In my first blog, my goals were to learn and improve my English. During my internship, I used the following strategies:

-Body language

-Guessing

-Mnemonic techniques

-Practice

-Talking to yourself 

-Accepting ambiguity in foreign language

-Monitoring

-Labelling objects.

I think that all the strategies can help and be used and even if I become bilingual, these strategies will help me.

I think this experience helped me a lot, it made ​​me practice made ​​me talk and I learned a lot. I learned about cultures such as Arabic or Indian, and that is really interesting.

This experience is unique, because it made ​​me see what it is to work with children, it made me see what is it to work with people of religions, beliefs and ways of thinking different from ours. I recommend this place to do an internship because the staff is super friendly, they love what they do and they are very welcoming. Children are also very nice and so cute !

I choose to write out a dialogue of my supervisor, Amanda and I, when we were talking on the phone.

Phone Interaction.

Me: Hi, Can I speak to Amanda please

Amanda: Yes, it's me.

Me: Oh, It's Myriam, how are you ?

Amanda: I'm fine thank you ! And you how are you ?

Me: I'm fine, can I come tomorrow ?

Amanda: Yes, there's no problem ! Can you be there at 10 o'clock ?

Me: Sure ! bye

Amanda: Perfect ! See you tomorrow. (hangs up )

My error is that I do not take the time to talk, I'm stressed so I go quickly. My sentences are short and not very developed.

What I would say in the future.

Me: Hi, It's Myriam on the phone, may I speak to Amanda please ?

Amanda: Hi Myriam, it's Amanda ! How are you today ?

Me: Oh, Hi Amanda, I'm fine thank you and you ?

Amanda: I'm fine, thanks.

Me: I'm calling you to know if it is possible to you if I come tomorrow at 10 o'clock ?

Amanda: Yes no problem and 10 o'clock it's perfect.

Me: Great ! Thank you and I see you tomorrow !

Amanda: Thank you, See you tomorrow !

Breaking it down !

It is much easier for me to express myself at this moment. At the beginning of my internship, it was more difficult to understand the people with whom I worked, but today it is much easier. I think what helped me was that I was at my internship for periods of five hours, including five hours of consecutive and intensive English.

I use a lot of use ''mnemonic techniques'', I associate a lot of pictures with my words to remember. To make myself understood, I also use a lot of ''body language''. For example, last week, I pointed my ''scarf'' because I do not remember the word in English when children were dressed to go outside.

One morning I arrived at my internship and shortly after, the children arrived. Sebba, a child of the internship, had put her sweater backwards. Children laughed a lot and it was one of the most fun times to see all the children laughed together.

For me, I have to focus on my irregular verbs and my past tense verbs.

New word :

Postponed: It was when I asked my host when was the next day of an activity and she answered me that she's postponed at Wednesday.

Hi!

I very enjoy my internship at this time , because it is Christmas and children are very excited!

The flags activities was the best activity I did in my internship, all of the children comes from another country , So the activity was very interesting to see where they are from. At the beginning, children saw their flags and they was happy to paint them and to talk about them. I noticed that a lot of children come from Asia, India or Africa, then it is very nice to see their different culture and to see the children happy. During the activity, many songs were playing and a lot of French songs was playing. Children was learning French during they paint their flags. This activity was nice because they was a lot of interaction between kids and I. At a moment, songs were in both language, So children practiced their French and I practiced my English.

During the activity I heard a new expression/ idiom: ''Zero tolerance''. I think the supervisor used this expression because one of the child was not gentle to other and he were punished. The other and the last expression/idiom I heard in my internship was: ''The ball is in your court'',  I heard this expression when a child had to go in the corner or to be nice with the other children.

 I'm proud of me, and I am happy to learn more each week.

Children and I have interacted more and more since I am at ''the Boys and Girls Club of LaSalle '' then we are less shy and we can know more about ourselves. I noticed that children love talking, that at the time of you begin a conversation with them, they don't want to stop. They ask many questions about anything and they just want to talk.

Interactions helps me for my English learning, because I talk a lot and I practice so I can improve myself in this way. When supervisors read books to children, they use a lot of gestures to be understood by the kids. For example, if they talk about an elephant, they will do the gesture like an elephant does.  Children learn a lot with the gestures, they use it a lot of time and that's a very good way to be understood.

Being with Anglophones helps me more than being in a class. The interaction with the Anglophone are more interesting and I'm getting better with real interactions.

My difficulties :

1.      I search my words when I do not take my time

2.     I do not always finish my sentence when I am anxious

 I should :

1.     Take my time

2.     Say the sentence in my head before saying it aloud.

3.     take risks

 

I love my experience at the moment, thank you!

Day 2 of my internship !

On the second day of my internship, I saw a lot of different cultures. My internship was at a day-care center with a lot of kids who aren't anglophone or francophone, they speak another language, so it is difficult for me to understand the children and for them to understand me. We use a lot our body language to understand one another. The anglophone children are nice, they always speak and always asks questions about many things ! However, it is hard to interact and have a conversation with these children because their sentences are very simple. When parents come to take their kids, I interact a lot with them so that I can have a bigger conversation and practice my english more at the same time. Parents use loving terms when they talk to their children like : ''sweetheart'' or ''my baby'' or ''sweetie''. I haven't yet heard a lot of new words or expressions, but a lot of parents use many terms such as : '' it's like, huh'' or '' yeah'' or ''what''. So ended my day of internship on November 28th.

 

My First day !

Today, at my first day in my Internship at, the boys and girls club of LaSalle, I was very nervous.  I began at 10 o’clock and I finished at 3 pm. Everything went well, at the begining of the day, I was with kids and we were playing in the gym. Kids were very happy to move and play. After that, we went in the class and we sang a lot of songs.  Kids took theirs lunch and after they did a nap. They awakened after 1:30 min of their nap, and I played with kids with many different games. My day was finished at 3pm and I was proud of my first day ! I observed that there were many children who had different cultures, all children spoke English, none spoke French. Some kids even spoke other language. For the first day, I have not learned new words or new expressions, but I'm sure they going to teach me.