Goals
My goals were to improve my English and also to
learn to communicate in an English environment which was not the environment I was
used to. I have to say that I achieved pretty well those goals. I think that
what helped me is the fact that I was less shy to communicate in English and
also that I didn’t mind to make mistakes which is normal. Also, I was always
trying to speak and to practise with the people with who I was working because
they were Anglophones and even if they were talking to me in French because they knew I was Francophone, I was still speaking to them in English.
Strategies
The one I used the most was
the one about doing gestures. I’m already someone who’s doing a lot of gestures,
even when I’m speaking in French. So, I think it helped me a lot to be
understood when I was using this strategy. I also used the one about ‘’ don’t
mind making mistakes ’’. Now I don’t mind making mistake because it was one of
the reasons why I was shy to speak in English before. I realized with the time
that it was normal to make some and that nobody was perfect.
Language
I think my language evolved a lot concerning the understanding part.
Now, it is easier for me to understand when someone speaks in English. I still
have some difficulties to speak because I think like a Francophone so I’m always
trying to translate it from French but it never works. I think that I should
now put my brain on the ‘’English’s button’’ so like this it will probably be
easier for me to communicate without making mistakes.
Growth
I learn
a lot about myself through this internship. Firstly, I learn to never
under-estimated myself, because if you really want to achieve something; you
will, no matter how hard it will be. I learn to never give up and to always
keep hope because I know that my perseverance will bring me to my goal.
The internship
I think
I gain a lot of confidence since the beginning of the internship, I feel more
comfortable to speak in English now. The only thing I would do differently is I
would ask the women with who I did the internship to talk to me more in English
instead to talk to me in French. I think it would have made a difference
because I would have been more in an English environment. But I still learn a
lot through this experience and it also confirms my choice to be a teacher in the futur!
Gratitude
I didn’t
really thank my host because I didn’t really talk to her through my internship
and she was never there when I was there. I rather thank the people with who I
spent my hole internship which were the two women. They also thanked me to have helped them during these few last weeks. I am very pround of myself.
The placement
I definitely recommend this internship
placement, mainly for those who would like to do a career related to children
or simply for those who like to be with children. All the people working there
were very gentle and dynamic, it is a handsome team. It was a real pleasure for
me to do my internship there, I felt in my environment! I received and e-mail
there is a few days ago from my host, and she wrote me that she would like me to come for the March break to help them for their camp week. For sure I
would like to come to help them, but unfortunately we do not have any break in
March. So maybe it will be a good idea to do a few days there during the
summer, I will feel like I will do something good for my community!
¸
One of the dialogues that I
had in my internship was when I was explaining an activity. The woman with who
I was didn’t know how to explain it in French for those who didn’t speak
English and the kids had difficulties to understand it. So I explained it once
in French and then in English to be sure that all children understood the game.
(English’s explanations that I gave to the kids.)
Me: The game’s name is Pac man.
Kids: What is that, what is that?
Me: You have to stay quiet, and then I will explain it to you.
Kids: (No sounds)
Me: Perfect so as I said, we’ll play to Pac man. It looks a lots like playing
to ‘'The Tag’’.
Kids: We know this game, it is a cool one.
Me: Yes, I know that you all know this game, but there are a few different
rules.
Kids: What are they?
Me: The first one is: You can only walk on the lines in the gymnasium and the
goal is to not being touched by the ‘’Pac man’’ which is the person who will
run after the people. Is it clear?
Kids: Yes!
Me: Are you ready to play?
Kids: Yes!
Me: Ok, Let’s start!
Through this experience, I learnt that it was normal to have difficulties to
speak in a language. As I said, the girl didn’t know how to explain the rules
in French, but she was lucky that I was there. So it is an example that we
learn a lot from other people. I also learn that it is ok to ask for help if
you do not know how to say something because you will learn it for the next time.
I’m pretty sure I did a few mistakes when I explained it in English, but what
matter is that the kid did understand what I meant to say.
