Entry #7 : Practice makes perfect

Dialogue 1 :
Context  -  Students from my class and I were sitting in the class waiting for the teacher, called Narinée, to arrive. All of them are beginner in French and they are having a hard time with pronunciation.

Student (really confident to say it the right way) : Où est narine ?
Me : What ?
Student : I said ''Où est narine''.
Me (confused) : Well ... they're here (point my nostrils), aren't they?
Student : What ? Narine is in your nose ?
Me : ... I think I didn't understand something ...
Student : I'm asking where is the teacher !
Me : Oh ! (burst into laughter) You mean Narinée !
Student : Yeah, that's what I said.
Me : No, you said 'narine' not 'Narinée'. You were asking where the nostrils were !

And then everybody laughed. It was a really funny situation. Still, it made me realized that mispronouncing a word can lead to big confusion. I'm planning on being careful about that.


Dialogue 2 :
Context  -  A few students and I were sitting in the lounge before the class. We were having an informal conversation about where we live.

Student 1 : I'm not used to live in Montreal. It's so cold here.
Student 2 : I don't think it's that bad.
Student 1 : Dude ! You serious ? We're freezing outside.
Student 2 : Of course you think it's cold, man, you're from Mexico ! You've probably never seen snow of your life, right?
Student 3 : Don't worry, man. You'll get use to it soon.

What proves that this is an informal conversation are the nicknames ''man'' and ''dude'' which you DO NOT USE for a formal conversation. It's really unprofessional and way too familiar.
I use those kind of nicknames all the time, but I realized it is a bad habit. I remember that one time when I almost used ''man'' in a formal conversation with a teacher. I froze when I realized it was really inappropriate and I reformulated my sentence right away.

Entry #6 : Breaking it down

How has your English improved so far during your internship?

Listening Comprehension

At the beginning of my internship, some of the conversations I overheard were sometimes hard to understand but it wasn't due to the syntax or the vocabulary. The problem was more about the subjects. I haven't studied neither in teaching or administration so it was hard sometimes to understand exactly what the staff wanted me to do. Nevertheless, as time passed by, I started to understand better the tasks I was asked to do. That was due to one of the strategies I've used the most : analyzing. I thought about all the possible meanings and deducted that the most plausible one was the right one.

Accent

I don't think my English accent really improved during my internship mainly because I wasn't only surrounded by anglophones. There were a lot of people around me who were also learning English but they still had their respective accent. Few of the students I worked with were real anglophones and I didn't really had the chance to have proper chat with them. Therefor, it was hard for me to practice my accent. I still have some problem with the ''th'' pronunciation. I wish I had the chance to practice it more during my internship but I'm confident that I'll be able to do so in a near future. 

Fluency

Even though I was already fluent in English during my internship, I think it improved a little bit. Mainly in the spoken part of the language (I barely practice the written part during my internship). Even though, I still have problem with my fluency because of my shyness. I'm so afraid of making mistakes that I refrain myself from using some words that are hard to say. I've tried to lower my inhibition, but it wasn't a success.

Humour

I barely saw any difference between anglophone and francophone humour. It's hard for me to talk about the anglophone culture in particularly because more than half the people I've been working with were not anglophones. Almost every students were coming from other countries and they still some difficulties with their English. However, there was that time when I heard one them talking about the job he had in Peru. He explained that at that time he barely knew English at all and he had an anglophone client who didn't speak Spanish. They had a really hard time understanding each other and the way he told us his story was really funny. He used so many gesture and facial expressions!

Accuracy

I might be fluent in English, I still make mistakes when I talk. For example, I'm having a hard time pronouncing the ''th'' sound and I often forget to pronounce the ''s'' that the end of plural words. I also tend to forget the verb ''speak'', who knows why ! I almost always use the verb ''talk'' instead of ''speak'' when it's suppose to be the other way around. 

Entry #8 : Overall reflection

My internship is coming to its end. It makes me a little sad because I really enjoyed myself at GEOS. Lately, I've been thinking about what my internship brought me so far. I realized that not all the goals I wished to achieve did so. For example, my first goal, which was to improve my English, wasn't a big success. It was already pretty easy for me to speak in English before my internship so, of course, I didn't expect to learn a lot about this language. However, I thought I'd probably learn about new structure or vocabulary, but it wasn't the case. I learned some words, but not much. I think the problem was that the internship was maybe too short, or that I didn't go frequently enough. My second goal was to develop effective learning strategies. In my opinion, this one was a success. I've been analyzing my environment, the conversations and the people around me a lot. My internship teached me how to use this kind of a strategies way better than in class since I've been able to use it in real life. My third goal was to live a new experience that would help me in the future and that's exactly how I would qualified it. I have no doubt that it will be really helpful in the future. I've been able to see what the real job of a teacher is and it gave me even more motivation. Finally, my last goal was to develop my teaching skills. I'm not sure I can say that I've really improved my teaching skills, but at least I had the chance to experience a different kind of school and different kinds of classes.

