The end

For this last post regarding my overall experience at Éco-Quartier NDG, I must say that I did not firmly believe that my English would improve that much. After six weeks as an intern in a completely Anglo-speaking environment, I proved myself wrong.

 

 

 

My Goals

My objectives have been my reason and motivation to travel and work hard each day to Notre-Dame-de-Grâce every Wednesday. All this time, energy and effort has brought me more than I had hoped. I have learned a lot of vocabulary words, meanings and above all I have had the chance to practice my English with great people. By doing so, I have reached my initial goal of enriching and expanding my vocabulary as well as my knowledge of the English language.

First, I wanted to use new expressions and apply them to my everyday speaking habits. So far, this has happened once and I can remember it clearly. I was very proud to have used a new idiom in an appropriate context.

Additionally, I wanted to become a more self-assured speaker. In all the challenges that I have faced, this is the achievement that I am most proud to have overcome. My fear of being judged was one of my biggest problems. This prevented me from expressing my ideas clearly and made me stutter most of the time. Simple exercises like speaking on the phone or starting to make eye contact has helped me in such a way that they remind me to always apply them to any conversation that I engage into; as much in French than in English. Monitoring also helped me heaps thanks to the telephone calls, causing me to control my fluency and getting my message across better.

 

 

Strategies

At the beginning of my internship, I had the intention of ¨Speaking to myself¨ and ¨Interacting in any way possible¨ as strategies in order to become a better language learner. I recall thinking that speaking to myself would make me practice my pronunciation but it hasn’t been effective at all since I wouldn’t speak alone to myself in the middle of a work place. That would not make much sense since the goal was to work there to interact to speak to actual people… silly me. Instead, I used the ¨monitoring myself¨ and the ¨body language¨ strategies (I forgot the actual name of the last one) which were more effective than I would have ever thought. I am more laid back and concentrated on what I am saying. I am now more conscientious of how I get my message across rather than what I get across. I didn’t realize that the problem resided in the way I expressed myself rather than the organisation of the content I wanted to project. I still used the ¨Interacting in any way possible¨ although I guess that everyone and anyone that tries to express themselves in any way possible if they really want to get their point across.

 

Language

I do not want to seem redundant, however, I have in fact expanded my vocabulary and as I felt gratified by my spontaneous usage of a random expression, I am sure to use all the words that I can in order to keep them fresh in my mind without forgetting them. Expressions, idioms, words, I want to benefit of my ability to use every new term. I am now more conscious and on the lookout for new ways I could use and exploit the English language to my advantage. I am also working on the way that I speak and express my ideas.

Growth

As I have stated earlier in my blog, I did not think that I would actually learn a lot of aspects in the English language. Despite my initial thoughts on the subject, I have in fact learned more than what I expected and more particularly, I have used strategies that I never would have thought useful. I genuinely feel that I have grown as a person as well as a language learner by becoming more conscious about how I interact but also about the environment. I have learned many ecological facts and received a lot of information on what to recycle, where to drop the items you don’t know where to throw away like fridges, armchairs, glass, metal, etc.

   

I have learned that there are people that really want to make this world a better place, that there are people that are willing to help the community at any time and that they are fighting for our planet. I learned that there is still faith for the future of our Earth, that there is hope to restore what is being destroyed and damaged, that it takes ever a minority to make a huge difference. You hear it on television but having been there in the heat of the moment, it really pays off to come back home and feel that you’ve made a difference in the world, even in the slightest way. It feels amazing to do something so significant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The internship

It has been an excellent experience and I feel that I have definitely been at the right place at the right time. This has helped me in so many aspects of my life and it is something that I have no regrets about, I would do it all over again. It is truly an effective way to help a student become more confident, to make one more responsible and there is so much to learn. It gave me an entirely different aspect on life, as philosophical as that sounds. It undeniably made a difference in my life.

 

 

Gratitude

It is quite obvious that I am thankful to the Eco-Quartier team to have accepted me into their little family. It has been an incredible journey and I now know more about what I want to do later in life. I have discovered that this world needs this kind of people, that one act can influence a whole chain of events. Éco-Quartier helps not only the environment, but the community as well. It is a great place to meet some people and have a good time. It is easy to fit in and they make you feel very welcomed. I am immensely thankful to what they have brought me, to what they have made me realise and to help me become a better person. I am now more motivated than ever to use my acquired knowledge.

