The Result of my 30 hours English Internship

Goals



Goals are never obtained without setting them. Before I started my internship, I set some goals and these are to enrich my vocabulary, improve my pronunciation and learn new expressions in English. My vocabulary definitely added up and I also learned new expressions. Two of my goals were obtained and additionally, my next objective is to apply these words in my daily conversation if situations will let me. On contrary, my accent did not improve. People who I had conversation with still have a hard time understanding my pronunciation in certain words, the word ruler as an example. On the good side, I believe with motivation as well as being observant and being attentive helped me to obtain my two goals. Moreover, the strategies I chose to improve my level in English helped me a lot. One of the reasons, I can consider that stopping my progress in pronunciation is that I still speak in my Ilocano dialect. Even when I talk in my mother tongue people who came from my country can tell which region I came from because of my accent. The second reason maybe is because sometimes I talk fast that resulted to other phonetic sound. The word ruler as an example, if I say it faster I pronounce it like luler which does not exist at all in the dictionary and makes everyone say “Whaaat?”. This situation happened when I was asking one of my co-volunteers if she has a ruler. But once again I said it as luler and she gave me a confuse reaction.

Strategies 

As I stated above, the five strategies I chose that are written in my first blog served as one of the keys to attain my goals. Guessing is the most common strategies, I used to understand some new words that I met in my internship. Repetition is my other fundamental trick. I do not literary repeat the word or phrase out loud but I do repeat them in my head like 11 times. According to my boyfriend’s teacher, repeating eleven times a new word you encounter will help your brain remember it in the future. My favorite one is practice, I always try to talk to everyone in English so I can practice it. Furthermore, speaking English in my internship makes me more fluent. However, mnemonic technic and looking for patters in a language strategies did not work for me. It is because my knowledge in French is lower than my level in English. It is difficult to use this two strategies because I do not have a lot of refine vocabulary in French and I always struggle also in my grammar in both languages. Although, I only use three strategies so far and neglected the last two strategies. I will still use these five strategies to continue improving my English and other languages that I am currently studying. I will apply them also in my daily conversation, reading, listening and writing.

Language

The level of my English thus far in grammar is comprehensive. On the other hand, I still do my errors in preposition like using  “located at” for cities instead of “located in” and for conjugation of verb, not adding “s” in the end of singular verb like “say” instead of “says”. My vocabulary quite improved since my first day. As well as, my structure of ideas and fluency. I recognized that these three are the easiest to progress. I find my accuracy still the same as before doing my internship. For my pronunciation, I theorize that it will take me a while to improve unless I will stop talking in my dialect for a while which is not really an option for me.

Growth

Through this experience, I learned that I am capable of interacting a conversation even though I am not aware of the topic. All I have to do is listen, and be curious and most of all, start asking questions. In no time, I will be in the circle of conversation.  It taught me also that I have a hard time to follow instructions, easy or not. I tend to do what I know for me is right. It was my first day in social club when Ms. Sonia told me that the activity list must be given in the last part of the workshop. Suddenly, a senior asked me about it. Then, I went to get one and show her what the activities were for that month. Each of them saw the activity pamphlet and started to ask for it. As a result, I distributed it to everyone. Fortunately, Ms. Sonia did not get mad at me. This changed also my perception of Anglophone culture specifically about their belief in superstitions. The courage to interact in unfamiliar conversations is what I will take with me.  In gathering we see and meet new people but to be able to know them well. You have to have conversations with them. I believe taking this with me will help me more to know people and gain relevant information about life or about someone’s experience.

The internship 

I did not only learn about linguistic and cultural differences but also I learned how to approach someone in a better way. I also learned to show my interest in some topics and I gained motivation to improve expressing myself in social communication. I obtained some knowledge in laughter as well, sowing bonnet for babies that will be donated for women foundation, carving pumpkin, making papier-mâché and doing yoga. I had also the chance to visit one of the green houses that exist in Montreal. In addition, I had the opportunity to be inform about apple sauce recipes. Moreover, I had an opportunity to experience how to coordinate activities. My internship gave me all these advantages and moments to treasure. If the time will allow me to restart my internship again, I will not do anything differently instead I will do exactly mistakes that I did. Those mistake I have done from the beginning of my internship, resulted for me to be me more knowledgeable in English and about life.

Gratitude

Arina and I went together to give our gratitude to Ms. Sonia. First, Arina handed her our gift and Ms. Sonia was a bit speechless for unexpected moment. Then, it followed by giving the cards to her. And ended by giving us both a big hug and a statement from her that we are always welcome in Yellow Door.

 My thank you message to Ms. Sonia:

 

The placement 

Yellow door is not only a place to improve your English but a place where you can meet new friends, get information about life, society and inspiration. For me, I strongly recommend this internship placement to those student who love to be with seniors, who want to be more expose about life and different culture from different countries. This is because you gain a lot of experience and knowledge. The coordinator also give you an opportunity to experience how to be an activity coordinator. But if you prefer having an experience in doing phone calls, yellow door has it too. This institute also give you a bit of experience how to be a journal writer. If you worried about the host internship, I will tell you right away that she is one of the people who gave me inspiration to be more motivated in life. In addition, no matter how crazy the situation is she handles it with ease. 

In perception of others, 30 hours maybe is not enough to improve their knowledge in a language. But with my experience, these hours gave me the education I needed to development my English. The experience and exposure that I can use in applying in a daily English situation and even in other languages.