        I've also been concerned about the strategies I've used. Some one them were really useful, and some ... not that much! To constantly search for meanings and to analyse speeches were really effective. I've used those strategies a lot and they allowed me to see the English language from a whole new point of view. However, even if I've been trying to lower my inhibition, it hasn't been a real success. It's something that can't be changed so easily. I also wanted to try labeling the things around me, but since I was in a public place it wasn't possible ... Or it would have been weird, wouldn't it ?

        Still, even though I haven't learned a lot about vocabulary and syntax, I have to admit I do see a difference between my speeches before and after my internship. This is difference is mainly in the way I speak with the people in English. I'm a little more formal than I used to be. Also, there's a difference in my motivation. I'm now completely sure I want to be a teacher in the future. The teachers I've been working with at GEOS really inspired me. I realized I really like the anglophone culture and I want to be able to share with others by becoming an English teacher.

        I still haven't wrote my ''thank you'' note to my host, but I will do it for sure. My host have been such a great help to me. She worked hard to make me comfortable in the school and she was really attentive. It's all thanks to her if my internship went so well.

         Finally, I would definitely recommend this internship to every student who is interest to teaching. GEOS has a really pleasant atmosphere and the staff is really welcoming. If I ever have the chance to teach at such a nice place, I will not hesitate even a second !

Entry #5 : Cultural encounters

December 7th was my third day at GEOS and I have to admit it was a really hard day. Not that the work I had to do was difficult (not at all), but I felt really sick on that day and I missed my bus ...  As a result, I almost arrived late and with the biggest headache EVER ! Fortunately, I had some time to prepare my stuff and relax in the lounge before starting the classes. Just like last week, I overheard some conversations between the students and I realized that I was surrounded by so many different cultures. Last Friday, I was just thinking of the languages I was hearing (I was amazed since there were so many at the same time), but this week, I understood that they weren't separated only by their language but by their cultural traits as well. The best example is food. Almost all of the students brought something traditional of their culture for lunch. For example, next to me was a Korean guy who was eating rice enveloped with a sheet of alga. On the other side, there a Spanish girl eating traditional cheese bread from Brazil and her friend was eating tortillas. After seeing all of their food, I felt a little hungry! Also, on December 14th, it was the Christmas party at GEOS and everybody brought real traditional food. Some of them let me taste what they brought and it was so good ! All the dish had a particular taste. It was interesting to compare them.

Another thing that made me realize the difference between our culture and the other ones was when I heard some people talking during the party. They said that the reason they were here at the party was because they loved the staff and the school in general, not because it had a particular religious meaning. 

Also, because culture is something really important in GEOS, there are flags from many countries displayed in the school. It might be for students to feel welcomed since most of them are from somewhere else in the world. Pretty much every students are immigrants or foreigners who are in Quebec for a certain time. 

Unfortunately, I haven't learn any new words or expressions during the last two weeks. Since the class I'm attending are in French, it's hard to learn about English. However, I get to talk with the students between and after the classes, but our conversations are more often about familiar topics. So, I understand everything they say.

I hope I'll get more opportunities to practice next week !

Entry #4: The world is my classroom

This week was my third day at my internship. I arrived there a little earlier than usual and I could see that there were much more people than usual in the lounge. I found a little spot to sit and do the same as always : listen to students. The ones that grabbed my attention were a group of Spanish people who were  reading a French newspaper on the table in front of me. It's not the fact that they were reading it that surprised me but they were making a sum up of each articles they read to make sure that they understood. I found it really inspiring. They were so motivated to learn French that they were doing extra-work like this (it wasn't even an assignment). I thought it was a great way of practicing while doing something else at the same time. Also, by reading the French newspaper, without even realizing it, they were also learning about the French culture in general. There was articles about festivals, musician, Francophone culture's problems, etc. 

This is a really good example of how the world can be our classroom. Immersing yourself in an other culture allow you to discover so many new things. You can learn from doing simple things like reading the newspaper of another culture or talking to different people. I had the chance to experience that through my internship. I learned a lot from people whom I talked to and from the tasks I was asked to do when I was working. 

Internship and immersion are more based on the practice than traditional classes in school. Sure, it's a totally different way of learning but, to me, it isn't a bad way. Actually, I can assure that I learned a lot more from my internship than from English classes this year. It is a personal fact, it might be different for other people. I guess it depends on which learning strategies works the best for you!

