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!

Entry # 5

Hello Blogger!

In this article, I will compare English culture with French culture

Cultural Observations

In my host organization, I didn't see any religious symbols but, I noticed that in French schools there is always a cross. At the children world academy, there are many paintings, posters, colors and advertisements that the students did. There is so many that I find it over loaded because in french schools there is much less clutter. 

After that, the only music I heard is children singing the body song. 

People around me also told me that they were reading the suburban newspaper as well as  The News and Chronicle. They also told me that they listen to 800 AM radio (CJAD). 

For the holidays, english people are giving more importance to Canada Day, Christmas and Thanksgiving. And French speaking quebecers are celebrating St-Jean baptiste day and attach less importance to traditional occasions. But like french culture, traditions is loosing significance. 

English around me

Almost every time I go to my internship, I read a book for the kids. On my last visit to my internship, I read a book called: Being Bossy. During my reading, I paid attention to my pronunciation and the meaning of the words. I also used some of my idioms. One time, I asked a kid to repeat what he said to me and I still didn't understand so I said "Its all greek to me". Also, a kid didn't want to play a game and I told him two idioms in the same sentence "Its a piece of a cake we're all in the same boat". This is how I introduced my idioms.

New words and expressions

During my reading, I noticed a few words that I learned. The book was about a little girl being bossy. I learned words like leapfrog (a game), frighten others (scare someone),  bribe (to corrupt someone), crowded (a bunch of people), etc. 

My internship is better that what I expected. Talk to you soon.

Catherine

Here is a drawing were a little girl wrote I LVOE U CATHERINE <3

Entry #4 - Halloween is coming soon

Hello Blogger!

Yesterday was my 4th day of internship and we organized halloween!

Linguistic interference

In my internship experience, I do have some interference between French and English. The first one is called "cognate", which means I say some words in English that are the same in French. Like example, we were putting our coats on and I told a kid to "attach" his coat, but I should have said "zip-up" your coat. I said that because in french, most of the time, we say "Attache ton manteau". Also, I still have a lot of difficulty to place the words in the right place in a sentence especially in the interrogative sentences. Those challenge me and sometimes the children ask me to repeat what I've said. In this case, I try to find another way to say what I have to say. This helps me to listen more carefully how people speak around me. 

Immersion VS Classroom

Learning english in an immersion is a lot different. In a classroom, you have to listen a lot and practice less. But in an immersion you practice a lot and you also listen , but you're in an english environment. For me its better because in a kinesthetic type, which means I need physical experience to understand. In addition, in a classroom, I'm with my friends and I don't always speak in english but in my immersion, I have to communicate in English to include myself.

New words and Expressions

Like I said at the beggining, yesterday, we prepared some stuff for Halloween. The kids and I did some drawing and arts and crafts. Some kids drew a bat, a bale of hay, a scarecrow, etc. In the future, I'll use most of these words around halloween time.

                                                           This is my ghost ;)

Third day!

Hello!
Last week was my third time in Children's World Academy and here is how it goes.

Interactions

On the third day, I played outside with the kids and I learned a lot of new words and expressions. When I first got into the classroom where all the kids were eating their snacks, they were all excited to see me. I could see that in their body language because they all came to hug me. :) When we went outside, the kids went to play in the "jungle gym". I did learn this word because I asked them what it was called. After playing and interacting with the kids, one of the little girls, Kyana, said: "see you later alligator". This expression was new to me. Also, interacting and listening to their tone of voice (kids speak fast and are sometimes hard to understand) is very helpful to get used to an english environment. 

Observations

I couldn't see a big difference between english culture and french culture, but they are some observations. All the kids are very polite and call every person by their name but they add miss or mister before. 

In addition, the kids are almost all sharing with each other and they include everyone. They are not mean between each other and they are mixed. 

New words and expressions

I did learn of lot of new words. Every time I don't know or I don't understand a word, I ask the kids and they like to help me. During play outside, a child asked me to make a knot because his shoes weren't tied.  Also, they asked me to get a ball on the other side of the fence and to catch them into the jungle gym.

These are few situations where I learned vocabulary but I also learned: hay, clean neatly, see you later  alligator, etc.

The internship is going well so far and I love what I do. Talk to you next week ;)

Here is another drawing for a student called Catherine! What a nice name ;)

Official day!

Hello Blogger,

Yesterday, Wednesday the 9th was my first official day of internship, I was a little bit stressed but everything went perfectly.

My Observations

First of all, they were very welcoming and they introduced me to everybody in the school. I think that english people are more friendly then french people are. After that, I was placed in the 4-5 year old group. I was pretty excited to be in this group. The main observation I could say is that I had to adapt myself and pay more attention on how they pronounced the words.  I often asked them to repeat what they said because it wasn't clear. 

Language

I did a lot of activities with them, for example, I took the initiative to make a game where I was drawing pictures and the kids had to guess what it was. During this time, I have learned what a dragonfly was. The teacher also read a book where a mouse was tip-tapping and this  word was new to me, as well as tippy toes. We played most of the time in the yard where I learned words like skipping, jumping rope, fence, etc.

Things To Improve

In addition, I have learned to listen carefully and to make sure that I understand what the children were telling me. And also, I didn't hesitate to ask for clarification.

I can't wait to see them again and to learn more! ;)

Catherine


Here is a drawing one of a children made me 

The first meeting

Specific language goals

First of all, in my internship experience, I want to speak more fluently and learn new vocabulary. I also need to improve the form of my sentences and to place the right word in the right place.

Language learning strategies

To help me in improving my L2, I have to talk to myself. Which means I have to prepare myself mentally by creating dialogues and thinking before saying something. 

After that I'll have to practise, this internship is giving me a great opportunity to learn english and to be better. Even if the people around me speak french, I'll speak english and I'll take guesses so they can correct my mistakes. 

Repeating my mistakes will also help me to say it correctly next time.

The meeting with my host

Yesterday was my first meeting with my host at Children's World Academy. I met the principal David Estok. It was short and sweet, we arranged our schedules and talked about which group I would be in. During the meeting I asked him to repeat a word I didn't understand because he spoke fast and with an accent I didn't understand but the word was quit simple it was " what about physical?". Other than that, I understand most of what he said.

Expectations

My first word was "cool"! It's my first experience of Internship and I don't really know what to expect from my first day, but I am very excited to begin!

I hope i'm going to be able to practice a lot because the school is an immersion program so there's many french classes. Finally, I'm sure it's going to be an amazing experience.

Thanks for reading! 

And I'll write to you soon!

Catherine

Common Idioms and Expressions in English

Here is the five Common Idioms and Expressions in English I'll try to use during my internship:

-A piece of cake:
A task that can be accomplished very easily.

-Against the clock:

Rushed and short on time.

-Its all greek to me:
When something is incomprehensible.

-All in the same boat:

When everyone is facing the same challenges. 

-Actions speak louder than words:
It's better to actually do something than just talk about it.