Last Day

My last day at my internship went very well. I got to say that I was a little sad to leave my internship. I like the people that were there and the customers always had interesting story to tell. I think that I attended my goal because I noticed that my accent changed even if it’s not perfect I know that I’m better in English. Moreover, during my internship I made the effort and the strategies that I wanted to use the most. I used often the strategies that I chose at the beginning of my internship (to look for patterns in a language). Therefore, in my internship, I really concentrated myself to communicate more than to worry about the grammar. I tried my best to think in the language. It will be good for me in the future because this is a good strategy to communicate easily with people.

In my internship, it was easy to interact with the people that worked there because they knew that I try to speak English so they helped me with that. With the customer it went well, but sometimes they noticed I’m not an English speaker and they began to talk to me in French. My level in English has improved very well even if I didn’t speak as much I wanted to.

I think my internship really changed me because I was very shy to interact with people who don’t speak the same language as me. Now, I’m more confident to speak in English and the store was an amazing store where you can learn new things because there is a lot of different culture that came in the store and what the store sells are made by these cultures. I have to say also that I liked how English people speak. It’s really fluid the way they talk and they speak loud and I never heard an English person mumble. Moreover they have more energy than the French people and they are really talkative.

If I had to do my internship differently, I don’t think I will change anything about my experience, but maybe if there were more customers in the store and more people of my age to speak with in English it would helped me more. Seriously, I really liked the experience. For my host, in my last day I thanked her for her help but it wasn’t the manager or the assistant manager because both weren’t there when I was there. It was Shilla and she liked the gift. I even told her that after my break, if I have the time I can come to do some hours to help.

Finally, I recommend this place for another student because the people that worked there were gentle and cheerful. The place makes the people more open-minded to the other culture and to the poverty in the world. There is just one negative thing, it’s not all the customers that speak in English, but the people that worked there always speak in English at least.

Interaction

In this post, I will write about some interactions I had in my internship. The first one was when I answered the phone of the stores for the first time. It didn’t go really well.

Phone interaction

Me: Hi! Ten Thousand Villages!

Miss: Hi! Can I speak to Shelley please?

Me: Yes but she is downstairs she can call you when she will come back!

Miss: It’s urgent, can you tell her to answer right now?

Me: Yes just two minutes.

Miss: Thank you dear.

Me: Hello?

Miss: Yes?

Me: She is in the bathroom and I don’t want to ‘’la déranger’’.

Miss: Hmm… Ok tell her to call me right after please!

What should I’ve said

Me: Hello! Welcome to Ten Thousand Villages. How can I help you?

Miss: Hi! Can I speak to Shelley please?

Me: She is downstairs! Can you tell me your name and I’ll tell her to call you back.

Miss: It’s urgent, can you tell her to answer right now?

Me: Yes, wait a moment.

Miss: Thank you dear!

Me: Sorry, but she is busy right now and I don’t want to bother her.

Miss: Ok tell her to call me right after please!

I wasn’t confident in this first phone call. Moreover, I forgot some words and I didn’t use a formal vocabulary. It could have been worst, but I learned from that and in the future I will know how to communicate correctly by the phone.

My second interaction is when I spoke to Catherine and how she spoke to me. She uses an informal language, but I’m better to understand this kind of language because this is how most of the English people I know are speaking. I remember when I asked her if she was in college, I noticed right away that she had an informal language.

Informal interaction 

Catherine: So are you at school?

Me:  Yes I study at college Andre-Laurendeau, and you?

Catherine: Well, I finished my college and I decided to take a year off. I mean, it’s just I want to have time for me and to not study for a year, but I’m going at McGill University next year.

Me: And you were in which program?

Catherine: It’s kind of an international program at Dawson. So I learned Spanish and French and I went one month in Nicaragua. Well, you travel and learn others languages you know?

Me: It is the same program as me! I went to Nicaragua for 3 weeks.

Catherine: OMG! It’s like me I’m so excited for you it was an amazing experience.

Catherine has an informal language, but it’s a good way for me to learn some new expressions in English and to communicate more easily with English people of my age. I think it’s really useful for me because the English people will understand my language better if I use the same expression as they use to speak. Unfortunately, I will need to work on my formal language because if I got an important meeting or if I have to speak on the phone I need to use a formal language. It’s more polite and serious and it’s really useful to learn new vocabulary and to write concrete text.

My improvement in English

In my fifth day of internship, I met a new person named Catherine. Habitually, I’m in my internship on Wednesday morning, but my host said she didn’t need me anymore on that day. So I’m doing my hours on Saturday morning. When I first saw Catherine she talked to me in English and it was very easy for me to respond and to understand what she said. I was impressed of myself because she didn’t notice I wasn’t an English speaker. Well, I think my English is better than in my first day of internship. I use like strategies when someone speaks to me I need to think in the English and to not traduce in my head what the person said.

Since I’m young I try to pronounce correctly the ‘’TH’’ in some words in English but I have difficulties. We don’t have this type of pronunciation in French so it’s hard for me to say it correctly. For the fluency, my English is really better. I remember automatically to say the ‘’ED’’ at the end of a verb in the past. Moreover, I can have a conversation in English even if sometimes there is only one word I don’t know or I really can’t remember, so I try to find a synonym.  For example, we talked about the subway in Montreal. I said what is near of my house, but I couldn’t remember the word: near. I didn’t want to worry about it so I just asked what it means in English. I also noticed that I’m not good to give directions in English… I should practice it because it’s kind of important. In the store, someone came and asked the direction to go somewhere and I knew where it was, but it was really hard for me to tell the direction correctly.