My last day of internship at the Boys and Girls Club was pretty
different from all the other days that I had before there. The reason was
simple; I was with another group for the camp day. Children in this group were
older compared to the group that I was used to be with. They were between 8 to
10 years old which is a big difference compared to the group I was before,
where they were between 3 to 5 years old.
Another difference is that, half of the group were Francophone and the group of
little friends were completely Anglophones. I knew at this moment that I will
be useful because the two supervisors, Kimberley and Adam were Anglophones. As
I thought, I was extremely useful because I did a few translations simply because
they didn’t know how to explain or to say something in French. I felt very
smart. We did an activity where the children had to mime what was written on a
little piece of paper. Unfortunately, all the words were written in English so
those who didn’t understand French had difficulties to know what to mime. The
good thing in that is that I was there to help those who spoke French only, so
I was translating the word in French and I was explaining them what to mime,
etc. While I was doing that, I learnt a word. It may sound weird but the word
was ‘’Juggling’’, I ask Kimberley what’s that meant and she did a gesture of
someone who was juggling (‘’quelqu’un qui jonglait’’).
It was really nice to see all the
children playing together. As they were playing, they were also learning
because they were associated words to gestures so they were learning words in
the language they were not speaking.
I think I’m now more fluent in English when it is time for me to speak with
children because there is always something to talk with them and also, they are
not using an enriched vocabulary so it’s easier for me to communicate with them
and to understand what they are saying. Moreover, the adults were not talking
to me a lot, even less in English, so I learn more to communicate with children
then to communicate with adults.
I still have difficult to pronounce a few words in English. For example, when
it is time for me to say ‘’I ate’’, I pronounce ‘’I hate’’ so sometimes it
brings to a few misunderstandings. I also have difficulties to pronounce my ‘’Ed's’’
at the end of the verbs, same things with my ‘’s’’ at the end of plural words.
That’s a thing I will need to work on.
Seba wasn’t there on the fourth day; it was a lot calmer than usually.
They did a special drawing activity; they had to draw their country’s flag with
markers. I found that a very interesting activity because I could see who was coming
from which country etc. The majority of the children were from Africa and Asia.They looked so pround of their country, it was really nice to see.
As they were drawing, there was French music playing; the song of Caillou. It was a good thing because as they were drawing they could also listen to the
song and sang instead of screaming in the room. It reminded me of when I was
young because Caillou was one of my favorite shows.
I noticed that the children were often talking about nothing and everything sometimes,
so it was confusing for me to understand what they were trying to tell me when I’m
not even speaking perfectly in English. I think that it will push me to improve
a lot my English because I think I would like to be a bilinguisme teacher in an
elementary school in the future.
I also noticed that when the parents came to get their child, they were not talking a lot with the supervisors. That's why we didn't have the opportunity to talk with them, because there were a few parents who were not able to speak either in English or in French. It was kind of hard for the supervisors to tell them if everything went well with their child because they had difficulties to understand what they were saying.
Well, today was my last day with them; the group of little friends. December 27th
will be my last day at the boys and girls club, with another group for the camp
day. It will be a new adventure to complete my internship.
I allready miss my little friends! :(
My third day of internship was probably the best one I had since the beginning.
Simply cause we sang Christmas’ songs. I was so happy because it reminded me of
when I was young. I found interesting to see that even if a few kids weren’t Christians,
they were still singing those Christmas’ songs with enthusiasm. This is quite the opposite today,
because now diverse cultures other than ours complained about these songs that
we can hear in stores during the holidays and about the Christmas’ decorations.
So I'm really glad to see that these young children are dazzled by this enchanted
atmosphere worthy of a Christmas story.
Throughout my third day of internship that I realized why supervisors were
strict with the children. It was simply because some of these young children were
such manipulators and they had to show them who were imposing the rules. I also
found a way to catch their attention when I was talking to them.
1- Articulate when we speak.
2- Use different voice tones.
3- Use gestures when we speak.
I tried with them and it worked quiet well. They were concentrated on me
instead of being concentrated on something else in the room.
I noticed as days went by, that the children had difficulties to make complete
sentences. For examples, they always put the subject + the verb + the thing, to
make a sentence (Me want that.)
