Practice Makes Perfect

The first situation is when I was the monitor, I had to deliver a message to a teacher.

In class

Me: (knock on the door)Hello. Excuse me, there is a message. It is for a student named Ghislane. Her mother is here to see her.
Teacher: (Takes the paper, read it) Tell the secretary that she can come up in class.
Me: Okay.

What I would say in the future

Me: (knock on the door) Hello. Excuse me, it is a message from the secretary. (Hand over the message)
Teacher: (Takes the paper, read it) Tell the secretary that she can come up in class.
Me: Okay.

I should have just said that there is a message and hand it over to the teacher without saying anything else, because after I delivered the message, I found out that Ghislane was the teacher, not a student. It is weird to say in front of the whole class that her mother is here downstairs waiting for her. I was thinking, what did she think after I said it?

Overall Reflection

Goals
Some goals were achieved like: acquire new vocabularies, get across the meaning of messages and to gain personal and practical work. For most of the time, I learned new vocabularies among the students as they get very expressive with theirs words. I get to say some little comments with gestures and descriptions that helped me get through the message.I gained some personal and practical work by attending to school activities, for example, cooking class; how to bake a cheesecake, hairdressing activity; how to dye hair and learned some techniques, charity event; I helped to prepare the tables, served spaghetti and move things and to be the messenger for the employees.

Some goals were not completely achieved like improving my fluency and to build confidence. They have certainly improved, but not enormously. I need to have more practice. As the session is coming to an end, the less hours there are left, but it is necessary as it is the period of exams for everyone.

Strategies
I have used all the strategies I mentioned in the first blog post: to make guesses, to practice in whichever way possible, talks to myself and to repeat. I will continue to use them as I always have.

Language 
I don't know for my level of English, but I can be sure that I hesitate less when I am talking to someone and it was the most challenging. Most of the time, especially for the secretaries in the office who are often busy, I don't talk to them if it is not needed because I don't want to disturb them while they are working. They receive a lot of calls, paperwork and have to take care of students who come to ask favors.

Growth
Through the experience, it helped me to understand that you absolutely have to practice on the field. Not to be just in class, but you will learn a lot more about yourself.

My perception of anglophone culture is that it is in the same world as us, but it has its own little world where regroups a little community. It is where everyone knows each other without exception and they are very comfortable that they are very honest and warm.

I will take away with me the beautiful memories encountered with the students, the teachers and the rest of the employees. I will try to use the new words and experiences I have learned on my next adventures. I will never forget the high school where I had my first internship.

The Internship
If I had to do it again, I would go two times a week so I could be comfortable more faster with the environment and I would hesitate less faster. The other things; the activities, I would never change and arrange it differently.

Gratitude
The last day is this week's Friday. I will give to the students in hairdressing club and my host some mini Chinese pastry. I wrote a card for my host that I am thankful that she is my host, for all the generosity and patience she has for me. I will never, ever forget the time that I have passed in the high school where she organized the meetings with me and the students in class and in after school activities.

The placement
I would recommend this internship placement to another student. The students and the employees are very welcoming and they would embrace you if you come their way. They are easy to talk and a good place to listening for your observations.

Breaking it Down

Listening Comprehension
Compared to the first days of my internship, my listening comprehension improved a little bit. I am more used to the speed and the way students and the employees speak; familiar and formal speech. At the beginning, sometimes, I tried to remember the important keywords and guessed in the end the subject of the conversation. Now, I can understand most of the sentences, even still, there are times when they talk too fast that I have to ask them to repeat.

Accent
I don't think my English accent has changed much, if yes, I think the people around me would notice it and would have told me. I still have some French accent when I speak with the adults and the students.

Fluency
There were some times that I think I was fluent and some times not fluent enough. The subject which is easier for me to talk about would be school and about me. In general, I have hesitation because I think in French and it just takes time to make through to the other person.

Humour
I don't remember all the jokes and funny situations, but the anglophone sometimes uses the same jokes or riddles as the francophone, for example, how do you get an elephant into the fridge. First, you open the door. Second, you put the elephant in and last, you close the door. After that, it is the turn of the giraffe.

On the other hand, it is not always funny when you translate into the other language because sometimes, it doesn't make sense or the sound just doesn't fit when translated.

Accuracy
I have made an attempt to speak more accurately in the last days of internship. I thought, now that I am used to the environment and the people in school, I should be aware of the grammar, sentence structure and some verb tenses when I am speaking. It is not easy because right after I spoke, it is then that I correct myself in my head.

New words
One day on a Friday morning, the host said that I was going to be ''the monitor'', but I had no idea what role and specific responsibilities it came with, except to play the messenger in the school ground. From what I have heard from Joannie, the other internship, I have to bring students to the office or to give messages to the teachers. Then, the vice-president came to me and explained that I had to pick up something from the teachers. He said it a bit too fast, but I understood a ''late slips'', a new word that I never heard of in my entire life. I asked him to repeat and he replied that he will have my host explained it to me with more details.