For the cultural difference between English and French, since I’m in my internship I didn’t notice a lot of things. In my fifth day when I met Catherine she said that at college Dawson (an English college) they didn’t have a strike at their school and every other English school didn’t have it either. I didn’t have the time to ask her why, but it’s a big difference with the French schools.

Finally, I heard the expression from Catherine: kind of. She always says that when she speaks. It’s a kind of informal English. I didn’t learn new words on this day.

Twelve Hours of Work

I did twelve hours at my internship since the beginning. In the store, there are a lot of objects from different cultures that I can’t name them all. All the products are made by artisans of different countries in the world. For example: there are a lot of coffees made in Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, etc. Moreover, there is music CD we sell that plays in the store. It is the music of musician of a lot of countries also. My favorite CD is Jazz around the world Christmas edition. It is really a good CD to listen for Christmas! 

All the volunteers talked to me about what they do on Christmas. They don’t do something really big because they have a lot of the family members that moved in other countries. They are not really connected to the religion like they won’t go to the midnight mess, but they always buy gifts every time I’m there in the store. They buy often things to decorate the Christmas tree and dishes made by artisans. I think they have the same cultures as me even if they speak English. I wasn’t really exposed to other cultures maybe Patricia my host because she comes from Mexico but I didn’t really have the time to talk to her because she is busy in the store. 

In my internship I don’t have to write text but sometimes when the customer wants the information about the product he bought, I have to go on the internet to find the document and it is in English so I have to read it to explain correctly where it came from. Also, I didn’t have the opportunities to use my 5 idioms but I will try in my next day. There’s a little expression that Shanie said last week but I don’t really remember the context why she said that. She said: ‘’A little bird told me’’. Moreover, I learn a lot of words and sentence to say to the customer like: Do you want the bill in the bag? Do you pay cash or credit or debit card? Do you want me to wrap your gift? Do you want me to print where your products came from? It will help me in the future and for my job at Jean Coutu because I often speak in French with the English customers. 

Finally, my internship is really helpful for me to learn new language, expressions and cultures. I really like the stores and I appreciate the other volunteers. The best part for now is my first day when I discovered all the products in the store and this is the day that I became less shy with the people around me. I don’t think there is a part I had difficulties maybe when I help a customer and I don’t know a product. Well, I enjoy my internship!

My Third Day

My third day at my internship was a little more difficult. Patricia the manager wanted me to do a lot of things. Usually I’m a little bit clumsy, but that day it was worst. I prepared the coffee, but the machine didn’t work and I dropped the bag of coffee on the floor. I felt so bad. After, there was two bottles one for hot water and the other one for the coffee and I poured the coffee in the wrong one! It wasn’t my day, but it went better after. 

When I spoke with Shanie, I noticed that she always had problems with her verbs in French. She’s good in French but not for the verb. In English I think it is easier to use the verbs. That day, there were a lot of customers in the store, it never stopped. I felt more confident to speak with customers. I find that to be in a store it is less embarrassing than being in a classroom with students, because the customers don’t tell my mistakes and often they don’t even noticed that my English is not my first language. My strategy is really working because I tried to not worry about my grammar and concentrate myself more on the communication. It really helped me because I’m able to have long conversations with people. Shanie told me how to say: ‘’ Maladroite’’ and it is clumsy. I also learned the verb ‘’pour’’ because of Patricia when she asked me to pour the coffee. I observed a lot Shanie when she speaks and I find that she uses often this expression: ‘’ there you go ‘’.  That was my day, I helped a lot the manager and I appreciated going there because I’m learning more and more the English language.

My Second Day

Hi! My second day passed well. Every time I went to my internship, I stop at the Starbucks. I noticed that the Anglophone really don’t want to speak French. When the cashier speaks to me, she only speaks in English even if she noticed I speak French. Moreover, the people in the Starbucks had all a MacBook and are not interested to the other people around them. When I arrived to my internship, it wasn’t Patricia that opened the door for me, it was another volunteers. She speaks English, but with a different accent. I had difficulty to understand what she said to me but I stayed polite and told her: ‘’ Please, can you repeat I didn’t understand my English is not that good! ‘’. 

After, Shanie arrived and we spoke together in English. I noticed that I make often mistake with my verb in the past. As I remember, I didn’t learn new words that day, but I know that my English and my pronunciation are getting better. I didn’t have problems with the customers, but unfortunately, there weren’t a lot of customers because of the temperature outside, then I didn’t have the chance to speak with them but I’m more confident to speak in English.

First Day!

Hi! Today was my first day at my internship and it was very nice. Seriously, I’m really impressed about the store. I like the fact that all the stuff they sell is 100% fair trade. Ten thousand villages is a store that receives stuff made by the artisans of different countries in the world. You can go on their website to know more about the stores : www.tenthousandvillages.ca. In my internship, I met new people like the manager of the store named Patricia and another volunteer named Shanie. Both were really kind and I appreciated my day with them. Shanie speaks only English and she is trying to learn French, therefore I helped her in French and she helped me in English. 

Moreover, she gave me self-confidence to speak to her in English because she told me I was good. I had one misunderstanding with Shanie because I said I need a keyset for my keys and she understood I need a keyset for my kids. We just laughed a lot about this mistake. Next time, I will work on my pronunciation. I also learned new words like fair trade, copper, carpet and ground. Finally, I really liked my first day and to be a volunteer at this store will make me discover new cultures and countries.