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.