Entry #8 : Overall reflection

This is my last entry and this entry will consist of a reflection on how my internship went and what it brought to me and everything it has taught me. I will share with you all my thoughts and appreciation of these past days I spent in my internship.

Goals 

My goals were to enrich my vocabulary, improve my writing skills and become more fluent in English. I strongly believe I have accomplished all three of these goals throughout my internship. I had the opportunity to learn useful vocabulary that I can now apply every day. I have noticed how different my writing skills have been every since my internship, I am now more fluent and pay more attention on how I write and the choice of words that I use.

Strategies 

I had chosen to use strategies such as practice, repetition and looking for patterns. The practicing and repetition strategies were very useful and efficient through out my entire internship. Every new word I would learn I would repeat it to myself several times in order for them to stay etched in my memory. Practicing as well the words and doing grammar exercises with the students during homework zone has helped me learn more words and sentence structures as well as the students. As I said, I also use "looking for patterns". I used it a little bit differently, instead of searching for the similarities between French and English, through out my internship I have actually noticed the differences between the two languages. This strategy was also very successful, it has helped me understand the English language, culture and environment.

Language

I have noticed the most difference in my writing and speaking skills. My vocabulary is now richer than it was before. I believe that my language level has increased. My pronunciation is also better, I did not have much difficulty before with it either but I sometimes made mistakes but I have noticed how I do not make any anymore. My fluency has also improved, I am a lot more fluent in English now than I was at the beginning of the internship.

Growth 

What I enjoyed the most in my internship is to see and realize how much my writing and speaking skills have improved since the first day of my internship. As the days went, I became a lot more motivated to learn and became a lot less shy than I was. I learned a lot about the English culture and how different it is from the french one. I must say since a very young age I was exposed to both French and English culture but I noticed a lot more different things about the french one because I went to elementary and high school in french. This experience in an English environment helped me learn more about the English one and I appreciated every single moment I had in my internship.

The internship

I can gladly say that this internship was an amazing and successful experience. All I gained from this internship was happiness. Helping the students during homework zone was something that I loved, I prepared a CV making program for them to help them in the future. All of that made me very happy and proud to have been a big help to these students who them in return helped me improve my English skills which I am very grateful for.

Placement 
Finally, my host and LCCHS high school are wonderful. The students as well as the staff. My host was there for me, she would help me when I needed it. I was got clear and constructive instructions from her. She would talk to me and ask me questions as I did the same in return. We have a very good relationship, she was extremely nice.  The students at LCCHS are also amazing, they are so appreciative and grateful of everything they get and all the help they get from the staff and the help they got from me. I would definitely recommend this internship for next year's students!

This is what marks the end of my internship, it was a great experience that I looked forward to and I will never forget !

Good bye :)

Entry # 7 : Practice makes perfect

In this post I will post examples of dialogues that I have been a witness of during my internship.

Informal VS Formal language 

I have been exposed to both formal and informal language. My host and her colleagues use more of a formal language as oppose to the students who them use more of an informal language between them.
I do not remember the exact dialogues I have heard however, I will give some examples of differences between formal and informal language. These are words that we use on a daily basis while interacting or speaking to other people.

Informal                                                   Formal 
Ask                                                           Enquire
Ask for                                                      Request
Book                                                         Reserve
Check                                                       Verify
From                                                         On the behalf of
Get                                                            Receive
Give                                                          Provide
Help                                                          Assist
Need                                                         Request
Say sorry                                                   Apologize
Tell                                                            Inform

These are just some words I have heard here and there and hearing people interact with others or dialogues between different people in my internship. I have a couple more examples to show the difference.
Instead of saying  "by" we can say "by means of" , "is capable of" instead of can, "is required to" instead of must. These are just different examples that show difference between the two ways of speaking the English language. I mostly use the informal language  but my goal at the beginning of this internship was to enrich my vocabulary and by practicing and repeating the formal words I will be able to use them while interacting with people. I believe that using formal language is much more professional than informal language.