I think that one of my challenges would be to improve a lot my English during
my internship because I would like to be understood correctly. It is
not like in classroom, where I can use French words if I don’t know how to say
something. I am with young children who only speak English, so I don’t have
any choice to speak properly in this language. That’s why there are no new words or
new expressions that I learnt there, because it is not with young children that
I will learn those things.
Well, already half of my internship collapsed, I cannot wait to see what'll
reserve the rest of this great experience.
For my second day of internship, I have been placed in another group. I
was happy to meet new kids but, I was also sad to see that the other group
which I was in last week were unhappy to see that I will not be with them this
week. It reminds me of one of the interaction that I had with a little girl
last week, when it was time for me to leave:
Girl: When are you coming back here?
Me: I will be back next week!
Girl: When it’s next week?
Me: In seven days!
Girl: When in seven days?
Me: Next Wednesday!
Girl: When it’s next wednesday?
…
I did not know what to answer so I tell her to sleep seven more nights and then I
will be there. She just replied to me: '' Okay! '' She did her little smiley face, she
hugged me and I left the room in direction of the exit door of the club.
So when I saw her today, she didn’t have the exactly same smile as she had the
week before, when she saw me with the other group. But when I saw her in the
washroom, she came to me, and I told her: ''It does not matter if I'm not with you, because I'm going to talk to you even if I will not be with you for the rest of my internship.'' She did again her little smiley face and hugged
be again but stronger than the first time.
Back in class, it was the time of the story. We were all sitting on the floor waiting
for Nelly (one of the supervisor) to read the story. As she was reading the
story, she was doing gestures so, it was much easier for the children to
understand the story, mainly when it was in French. Of course, there was the
images that was helping them to understand the story but, the gestures were
helping a lot to understand some words for examples, the adjectives. (long, short, small, big, etc.)
When it was the lunch time, I noticed that the kids were pretty polite when it
was time to ask something by using those short words, ‘’Please’’, ‘’Thank you’’,
‘’ Can you.. ‘’. Through their food, I could see that they were all from different countries. Sometime, it
was very sad to see what they had in their lunch box because, it wasn’t looking
that good. The strawberry’s jam on the toast of a little girl wasn’t red, it
was almost brown. She kept telling me that it was disgusting, but I couldn’t do
anything for her. The supervisors were telling her to eat so, I didn’t have
choice to tell her the same. While I was supervising the kids, the supervisors
were busy with Seba, an Arabic little girl of 4 years old. She didn't understand
either French or English. I found that sad because they were punishing her
cause she was running instead of walking. I didn’t found that fear because
the little girl couldn’t understand at all what the supervisors were trying to tell
her. Of course, after they had a good
reason to punish her, because she didn’t want to share the toys with the other
kids.
Here is what concludes my second day of internship. :)
On my first day of
internship, I was excited and also anxious about meeting the people with whom I
would work and also to meet the children. I was worried for nothing because the
two women with whom I worked with were pretty welcoming.
Regarding the children, the first 15
minutes of the day, they were suspicious of my presence, but after that, they
started to ask me a few questions as: ‘’What is your name? ‘’, ‘’What are you
doing here?’’ and my favorite one; ‘’Can you play with me?’’. I was really
happy to see that they appreciated my presence.
As as the day went on, I made a few observations. I realized that the children had the ability to sing songs, whether in English as their first language or in French as a new one. I was very surprised, because even I have trouble doing it. In the class I was, there were two children who spoke neither English nor French. I was wondering about how they could integrate well with the class when they were hardly able to communicate with others. I realized that it was hard for them to understand women when they asked them to do something. It is at this point that I realized the importance of doing gestures when we speak because it helps to get the meaning when we speak to someone
who does not understand perfectly the same language as ours.
What I found interesting is that the majority of children who were there came from other countries, and despite the fact that they did not have the same culture; they had almost no trouble communicating together and get along together.
I am proud to say that while the children learned the words to describe the temperature outside, I also learned a word; foggy. I did not
know before that ‘’brumeux’’ in English was that.
We learn a little every day and this is
why I really like the place where I am. I cannot wait to see again my little
new friends.