 

 

The placement

For me, the placement has been absolutely spot-on. I could not have hoped for a better place to be an intern. I recommend this place to everyone and anyone that is looking for a dynamic place to work at. There are various tasks that make you explore and practice the English language in a way that everyone gets the help they need in a very cool and laid back atmosphere. I have truly enjoyed the whole time I was an intern at Éco-Quartier NDG.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This has been the ideal experience for me to improve my English while providing me information about culture.

¨Practice makes perfect!¨

 

 

Two or three weeks ago, I had been asked to make some telephone calls to invite Anglophone members of Éco-Quartier to a workshop. Having always only seen my colleagues complete such a task, I was very nervous at the thought of speaking to strangers and acting formally because I was afraid to mess it up and make mistakes and look like a fool. Before I started to panic, I thought that it would be a good idea to write a short dialog just to get my ideas straight. Although it took me a few minutes to gather my courage, I picked up the receiver without thinking and dialed the number. This is pretty much what my dialog looked like:

-------------------------------------------------------

*Ring ring*

Stranger: Hello?

Me: Hello! This is Christine from Éco-Quartier NDG. I believe that you’ve bought a composter recently; we hope that you haven’t had problems and that everything is going fine with it.

Stranger: Yes, everything is okay, but there is many of these tiny flies since I have the composter, is it normal?

Me: Absolutely, it is what usually happens after a few days, they are attracted to leftover fruits.

Stranger: Ohh, I see, (…). So everything is fine, then. Thank you!

Me: Excellent, I’m glad to hear that! I was calling to let you know that there will be a composting and vermi-composting workshop here at Éco-Quartier that will take place on Thursday, November 14^th. You are more than welcome to join and we will gladly answer any questions or concerns that you may have.

Stranger: That’s nice; at what time?

Me: It will be from 4 to 6pm. It is a bilingual event and people of all ages are invited. We hope to see you there!

Stranger: Perfect, I will try to make it. Thank you, bye!

Me: Have a nice day!

--------------------------------------------------------

My host gave me a tip to make the contact formal and welcoming at the same time. First, taking news of the composter that they had purchased and ask if there are any concerns is a good way to start the conversation while being thoughtful and polite. Second, I asked if it was too informal to introduce myself using my first name and she told me that the contact was in fact friendlier while still remaining polite. It was hard to improvise when people asked me questions but it worked out fine. People that care about the environment are generally very nice people. I don’t mean to generalise but that is what I noticed every time someone came in to pick up something they had reserved (recycling bins, fruit and vegetable baskets from the ecological garden, etc.). I did not want to give out too much information all at once to confuse my interlocutor so sometimes I took pauses to let them react or ask questions. This monitoring made me less stressful since I could take my time instead of blurting everything out in one sentence. I ended the conversation by letting them know that the workshop was available to everyone and that they could even simply drop by to ask for further explanations or participate to only a little activity. I ended each conversation with a little ¨Have a nice day! ¨ to be polite. Note: I did not exaggerate on the exclamation points; people were just really and surprisingly friendly.

 

 

 

 This task that seemed difficult given my timid personality type had become a task that I ended up enjoying because I could practice my English in a concrete way by interacting with other Anglophones in a typical real-life situation. The monitoring helped me a lot as I said, but also preparing the little dialog because I was prepared and more confident, at least at first.

 

Breaking it down

In my whole experience at Éco-Quartier NDG, I have had the chance and the time to practice my English. Since my mother went back up North, I did not have many opportunities to speak it. It is quite a convenient hazard for me to have encountered such an occasion.

 

 

 

 
 

``Sorry, what?``

Although I cannot say much about my listening comprehension, I can still tell you about body language. As I had mentioned in my earlier posts, I am a fairly timid individual, at least at first before I get to know somebody or a group of people. Therefore, as I engage into a conversation with someone (or vice versa), I have a strong tendency to look away because I somehow feel intimidated by my interlocutor. After the few weeks I have been volunteering at Éco-Quartier, I have learned to maintain eye contact in order to deliver a clear message. It was not that easy of a task given my personality, nevertheless, I have found use to this strategy. I am less distracted, do not have to ask for him or her to repeat or elaborate further in his or her speech/explanation. This may seem like a ridiculous challenge but I have overcome it and I feel less intimidated all the time when speaking with people in general.