Entry #3 : Diving in !

My second day at GEOS Languages Plus went just as well as my first day. My schedule was exactly the same as the previous week so from 13:00 to 14:30, I was in room #6 for grammar class and from 14:45 to 16:15, I was in room #5 for conversation class. I thought it would be great to stay in the lounge for the first 30 minutes since I got to hear great conversations the week before. I sat with a boy I had met in my grammar class. We talked in English since his french wasn't very strong. I tried once to talk to him in Spanish (he's from Brazil, so Spanish is his first language) but he barely understood anything. It was pretty funny !

After that, he left and I listened at the conversations around me. Right behind me, there was few students from different nationalities who were having a discussion about how they perceived French people. They said we were too serious and cold compared to Latin-American people who were very friendly. I thought it was pretty interesting to hear their point of view. I never thought French people were cold but maybe it can be different for people who lived in other cultures. It might be because of their habits or their manner of seeing the word ''cold''. I also realized that the students whom native tongue was French have a better accent than the others. Those whom native tongue is Spanish are also quite good with the accent but they seem to have a hard time pronouncing the ''th'' sound. Actually, from my point of view, people who have Spanish or French as their first language definitely have a better accent for English than Japanese, Korean or Chinese. That might be explained by the fact that Latin languages have more in common with Germanic languages than the languages from East-Asia. 

Noticing those kind of things gives me a little more confidence into my learning skills because I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have ever thought of those things before starting the program. I think it proves that I'm making progress and that I'm equating the theory. 

There's one thing I realized about Anglophone culture after listening to so many different conversations : English people seem to compliment each other a lot. In the office, everyone is always really polite but still familiar. I heard a lot of people taking to their colleagues with nicknames and shooting compliments all the time. That's something you don't see too much in a French working environment. 

Also, I did learn some English words during the time I was doing some administration. For example, the word ''jork'' means ''tiroir'' in French, ''file'' means ''dossier'' and ''photocopier'' means ''photocopieur''. The last one seams obvious because the translation is practically the same but if you don't know it ... Well, I could you know it ?

Make sure to come on my website again really soon to have feedback of my next visits at GEOS !

Bye

Entry #2: First Day

Last Friday was my very first day in GEOS Language Plus. From what we had discussed the other day, my host and I decided I'd be starting at 12:30. I arrived there 15 minutes earlier than I was supposed to, so I took some time to visit the school (it's actually really small in there) and familiarize myself with the material and meet with my colleagues. Then, my host gave me my schedule for the day. She told me I'd be attending two classes : one based on  grammar and the other on conversation. The first one was only starting at 1 pm, so I  had to sit in the student lounge, waiting for the class to start. Actually, I'm really glad I waited at this exact place because I was able to listen to many conversations. I found it really interesting to analyse what the students were saying. They were making so many mistakes, but still I was able to understand. In fact, it was the perfect time to use one of the strategies we learned in our program : to  listen closely to what other people say and how they say it and then correct it. So here's one of the sentences I tried to correct : 

''Other day, I go in elevator and I listen music and the man saying something I don't understanding.''

would be ...

''The other day, I went into the elevator, while listening to music, and a man told me something that I didn't understand.''

I realized how important it was to those Italians to learn English. They were always trying to use this language even for the most trivial things such as what happened in the elevator. Each time one of them was using Italian, the others were shouting : ''in English, please!'' They are practicing whenever and wherever they can. It's really inspiring.

I heard other conversations during the time I was in the lounge and I was surprised by how many languages I was able to differentiate. The ones I've been able to identify are English, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Chinese and Arabic.

When 1 pm finally arrived, I went into classroom #6 for the grammar class. The teacher was a little bit late so I had the chance to discuss with the students in the class. There were 6 of them and they were all from different nationalities. Also, they were all here to learn French. I found it very funny because they were asking me so many questions about conjugations and they were asking me to translate some words for them. Then, the teacher arrived and we started the class. The subject of this day was the food, so we learned how to pronounce and write every single types of vegetables, fruits and meats. I was laughing at how easy those exercises were, but then I realized ... there are some words about food that I don't even know my-self ! Like ''choux-fleur'' or ''asperge'' (which I learned were ''cauliflower'' and ''asparagus'').

The second class was at 14:45. It went really well, but I didn't learn anything that really marked me. 

In the end, I didn't do a lot this day. I was observing and taking notes of how things works in GEOS and I think it will help me for the next weeks. Next Friday, I'm supposed to start doing some tutoring, so be sure to read my next posts to have some feedback of it ! 

Bye