Blogpost 5

For the general experience, I have to say that I love my internship.I have note some differences. First of all, anglophones really are more religious than francophones. In French, we often say "Oh mon Dieu" or "Seigneur" or even "Jésus, Marie, Joseph" but in English, it's more like "Jeez", "Gosh" and things like that. Religion seems more important, like ig using God's name for expression was cursing. The other thing that I note was the insatifaction of not having English newspapers in the Metro and at the STM. They have to pay for the news that we have freely in French. I admit that it is not fair. I also noticed is that anglophone person are a little bit skinflit. Sometimes they talk about somethings that they found a little bit too expensive but that seems normal for us like, for exemple, the bread. A girl was complaining because it costs 3,29$. They all start complaining for the price even the others volonteers. One day, I stayed longer because of of their terapist was absent so I stayed with three of the boys and we watched the video of the show they did in october. They were so glad to show it to me. The show is call "Our World" and is about different cultures in Quebec. Anglophone in Quebec are really open on the other cultures more than Francophones. And a way more than the rest of the Canada. A lot of them are Christians but the other majority is Jewish. They didn't want to talk to me about hannukka.

4th post.

This post is about next Friday. I cannot talk about only one conversation I had because you have to follow many of them. You have to listen to all of them, on the same time because they are just so happy to tell you what happened this week, they all want to say to you what made you sad or even mad lately on the week. And of course, they all want to talk about Hanukkah or Christmas. They all want you to help them to made cards and things like that so at the end of the day, your brain is full and you are exhausted. There’s a little bit too much information at one time. You really have to follow the conversation by body language and fortunately, it is easier with person with intellectual diseases. You cannot only fix your impression on their smile because some of them always seem to smile. So you look on their face. Thanks God, I like ‘’Lie to me’’.  I totally recommend it. You only have to watch their eyebrow or their shoulder. One of them wasn’t feeling good. He was looking right in front of him, by the window, the head in one of his hand. I asked him if he was ok but he told me that he wasn’t so I asked him if he wanted to talk about it but he didn’t. In every day’s life I don’t feel comfortable when someone doesn’t feel right but it’s different for me with them.  Because I know that they will be ok sooner instead of my friends and other people who continue to put misery in their life and being pessimist. They still come to see me and tell me that they love French and want me to talk to them in French. When I don’t understand something they said, they try to repeat it in French instead of English. That’s the biggest problem. I forgot some words but when I’m not sure I ask them. These are some of the words I forgot through the years.  

Numb: It means ‘’engourdis’’. I asked them because I couldn’t feel my hand.

Overwhelmed: It means that it’s too much in French we say: Surpassé (par les évenements, etc.)

Third time lucky: It’s when you fail 2 times to do something. It’s an idiom. In French we say: Jamais deux sans trois.  

Billy wind: Another Idiom.  It’s when the wind is blowing so hard. She said: ‘’Can you hear Billy Wind out there?’’

Ears are burning: When you feel or know that someone is bullshitting about you.

Cute moment and 3rd post!

Every time I go to my internship, I realize how students here in Concordia are respectful. Today one of the girls was waiting for her lunch at the cafeteria and she just introduces herself to this beautiful boy next to her. She told him her name and he did the same. After that, she told him that he looked like an angel. He starts laughing but tells her that it wasn't possible because she was the angel. :) It was funny. My internship is fun but honestly, I don't really learn new words.  The majority of time it's just remembering some words. My real problem is talking. I am a little bit stressed when everybody's look at me and wait for me to talk so then, I start to jabber. Sometimes, I just don’t understand what they said because nobody understands. I am so shy to ask them to repeat, again and again and again so I ask to Poppy or Marileen what this person just says but they don’t know. But the worst time is when we have to say ‘’yes’’ or ‘’no’’ or ‘’maybe’’ or things like that and start praying that you just well guessed what they are trying to say to you. The other day, one of the boys there said a word that I didn’t understand. It was ‘’dismembering’’. This word means ‘’démembrement’’ in French. There’s the thing I like in English. A word can mean many different things but rarely in French. He was talking about his birthday not about Luka Rocco Magnotta. Lol. The other thing I realize is about the English culture. One of the other volunteer talks to me about how difficult is to learn French when you come to live in Quebec. She says that it was ok to ask to immigrants to learn French but that it was silly to try to impose it to them. Of course, I don’t totally agree with her. I tried to see the things by her side and she try to do the same on mine. I don’t think we should oblige immigrants to learn French and only French. Sure it is important but I think that everybody, even people who was born in Quebec should learn French but also English and maybe Spanish. Learn languages open your mind on the world. The more we learn, the more we can understand each other worldwide. We both agreed on the principle.