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!

Internship Post #6

First off, it is important to  mention that my internship was changed from Tyndale Saint-George’s Community Center to LaSalle’s Multicultural Ressource Center. I do translation work for them, I translate English documents and letter in French and vice-versa.

When it comes to listening comprehension, I can safely say that it was always easy for me to understand the people I worked with. Whether it was with the kids at Tyndale or one of my supervisor, there was never any real misunderstanding when it came to listening and when there was something I did not quite understand, I would ask questions about it right away. I cannot clearly state that I understand the people I work with better than in the beginning because I worked at two different places.

As for my accent, I don’t think it changed very much since my new stage are mostly in written form. I know my english accent still has room to improve, but it is not a problem. On the other hand, I noticed that my host at LMRC pronounces french terms with an anglophone accent, like names of streets. Example : “Rue Lapierre” pronounced “pir” rather than “piɛr” like in this example, she doesn’t do the diphthong i->iɛ.

When it comes to talk about my fluency it’s a bit weird because I considered myself fluent before my internship. I think I am more fluent in English because of the new vocabulary I learned, I am more aware of the meaning of certain specific words in specific context like the word “Board” can be a synonym of “Council” and it doesn’t mean board like a chalk board.

Funny how I have nothing to say about humor, my internship is serious work.

My personnal goals with the internship were always to improve all aspect of how I speak english. I try to use as many different words as possible to become familiar with them and remember in which context they are best suited for. Since I am already fluent in English, I focused more on language accuracy. Also since my task was to translate written documents, conserving the meaning in each sentence was more important. I noticed when translating documents from English to French that most of the time in French you need more words to express the same idea. Example : My friend’s cat, Le chat de mon ami.

Not example from my internship, but you get the picture

New words, expressions, structures

1-      Board : Group of executives, council                                   (while translating a document)

2-      Counselling : Therapy, help, assistance                                (while translating a document)

3-      It’s completely normal to say “Open the TV” according to my supervisor.

4-      Senior: Means Séniors in French but is never used in French, we say personnes âgées

5-      Months don’t need a capital letter at the beginning in French. January->janvier

Internship Post #5

Tyndale St-George's Community Center itself is not a religious institution with a religious mission. The building may have been a church in the past but it does not contain any religious symbol or relic today. The only religious symbols you may found are those worn by the kids or the adults working there like a hijab or a rosary. A few posters can be found in most of the building and educationnal posters in the classrooms as well as the class rules. In the cafeteria area, photographies of the past years showing kids and volunteers can be found. There is no music playing inside the building as any technological device such as the iPad nano are strictly forbidden.

The whole community itself at Tyndale is extremely multicultural and multiethnical not just the kids but also the people who work there. To highlight that fact, it even occured once that I was the only white person in the classroom. The kids come from famillies with extremely diverse backgrounds, not only can you find asian, black, white, hispanic kids but you can also find mixes of culture such as an asian looking girl with an hispanic first name! It's a big melting pot of cultures!  

The English I have been exposed to differs slightly depending on who I am speaking to. The kids themselves use gramatically correct English but with a small range of vocabulary and they also make very little use of slang. The other volunteers also speak gramatically correct English but with a much wider range of vocabulary also with very little use of slang. The vast majority of them are anglophones, as opposed to me. I can safely say that their English is much better than mine as sometimes I have a word on the tip of my tongue and they help me with that.

The most difficult aspect of my internship was having to deal with francophone kids, not that it was hard for me to help them but I couldn't help but feel like I was wasting my time as I'm there to make observation on the Anglophone community in Montréal. On the other hand, the best part of my internship was playing hockey with the kids in the gym. It was a lot of fun.

Internship Post #4

When interacting with the other volunteers, I noticed that the vast majority of them are part of a specific program and already know each other from before the internship. When they get to know me and why I am there with them at Tyndale often suprises them because it is a very odd place to do an internship for a language program. The volunteers are very nice people as you would expect from volunteers such organization and are also polite, they greet each other with a "Hi" or "How are you?" which is no different from what people would use in French.

The main difference between being in a classroom in Cégep André-Laurendeau and being in a classroom at Tyndale's St-George's Community Center is that at André-Laurendeau I am there to learn only and at Tyndale I am there to learn, teach and observe. Acquiring a new language through a traditionnal structured classroom does allows me to learn through various activities which are suited for the entire classroom and not specifically for me. On the other hand, at Tyndale, I decide how the content is used and adapted for the needs of a single student. Teaching specific content in English allows me to make the use of vocabulary I don't normally use and therefore to practice speaking English. Tutoring allows me to think of how the content will be used and what will the effects of the activity be. If I am to specifially teach English to a francophone kid, it will affect my choice of words and the flow of my voice, etc. It makes me think not only what the student needs to learn but also how will he learn and fully understand it. The only challenge I've faced is when a kid doesn't want to do his homework and stops working to mess with the other kids but that usually doesnt last long.

