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.