Internship Post #7

My “ah-ah” moment is not the good kind, what I discovered is related to the syntax in English,  I found a difference between French and English. During highschool and during my college English classes, I learned  that the way we write essays are much different in French than English and this is a perfect example. I was translating a document until I stumbled upon what seemingly was a needlessly long sentence. In French, you can’t simply write non-stop and put commas everywhere. You need to cut it down or else it’s a mess. In English, on the other hand, you can do that without any problem.  So there I was scratching my head trying to find a way to put all that big wall of text in French! I will definetely keep that in mind while writing in English that I don't necessarly need to cut down my sentences all the time.

What I said

Me: Hi, I am Marc-Antoine Béchard, from Cégep André-Laurendeau. I would like to talk about the internship.

Supervisor: Excuse me?

Me: I think Christi talked to you about me?

Supervisor: Wait... Are you .... Marc..?

Me: Yes, that’s me. I would like to talk about the translation work.

Supervisor: Our first project was cancelled, because we didn’t hear from you last weekend. The next one will only available on January 9^th.

Me: Oh... So there’s no work for me until the 9^th?

Supervisor: The other project was scrapped, but I would have you come in on the 9^th for our other project.

Me: Oh okay, I will come on the 9^th.

The conversation went on for a little bit but ended shortly after that

What I would say in the future

Me: Hello, I am the student from André-Laurendeau, here to talk about the translation work.

Supervisor: Oh! Hold on a second... you must be ... Marc?

Me: Yes, I see Christi told you about me.

Supervisor: Yes, well unfortunately, our last project was cancelled because we did not hear from you last weekend. The next project we have will only be available on the 9^th.

Me: Okay, I will be there on the 9^th.

Supervisor: Okay, see you then.

Saying too much information all at once to someone you have never talked to in the past can be confusing, especially is you mix up English pronounciation for some words and French pronounciations too in the same sentence!