However, I already had an idea of what I am supposed to do, but just in case, I waited for my host to clarify. As I have guessed, ''late-slips'' means a paper note written with the name of the student who is late or absent from class with the reason on it.

In hairdressing class, I learned new words: ''tease'',''foil'', ''scalp'' and ''loop and lock'' while the person in charge who is former student of the high school and just graduated from a professional school taught us how to put fake hair on the mannequin's head.

The World Is Your Classroom

My second day was in a classroom, but a classroom where you teach students how to cook. The teacher taught them how to bake a cheesecake! I don't remember all the ingredients, but I do remember the ingredients and instructions for the crust. To make crust, you must have 2 cups of graham crackers, 2 tablespoon of brown sugar, one tablespoon of margarine. While preparing the crust and the cheese to bake, they are cooperating by words and gestures to point out which ingredients they needed.

In the class of grade 7, I recognized a student from the hairdressing club. I hang out and talked with her during class time.  I noticed that students speak some slang like ''gonna'' and ''whatcha doing?''.

Classroom and Internship
Being in class and to be in a language immersion situation are both good. They have advantages and disadvantages at the same time. In class, by theory, you learn a lot of new vocabularies, but you will forget to use it because the opportunity rarely comes. When you are immersing in an environment, you can become more fluent, set your space of speaking the language and make use of what you've learned in class on the field. You can also learn by reading, listening and observing from near.

During the internship, I had to repeat myself and asks questions several times to communicate clearly. When I forget the word in English, I paused in the middle of the sentence and continued with the right word or I make gestures, eyes contacts or explain the description of the word and they guessed it. If not, I will say it the word in French and they will say the word in English.

New Words
I learned two words. The first one is ''nappé'', the word is use only in cooking. You say ''nappé'' when the foam is liquid and it is not thick and sticky anymore. The second is ''bending''. I learned it when hanging out with a student of grade 7. We saw that the inflatable doll for Christmas decoration, no air on the floor. Shen then said: '' The doll is bending! So funny! '' and we laughed.

Diving In Slowly!

It is the beginning of my interniship; the first real day. When I got into the school's entrance, I was extremely nervous. ''What will she (the host) ask me to do today?'' I asked myself, and I had to ring the bell to let me in, but suddenly, the supervisor opened the door. I was really shy at first because I didn't know what to do, I smiled and said thank you. I walked to the host's office. We greeted each other and she explained me the first task, it was to put documents, a notebook and a pen in the portfolio for a meeting. She showed me around the school and how to photocopy on different paper colors. There were forty copies and portfolios. I guessed it was for the adults, because there were schedules and two versions in French and in English of questions about the school and anglophone communities.

In the afternoon, I put documents together and I participated in the after school activity which was hairdressing. In English, there are polite forms, but compared to French, it is not apparent to see. The ''vous'' in French is the polite form to address and to show respect to older persons, to teachers and to strangers. However, in English, informal and formal pronoun are ''you''. So, when English speakers are using ''you'', you feel like there is no barrier and it makes you feel really close. However, I am accustomed to use polite forms toward adults, there were different levels of comfort. When I speak to adults, I will be more careful of my choice of words and with students from secondary one whom I met in the hairdressing room, I can freely express my thoughts.

In Montreal, there are not many English high schools. It is normal that the schools are not so big compared to French schools. The classes and activities are similar, but different at the same time. As I have said in my first blog, the building is separated between a school for adults and the other side for students in high school. When my host showed me around school, she said that the rooms will be always impair numbers and the other side of the school are always pair numbers. They have activities like hairdressing, cooking classes, basketball and others that I have not seen yet. In French schools, we had cooking rooms a really long time ago, even a sewing room, but they decided to replace them for a normal classroom. Despite that, the high school where I attend my internship, they have decided to keep and teach cooking. I would really love to have cooking classes. Nowadays, we don't know how to cook.

Greetings

 At first, I didn't know how to greet the host. Is it by her first name or last name? Would it be rude if I use her first name suddenly? Between adults, except for the principal, they call by their first name. I noticed students going in and out of the reception freely and they all call the receptionists, even my host by their first names. I find it a little surprising because in French schools, we don't call teachers by their first name. Although they call by their first name, it is not rude at all, because they use ''Miss'' or ''Mister''.

Different Opinions?

Even if people disagree, they will not show hesitation to speak up their mind. They are not afraid and share their opinions straightaway. It is how close teachers and students are between them.

New Words

While I was in the hairdressing room, I kind of learned a new word: ''bleach'' which means to dye your hair.  They were learning how to bleach hair with a plastic fill with holes. We have to pierce through to bleach some hairs on the mannequin's head. They have just named her ''Jackida''. I have learned another word: ''jockey''. When you play hockey, you have to put it on to protect yourself from hurting the intimate below part of the man.