 

About accents

This has always bothered me whilst speaking English in the sense that I have a bit of a French accent when speaking English and tiny English accent when speaking French. I wish to have the perfect Anglophone accent and speech and I am working on it thoroughly. I noticed that my boss as well as my colleagues (who are perfectly Anglophone) pronounces each word clearly and this is probably why I cannot obtain this goal. I must absolutely pronounce each syllable to its full extent and maybe it will pay off. This is a challenge that I must work on in English as well as in French. The first step was to notice it, now I have to correct it.

 

Fluency

This was one of my main goals when starting this internship. My pronunciation is key in order to improve this problem. Although there are improvements that need to be done, I have stopped stressing and panicking internally when I needed to communicate in any situation and just went with it, if that makes any sense at all. I must not block if I am not certain of a word and I should overall simply not over-analyse what I am about to say. This is a huge problem of mine and I have learned to correct also.

 

 

Humor

There is much to say about humor when it comes to my colleague Bill. He is the funniest man I’ve ever worked with. It brightens everyone’s day when he’s around because there is a good vibe about him. The atmosphere loosens up and it is pleasant to work in harmony. Francophone humor might be different than Anglophone humor although I could not state a clear difference. However, I could say that humor is often used to laugh at someone or something, and the use of sarcasm as well as irony is very present in both dialects. Also, for the most part, humor is different among men and women. Men tend to be cruder and women tend to be somewhat insulting when it comes to joking. You may be wondering how I noticed this in my internship, I did not. This is simply an observation that I have recently made and that I thought I'd share with you. Also, puns are popular in both Anglophone and Francophone humor.

 

Accuracy

It was actually one of my first goals that I had set to improve my English. I wanted to learn new words to expand my vocabulary and I have. Although I can't use the words "borough" daily, it is still good to have knowledge of new words. Who knows when it could be of use! During my internship,  I have learned to take my time, relax and say exactly what I mean. Instead of searching for words and trying to constantly doubt myself, I have developed a new confidence and also and most importantly new vocabulary.

 

 

 

 

 

New words and expressions

During the last day in my internship placement, I have learned a few aspects that have been bothering me. This could probably help a lot of people as well.

Ø  First, I have never really known the difference between ¨learned¨ and ¨learnt¨. I thought that both could be used, similarly to the words ¨color¨ and ¨colour¨ which are both acceptable (the only difference is that color is commonly used in the United States and colour is more commonly used in the United Kingdom). Yes, I have learned that at Éco-Quartier. I was preparing my ¨What I learned in my internship¨ notepad when it hit me, I was confused as to which word I should use. My host clarified my confusion with an excellent example: one would say ¨I burned the toast.¨ (notice here how it is used as a verb) and ¨The toast is burnt.¨ whereas here it is used as an adjective.

Ø  Second, I discovered a new word as I was asked to update some information to Éco-Quartier’s website and she provided me with further information regarding a certain aspect which I can’t remember. Anyhow, I stumbled across the word ¨Tandem¨ that I have never heard or read before (or that I haven’t yet noticed until now). It is actually a synonym for ¨Partnership¨. It is interesting to know that bikes with two seats are called ¨tandem bicycles¨, it is a visual image that helps me remember it better. In this particular context, there is a tab with information that involves Éco-Quartier Notre-Dame-de-Grâce (NDG) and Éco-Quartier Côte-des-Neiges (CDN). Consequently, it is written ¨Tandem NDG/CDN¨. Good to know! I fancy this word, I will likely use it when I will have the chance.

Ø  Third, I have had a lot of difficulty with the usage of the word ¨it’s¨ and ¨its¨, considering that I thought that the other form of it’s was its’. In fact, ¨it’s¨ is a contraction of ¨it is¨, for example: it is incorrect to say ¨The mother cat carried it’s kitten in it’s mouth.¨ The correct form would look like: The mother cat carried its kitten in its mouth. The word ¨its¨ is possessive, not a contraction. I have wanted to know this for a long time. Thankfully the update of the website contributed to my improvement of English language.