Internship Post #3

I can safely say that aproximately half of my interaction I've had in English were with members of the staff or volunteers at Tyndale and the other half with the kids themselves. Even though my job is to help the kids, I was unlucky enough that half the kids I helped were monolingual francophones so my interactions with English speaking kids is fairly limited. Nevertheless I have still made a few observations. In the context of the classroom, the majority of the kids keep calm and respect the rule of "raising your hand before speaking", only a few "troublemakers" disobey to that rule. The teachers often used body language when explaining activities. When the teachers adress the kids, they are usually asking a question or giving them a directive. My own interactions with the kids were mostly through questions I would ask them because when they encounter a problem I always try to make them figure out the anwser on their own by gradually taking them to the anwser. My interactions clearly make me a better language learner because when I am leading a kid to the anwser, I make links with specific vocabulary such as the cardinal points when I am referring to geography.

When I first came to Tyndale, I was told that the families whose kids were in the program are low revenue families for the most part. I have to admit that poverty is not something I noticed or even thought of during my internship. All I see is a big group of kids doing their homework and having fun during the activities. Something very interesting I noticed is a slight difference of accent between bilingual kids and bilingual teachers; when speaking french, the bilingual kids speak completely fluently with an accent that would make me swear they are francophones but on the other hand, when the teachers speak french, they are also fluent but also carry a small english accent. The difference is that the kids probably learned french and english at home making french and english both their first languages when on the other hand, the teachers probably learned english first and then english.

New words or expressions;

 "mix it down" : Used in the context of making home made clay, when mixing the clay inside a pot with her hands. I still don't know the difference with "mix it up".

Internship Day 1 First impression

On the first day, I came in very early, I was as a matter of fact 45 minutes early. I was unsure of how long it would take me to get there from home, I had estimated it would take me around 2 hours. Turns out it only takes about an hour. I wasn't late and now I know how long it takes for me to get there, that's a good start.

The first thing that struck me on my first day is that most of the kids are bilingual. Maybe that's because I'm not from Montréal and where I come from, first and second graders aren't usually bilingual. Not only do most of them speak english but the majority of them also speak french perfectly. A minority of them only speak one language and that is very interesting.

On my first day, I was a little confused and disorientated as for what I have to do and where I have to go, but now I feel much better about it. The first kid I helped was a unilingual anglophone kid with her english homework. She had to associate words with their synonyms and I'll admit with no shame that I did not know half of the anwsers in her homework. As if second graders english homeworks are harder than my college english homeworks! I also noticed that she pronounced "headache" with an ending in "ash" sound and not in "ake". Which makes it sound like it would if your french was to interfere with your english, despite the fact that she is a unilingual english speaker.

Then I helped a kid with his geography homework and I taught him how to use the cardinal points on a compass and a map. Then I helped a third kid with his french homework who unfortunately for me did not speak english at all.

Right after we did homeworks, during the activity break I made the mistake to say "what the hell". To me it's not big deal at all but apparently it shocked this one girl so much that she went to tell a supervisor about it. I didn't even know it was considered foul language, it's a mistake I won't do again. I also learned the meaning of the word "puddle" which means a small body of water like in the streets when it rains.

Internship Day 0

My internship will be at Tyndale St-Georges Community Center and I will be part of the tutoring program.

My personnal goals that I wish to attain through this internship is to understand what kind of speach patterns kids use, what words are best suited for explaining things to them but also how myself I should behave to facilitate their proper learning. I already speak english every day at home with my friends mostly, but I don't take anything for granted because I was never immersed in a completely anglophone environnement before.

In order to do so, I will take guesses when I am unsure about the meaning of a particular word or expression, I won't be afraid to make mistakes and I will communicate as much as I can. I will also look up the meaning of words I don't know in the dictionnary and I will look for frenchism or false-cognates.

As I said previously, I will be tutoring kids at Tyndale St-Georges Community Center. My first contact with my host was made by phone and suprisingly, she adressed to me in french despite the fact that I had left a message in english before. In that phone call, she explained to me what the organisation is about and how I can get there. The community center offers an after-school tutoring program to help kids with their homework and I will be a volunteer for that program. 

When I first met my host, I had to fill some paperwork and then she showed me around the building. The building offers various services, it has a small library, a gym and multiple class rooms. I am a little nervous because I don't interact with kids in my daily life and I don't know what to expect from their behaviour. I am confident that I can help them with their homework because I know how to vulgarize complex ideas and make it sound easier to understand.

I am looking forward to this internship experience!