My Remarks On First Day

Linguistics and Cultural Observations

When the employees and the students saw us, they knew right away that we were francophone, they (a student and an employee, maybe a teacher) even initiated and started to speak in French with us. I was surprised at how good they were in French.

The host said that they don't have many chances to speak in French. However, I can't judge on one student to assume that they were all good in French. So, I will be careful and when the time comes, if they want to practise their French, I would like to help them improve. However, it is a little difficult because I am here to practise my English three hours a week . I think it might be alright, since I am here to learn new expressions and words in English. I can also learn from their mistakes and compare their mistakes that we, francophone makes too. 

When we were in the host office, she let us know that she can speak a limited of French as my classmate and me are, in English. I have observed that, even though you know the other person can understand in your own language, you would want to speak their language for their convenience and so the person can feel at ease. We were a little similar to the description I just gave. We switched to French to English and to English to French or one person talked in French and the other person in English, but we took an effort to remember that we have to speak in English.

Learned New Languages – Words?

The meeting have lasted around one hour, but I don't think I have learned new vocabularies. 

Misunderstandings?

We did not have any misunderstanding, there was just a little confusion for which day we would like to have our internship.  

I wanted to tell her if she wants, I wouldn't mind if I could, in a separate time, help to practise with their students. However, how I formulated it, the translation to French to English in my head blurted out, was kind of weird. I just put it aside to finish what we started to talk. The next time, I have to organize my thoughts and slowly say it. 

 

The Steps to Begin

My Goals

Before I met the host, I have set a couple of goals that will help me keep track of why I am in the internship and to hope that I will successfully accomplish them by the end of this session:

• To improve my communication skills
  - Fluency
  - Acquire new vocabularies
  - Get across the meaning of messages
• To gain personal and practical work experience
• To build my confidence

Learning Strategies

The learning strategies that I think will help me the most are:

• Guesses
• Practices
• Talks to myself – thinking before talking (organizing my thoughts)
• Communicates in whichever way possible
• To repeat

First Meeting With The Host

Last week on Thursday, the 15^th of November in the afternoon, me and Joannie had an appointment with our host at 2:30. Surprisingly, the bus pass each 30 minutes, so 2 times an hour. I thought it would pass more frequently, because it is near a high school where there are usually a lot of students. It took us 12 minutes to get there. It was easy to spot the school as it was the only building that looks like a school. We stopped right in front of the school. It is really convenient. We went through the doors on our right and started to search for the administration. We walked to the hallway in the corner on our right, as we didn't see anything that seemed to be a path to the receptionist, we returned to ask on the way. I asked a women who I think might be working there, so I asked her where is the administration. We really looked like we were lost and it was the first time in the high school. She pointed with her finger the direction of the administration and it was just right in front of us, we missed it without noticing. Why didn't I lift up my head and see it? How could I have missed it!?!

We went to the administration door and said that we had an appointment with the host named […].

The women said that we have to go through the doors on our left and to wait for her. We didn't understand all the directions in English, but we still went through the doors. There was a bench with two persons sitting on it. We didn't clearly remember what the women said, so we came back at the administration. A mister helped us to ask and said to wait on the bench. While waiting on the bench, a student wearing his red uniform started to talk in French to us, but we finished in English. He asked us if we are francophone, asked the reason we are here and other things. We talked to another women and we introduced ourselves. Everyone was really welcoming.

The host finally came and warmly greeted us with a big smile. She told us to follow her in her office. Her room was filled of documents. We put aside the books in a box which were on the chair to sit. We introduced ourselves individually and started to discuss about the internship; which day of the week and the convenient hour for each of us. We showed our courses schedule. It took us a while to understand what we wanted. After, we showed documents to sign and to keep. She gave us her card and asked to send her an e-mail so she could contact us to see what we could do for the first day in internship and to prepare the tasks. We said our goodbyes.

Impressions

When I entered the high school, the first impression it gave me was just ''different''; a different ''feel'' and a really different ''environment''. Where the administration was situated, I thought it was a little small, because usually, there would be a path open wide ahead and in the two hallway on each side. Even so, I liked it, it felt inviting and friendly. 

Like a company, we can see the classes on the center when we lift up our heads. Very different structures in the building compared to francophone schools I have seen before. They have beautiful paintings on the walls of the stairs. There are also two schools in one building with two sections, one for the adults and one for the students. They day we went for the first meeting, there were parents everywhere, we assumed that it was to take the school report of the student and to meet the parents and teachers. 

For the host, because of the first call, I thought she would not be very welcoming. When we called before, it felt like pranks call because it was not entirely a good time even though they were voice mail. I called back again the next day. I didn't know if she heard the voice mail, but the conversation on phone was short and fast. It was not the same as I thought.  The exact opposite of what we thought it would be, have happened, she is really kind, understanding and have a lot of patience.  

Concerns and Expectations

I hope I will be able to express myself properly and send across the right meaning, because I sometimes can create some misunderstandings while speaking. I hope they will be patient with me. It can take time and it might take two conversations on a different time.(I hope not!)