Entry #6 : Breaking it down

 I was introduced to the English language at a very young age and it has been in my life ever since. I interact, write and speak in English on a daily basis. However, my internship has been helping me improve my English language.

                                                        

Listening Comprehension

I have realized that throughout the days of my internship my listening comprehension has improved. In the past days of my internship, I sometimes found it difficult to understand my host and her colleagues when they would use formal language. But as the days went by, I looked up some of the words I didn’t understand and it has been easier for me to understand when they speak to me or between each other.

Examples:  My host has used the words “on the behalf of” and “enquire” which I found out meant from and ask. These two words are words that we use almost every day and now I have learnt that I can enrich them by using the two new words I learnt by looking them up once I heard my host use them.

Accent

My accent was not something I was looking to improve in my internship because I believe my accent and pronunciation in English is fine the way it is now. Therefore, my accent has stayed the same from beginning to end. However, I do sometimes make mistakes pronouncing words because of my second language which is French but I have not noticed any mistakes coming from it during my internship.

Fluency

I do believe that I have became more fluent in English. My vocabulary has became more rich and formal therefore that makes my English more fluent than it used to be.  However, my academic and formal words don’t come as fluenty as the informal and basic words when I speak to someone or have to speak spontaneously. I still need to practice the more formal words to be able to use them on a daily basis. I have a strong vocabulary when I have to write a text, or write a report on something because I have time to think and enrich my vocabulary as I am writing as oppose to when I am interacting with people I don’t have much time to think of the choice of words I am going to use before I speak. I have used strategies such as practice and repetition to help me become more fluent.

Humour

I have not noticed much about English humour in my internship. I have heard some jokes here and there, but they did not catch my attention.

Accuracy

I also believe that I have had the ability to produce correct sentences using correct grammar and vocabulary since the beginning of my internship. My sentences are always grammatically correct in written and spoken dialogues. I don’t have much of a problem with accuracy in the English language.

ENTRY #5 Cultural encounters

Cultural observations

At LCCHS, there is not many cultural objects or at least I have not yet seen any around the school. However, there is many posters, flyer's and pamphlets all around the school promoting all kind of different things such as college programs for the older students, activities happening in the school, reminders for different curricular activities and sports. I have noticed that in English schools elementary like high school they post a lot of paintings and art work that the students have done. They do so at french schools as well but a lot less than English schools do. As for holidays, English people value more holidays like Canada day, Christmas and thanks giving as for Quebecois, Saint-Jean Baptiste is a very important holiday. Thanks giving is actually a very important holiday for the English, almost everyone has a turkey dinner with their family as for french people, not many people even celebrate it.  I have asked a couple of students what date they open their Christmas gifts and most of them told me that they open them Christmas morning on the 25th. Mostly all of the books and magazines in the school library are also in English, very few of them are in french. In many french schools I have seen that they still have a cross as oppose to English ones where I have no seen any yet.

 

Type of English I have been exposed to

I have been exposed to mostly informal language. My host’s colleagues mostly use informal language and not slang. As for french speaking people, through out my whole high school I was exposed to a lot of slang. As for the students they do speak more slang than informal, but I was very surprised to see most of the grade 11 students speak with a very rich vocabulary. I learnt a new expression today ‘’ to start from scratch`` which means to start from the beginning. I’ve also learnt a couple of a new vocabulary words.

Foreshadowing : When you want to let people know about an event that is yet to occur, you can use foreshadowing. Foreshadowing is use as a literary device to tease readers about plot turns that will occur later in the story.

 

Rewards and challenges

So far, the most difficult aspect of my internship was being in a new environment where I did not know anybody. This experience is something new and something I’ve never really done before and it is the most rewarding part as well ! I appreciate the warm welcoming my host gave me and her colleagues as well, the students are very appreciative for the help they get which is amazing.

