want to ameliorate, because I believe no one is perfect and I still have to work on it. I have noticed that I like speaking english more and more instead of french, I find it gives more freedom of speech and it is a more 'pretty' language, as to where french (from quebec) is not beautiful at all, in my opinion. 

New words, expressions or structures 

I have learned quite a lot of new words over the years, bit I can't remember all of them. I know five I have learned are 'once', 'twice', 'accomodation', 'currency', 'hardware'. These are everyday words that I heard at home or at school, and I asked people what they meant. 

-Once : one time

-Twice : two times

-Accomodation : a place to stay or live

-Currency : the money used in a certain country

-Hardware : solid parts of a computer system

It is useful to learn these type of everyday words because that's just it : they are used quite a bit. I have learned other new words but unfortunately I cannot remember everything.

Cultural Observations, Types of English & Rewards/Challenges

Cultural Observations :

I did not see the ESMB offices yet, so I do not know if they display cultural objects. I do know that the JFK high school has a couple paintings and flags, as most high schools have. 

As I said earlier, I have not visited the offices yet and I should go next week, but since it is a schoolboard, I expect that they listen to Virgin Radio or NJR as most of the Montreal people do. As for newspapers and papers lying around, well Mr.Cohen did tell me that they were a lot, since they write a lot of articles in their own journal.

For holidays, my internships hosts don't celebrate St-Jean Baptiste all the time, but they will if they have the occasion to. They do celebrate Canada Day, usually by spending time with family and going to see fireworks. They also celebrate Thanksgiving by having huge dinners with their families, but I don't know about other celebrations.

My hosts also celebrate Christmas with their families, they say they have huge dinners with exquisite food and then they unwrap gifts.

Types of English :

When I went to the press conference, I heard slang english. It was mostly spoken by the students that I interviewed. Other than that, my hosts speak formal language, sometimes familiar but I speak the same at times.

I have done a lot of reading and writing in my internship, but mostly in french for their twitter account. In english, I read a press release and some informations for the Stay In School press conference, as well as some tweets from accounts that only speak english.

I did not have the opportunity to use my five chosen idioms for now, but I intend to when I will have the opportunity. It just didn't fit with the language I had to use on the day of the press conference.

Rewards and challenges :

In my internship, the most difficult aspect to me is the fact that I am mostly taking care of their french twitter. I have a hard time with my blog posts afterwards, because I can never say what new words or expressions I have learned. Next week it should get better, hopefully.

The best part of the internship, to me, was the press conference. Meeting Mathieu Darche meant a lot to me, as well as interviewing him. It was also very nice to see that the press conference had a good effect on the kids attending it, and that some of them were anxious to go see the hockey game. Darche is a graduate of McGill, so it showed the kids that you can succeed in life and be successful in school as well.I love interacting with people so I loved this, compared to being at home and taking care of a twitter account.

Linguistic Interference & Difference between Immersion and Classroom Learning

Linguistic interference :

I did have some small problems with language interference, but nothing that has not let me communicate. The biggest problem I have is sometimes I switch words directly from french to english and it turns out it's not the good translation. I have to work on getting to know these words' good translations in english. It challenged me to try and find another way to say my sentence, which is sometimes complicated when you have one certain word in mind. These observations help a lot for me, because they show me that I have to be alert and keep on learning every day. My future job will be in the area of translation, so switching words from french to english is not the best thing to do for me. 

Internship or classroom? :

 

In a classroom, we learn language rules and then try to use them to form sentences and speak. There are a lot of errors made when you learn the language, because there are exceptions that you will not know about until the teacher tells you. On the other side, if you're in an immersion situation, you will most likely make mistakes at the start but learn faster than in class because you are speaking with native or bilingual people. You will notice the exceptions and save them in your brain, and also learn fast because in immersion, you don't have a choice! You need to speak in the specific language for people to understand. In class, you can still talk in your first language with the people sitting beside you, so maybe you won't put the same level of effort into it. My language strategy that I use the most is to practice and communicate with people, and it's effective for me to make my vocabulary richer.

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.

First Impressions

1.First Days Impressions :  

What did I notice on the first days? 

On the first days I couldn't really notice much. In fact I haven't noticed much about language up until now because I have worked mostly from home and in french! As I said in my previous post, I will start the real internship events next week and I will be able to develop more on the subject. I did observe by the tweets of the english account that they like to keep a simple, but rich language for the parents and population to be able to understand. They are also very enthusiastic every time they go to an event and it's fun to see, I really expect the events I will go to, to be fun and knowledgeable. 

What new vocabulary did I learn?

I noticed that the people who work with me are very cultured. They know a lot about life, but mostly about education in Montreal or in general and sports. As for the vocabulary that I have learned, I remember when I met with my hosts for the first and only time up until now, that they use a rich and professional vocabulary, but it is not too complicated to understand. I remember using the expression 'a piece of cake' when they asked about how I was doing with Twitter, because it has become really easy to me. I did not learn any new words for now, but I do expect to learn some new starting next week.

How about the Twitter?

Well since the french twitter is the only thing I have taken care of for now, I will talk about it. I did well with the Twitter account, they already have a couple more followers than they used to. Of course it is hard to gain followers in a big amount over one week, but I keep doing my best. I enjoy it a lot! I have been quite busy with school the last few days and haven't been posting as much on it, but I need to try and post more so they can know that I am motivated.

I am enjoying the internship and don't have any misunderstandings for the moment!

Ariane