Ø  Fourth, ¨agglomeration¨ is a word that was unknown to me and it signifies a mass of collection of objects, or rather an assemblage. I have learned this while translating a file.

Ø  Fifth, in the same document that I translated, I have learned the meaning of ¨shingles¨ when I came across ¨asphalt shingles¨. It is the pieces that we assemble for the roof. The French equivalent is ¨bardeaux¨, for my lack of explaining skills. Shingles can also mean herpes, strangely enough.

 

Most of these discoveries genuinely helped to improve my knowledge of word meanings and expansion of my vocabulary. I have reached my goals and I am more than proud to have done so.

 

 

 

Blog post #5

 

How is Éco-Quartier NDG?

 

I work at an amazing organization that aims to help the environment. It is called Éco-Quartier NDG. I work in a very multi-cultural environment: some of my colleagues are from Romania, others from Germany, others that I have yet to discover.

There are no religious symbols or flags but there are paintings on the walls, posters that promote healthy living and respect for the environment. Some activities consist of building Halloween costumes and little sculptures. One thing is for sure, there is no lack of decoration. This kind of setting is lovely to work in.

Sometimes (rarely) they play music on the radio and listen to the latest hits on what I assume is a channel like 74.7 Hits FM which is Anglophone music. There are many flyers and papers lying around which again promotes healthy living, composting advice/instructions, Halloween recipes, new projects like ¨Buy Nothing Day¨, ¨Purse &Jewelry Exchange¨ or ¨Waste Reduction Week¨.

 
 

 

Holidays in other cultures

 

It turns out that Germany and Romania do not celebrate holidays the way we do.

 

Saint-Jean-Baptiste

 

This holiday is actually international and I learnt that Saint-Jean-Baptiste, religiously speaking, was the man who baptised Jesus. Romania celebrates this day on June 24^th.

 

Canada Day

 

My boss (who is a pure Anglophone), for her part, celebrates anything that can be celebrated. Some people celebrate this holiday like crazy. They have this special evening where they make fireworks and the whole package.

 

Thanksgiving

 

People at my internship aren’t traditional when it comes to this holiday. They do not bake a turkey or anything. However, my German colleague taught me that in her country, this day is very important and celebrated. It is like some kind of Christmas for them. They call this special day “Erntedankfest” and they have “Farm Parties” and in these you find donations for the 3^rd world, the children and the less fortunate. Sometimes people go to church.

 

Easter

 

What I have learned about Easter is that the dates are different for some places because it is unorthodox. People from Romania celebrate this in a huge and special way. They eat lamb to celebrate this holiday but they don’t go egg hunting. In the older and traditional manners, the older generations bought new clothes (like shoes, hats, etc.) on this day probably for church or for spring. On the night of Easter, groups of young male teenagers go door to door to carol (sing songs) and see their girl teenager friends with perfume and they are invited to their friends’ houses to drink tea and have a feast. Around midnight, everybody goes to church and at the end of mass, they eat holy bread.

For Germans, there are many holidays in this same one and it is stretched on a number of days. They have Green Thursday (where they must not eat sweets) and they have Easter Saturday, Easter Sunday, Easter Monday. Monday is the most important of the lot because it is a day off for everyone. They usually have big lunches and dinners; also the bakeries sell cakes shaped like lambs. They also go egg hunting and at church on Sunday and Monday in the morning or in the evening.

 

In the workplace

 

Never has someone used slang or cursed while I was working. I have done work that has allowed me to expand my knowledge in the English language and been exposed to situations in which I have had the opportunity to use new idioms (in which I have shared in my last article).

 
 

Rewards and challenges

 

I have gained experience and made new acquaintances and I have gotten the chance to practice new verbal skills throughout my internship so far. I am very grateful to have landed on this particular team and project. The best part has been learning about all the new aspects that include my education and culture.

 

I look forward to next week’s activity (going door to door to do prevention for recycling). Wish me luck!