ENTRY#4 : THE WORLD IS YOUR CLASSROOM

Linguistic interference

This week, I have come to the conclusion that sometimes my French interferes with my English.  My first language is not nor French or English, Serbian is my first language. I learnt to speak French and English at a very young age, but I was learning both languages at the same time which explains how sometimes they can interfere with each other.  I was helping a student with his French homework and I had to explain to him what he had to do in English in order for him to understand his work.  I unfortunately had a little bit of a hard time translating the French to English; I had trouble searching for the right words to use in English in order for the student to understand what I had been trying to define.  I decided to look up the translation of certain words to help me out, and with a little bit of hard thinking I finally got what I needed to put across to the student and he finished his homework successfully!

English learning; Classroom VS Internship

Throughout the couple of days I have passed in my internship I have come to notice that it is easier to learn by being and working in an English environment compare to in a classroom. In my internship I interact a lot with the students and the school staff. In a classroom, we have a teacher explain to us the rules of grammar or the different ways of expressing ourselves whereas in our internships we search for ways to express ourselves and we look for the right words to use on our own. I believe there is nothing better than searching for answers by yourself to be able to remember them and have them etched in our memory.

Vocabulary

                                            

Etched: I heard my internship host say the word etched and was wondering what it meant, it’s an adjective that has the same meaning as engraved, to engrave something or to etch something. I used it as an expression we mostly use in French ‘’ gravé dans la mémoire ‘’ meaning ‘’ engraved in our memory ‘’.

ENTRY#3 : DIVING IN

Today, I had a meeting with my host and we discussed different programs we were going to put together for the students. As mentioned before, my host and I will be putting together different programs for the students such as a study skills program to help them organize their studying and help them improve their academic results by managing their time and their work. We have also thought through activities on how to make a professional and presentable CV and on how to write a presentable letter of intent for certain colleges. 

Interactions

I have noticed that English speaking people are extremely polite towards each other and have a soft way of expressing themselves even in situations where they are disagreeing.  This week, I didn’t get to chance to interact much with the students but mostly just with my host. However, I had the chance to observe her interacting with her colleagues.  As mentioned above, they speak in a very polite way and don’t get agitated and aggravated when disagreeing whereas French Quebecers tend to get agitated very easily or chance the tone of their voice when in disagreement. I find it very pleasant and interesting.

Cultural observations   

As for the culture, I haven’t perceived much this week. Despite, I have noticed that my internship host is very persistent on her schedule being perfectly made and everything has to be done on time.  She doesn’t accept that things are not in order and she is very punctual. Therefore, I can say that English speakers are very concerned about time, timing and punctuality. 

Vocabulary

Unfortunately,  I haven’t learned any new words this week. However, I do sometimes make mistakes, I tend to say the word in French when I can’t think of it right away in English, I have my host correct me. 

ENTRY#2 : FIRST IMPRESSIONS

First impressions

This week, I finally started my internship. I was very surprised and intrigued by the fact that even in an English high school you can find many different cultures.  LCCHS provides many different services for the students to have during their lunch hours or even during class hours. They have a leadership program, a friendship club, a homework zone and other programs and clubs for the students to have the best academic results and to also feel welcomed and enjoy their school days.  I met a couple of people, students and staff members. The people are very kind and appreciative which motivates me even more and has me looking even further forward to my following internship days.  My host and I prepared tables and papers for the College and Vocational programs open houses for the students in the 11^th grade.  We set them up in the area where the students hang out during their lunches in order for us to be able to promote them.  I had a chance to describe college life to the students, I haven’t myself been in college for a very long amount of time but I was able to answer their questions and help them choose the right path.

 

 

Mistakes and misunderstandings

I have not yet come to face any mistakes or misunderstandings.

 

 

Vocabulary:

Vocational programs: The College Vocational program is an individualized, supportive program to help bridge the gap for students who have graduated from high school with workplace credits. It offers extensive assessment through the use of several vocational tools. In addition, students participate in career planning, communication and life skills training, and a work experience placement. Today I learned that vocational programs were what we call in French DEP (Dîplome d’étude professionel) in French we use the name of the diploma obtained to describe what the programs are or even ‘’ Formation professionel ‘’ whereas in English there is a specific name for these programs. I found it very interesting and had absolutely no idea what they were when I first heard my host say it.