Entry #8 - Good bye

Goals

My principal goals were to learn new vocabulary. I learned a lot of news words and I'll use them in many contexts. I also wanted to improve my syntax. I developped tricks but I still have to work on that. I can't say I did not improve. 

Strategies

I did use some strategies. For example I talked to myself. In fact, I was thinking before saying something to make sure I wasn't making mistakes. Other than that, I had a lot of chances to practice outside of my internship. I practiced at school, I went to Toronto to see some friends, I met english people in a bar, etc. 

Language

I think this experience helped my fluency and It gave me self-confident. I am less shy to speak english and to make mistakes. I take every comments positively. English people help me to open my mind.

Growth

Before the internship, I was seing this experience as a task. And during the weeks I was enjoying it and it was exciting to go there and to see my little monsters! It helped me to direct my future into this field of studies. I'm now considering becoming a teacher. 

Gratitude

I gave to my host the little gift Christi gave us and I bought a cute card. I wrote on the card: Thanks a lot for all the moments and tips you gave me. I hope you enjoyed the experience like I did. See you soon.. Catherine xox

The Placement

I would recommended this place to everyone who likes to move and to play with children. Every person who wants to learn in a fun environment.

Thanks Christi for this amazing experience of life!

Catherine!

Entry #7- Dialogues

First meeting with my group (presentation)

 Hello, I'm going to be with you for many weeks to improve my english! I hope you're gonna help me to learn more.

What should I say

Hello everyone!

How are you doing?

My name is Catherine and I'm 20 years old.

  I'm doing an internship in this school to improve my english!

I'm going to be with you every wednesday and thursday for a few weeks.

I hope you are all going to help me and don't be affraid to correct me.

Do you have any questions? =)

Reasons: This situation happened the first day of my internship. I made those mistakes because I was shy and I wasn't well prepared. Next time, I'll go ahead and I'll be fearless! Mistakes make you improve and It's a part of the process of learning a foreign language. I'll use this speech to introduce myself anywhere: at work, at school, etc. 

AH-HA!

When we were outside, I was playing with the kids and a little girl pushed a boy. The teacher came and said: Cienna, you just pushed Liam, did you? I noticed that in english, they use fact and then add did you, aren't you, isn't, etc. I memorized that and I started to pay more attention on how english people form their questions. In french, It's less common to form our questions like that but we can do it even so. I have difficulty to form sentences properly but this gave me another way to ask questions. 

My internship is almost done and I'm surely going to miss it. =,( 

Entry #6 Comprehension

I have been introduced to english since I was born. Unfortunately, I lost some of my english in certain parts of my life. The good point is that this internship is giving me a motivation in my life to improve my english.

Listening

I always had difficulty to understand voices in general. The main reason is because I have a deficiency in one ear. However I do understand most of what I ear at work. Sometimes I ask for clarification and I'm not shy to do so. Even so, I use all my concentration to understand.

Accent

I think my accent is not too bad. I notice that I add some punctuation to some words for example gÉneral or MontrÉal. Those mistakes are from my native language which is french. I am more comfortable to speak english with the people around me and I'm less shy to make mistakes. 

Fluency

I have more fluency when comes the time to play games with the kids, I'm getting used to the names of games and the rules. For example, skipping rope, tag, memory game, etc. When it comes to ask questions, I still have doubts. I question myself first in my head and then I ask it. I also noticed that I'm getting better with the use of the right words. For example, Turn off the light, to (verb) instead of for, at, etc.

Humor

I don't really know if I'm right but I noticed that many jokes in english come in a question and a specific intonation. For example, I little girl called Kiana gets impatient and she said she was never going to leave the kindergarden. The teacher said: ''Did you bring your sleeping bag at school?'' with and acute voice. 

New words

Crumbs: A little boy named Jaylen was eating his snack and then he comes to me and he said: '' I dropped some crumbs on my head hihihi! ". I didn't know this word but in that situation I understood what it meant. 

Mole: A little girl had a Mole toy and she showed it to me. I ask her what animal it was because I didn't know the name in english.

Hive: "The home of the bees" children told me. There was one in the class.

Im learning every time I go to my internship and I can't wait to practice more!