Entry # 6 - Breaking it down (Dec. 12 - Dec. 19 and Jan. 2 - Jan. 9)

Listening Comprehension

It's not always easy for me to understand the people because they talk very fast

and they use some words very complicated for me. But when it happened, firstly I try to

understand with body language and if I don't understand again I ask the person to repeat

but more slowly. For example, a time, the secretary asked me to take some paper in all class.

She said: Can you get late slips in all class? I understood the sentence except the word less

tick. I asked her: What's late slips? She replies: it’s the little paper with absence of student.

Like that I learn a new word.

Accent


I think my English accent become well but it’s not again easy for me to talk in English

without my French accent and to pronounce some words. I observe some things when

English people pronounce a word they stick their tongue to the back in their mouth and

they do a sharp blow and I practice that because I have so much difficulty to talk well in

English.




Fluency


I didn’t become fluent in English because it’s very short to practice my English but now I am

less shy to speak English, less than before. If I continue like that I will become better. It’s

easy to talk about me in English because since I learn English it’s this I do in my course.

Like: How are you? What’s your name? Etc. I hesitate again for my structure sentence and

English people have difficulty to understand me cause this. My strategies it’s to watch

television in English to help me for real because I can hear every time some pronunciations

or expressions.



Humour


Sometimes jokes in English don’t have the same sense if I translated like in French then

sometimes I don’t understand the joke. What it’s funny in my internship it’s the students like

a time, a student comes at office to talk to secretary but he was so cute and so funny like he

talked. But I don’t remember his jokes I just remember how he was so funny.



Accuracy


My main goal was to try to speak in English with somebody to practice and I did. My

pronunciation was not very well like s with third person simple present but I try and I know I

need to practice that. It’s not because I don’t know the grammar in English it’s just because I

am little stress when I speak in English and I forget some rules.



Select 5 new words, expressions or structures


I learn of course like I explained it before the word late slips. I learn too the verb to knock

because a time I wanted to say ‘cogner à la porte’ and I ask the secretary how I can say that

and she says me: It's known. I learn the words confidence I don't remember why but I know

the word means to have a confidence in a someone (avoir confiance), principal instead

saying director because it’s the good word in English.