My English: better than ever

I will now summarize my learning path at the library, talking about strategies, ways to improve your accent, etc.

Listening comprehension

I use various strategies to ensure that I truly understand the given instructions: for example, I use the guessing technique a lot. When I hear words that are unfamiliar to me, I try to use contextual clues, which is easy, because everything is library-related.

Also, the “communicate in whichever way possible” made my life a lot easier at the library: when I am unsure of the correct way to express myself, I mostly use gestures and various synonyms to get the message across. For example, when I as I was trying to remember the word “review”, I had a blank. I thought about the synonym “analysis” and the message got across!

About the accent

I have improved my accent greatly. Words like “convenience”, “award” or “overdue” sound a lot better when they come out of my mouth than they used to. For example, I learned that to pronounce “convenience” correctly, one must change the “e” that comes after the “v” for an “i”. I am not sure it can work for everyone but it did wonders for me! I've noticed that when I say a really long sentence in English, I no longer use the French or the Russian accent when pronouncing certain words. I learned not to fall into the same patterns and to pronounce these tricky words the right way, for example by changing the position of my mouth.

Fluency

My fluency has improved by the dozen, especially in the “professional” jargon. I used the “practice” strategy and my accent slowly began to change and finally improved in a very satisfying way.

Humor

I noticed that the English speakers have quite the same humor as the French speakers. Both tease a lot and tell jokes about controversial subjects, such as politics. I've also noticed that anglophones have the capacity to laugh at themselves and that they don't take teasing personal. I've seen various amusing situation but there wasn't one that I didn't understand. I guess this means I'm almost an anglophone now!

Accuracy

My main goal was to improve my English more than to actually learn it, so I chose accuracy over fluency. I wished to learn a more complicated type of English so I mainly was focused on learning specific words. Nevertheless, I have to say that my fluency got better. Now, I can effortlessly switch from French to English, or from Spanish to English without any difficulty, thanks to my hosts with whom I talk frequently during my internship hours. I also noticed that in English, you don't have to do any liaisons. In French, a lot of silent consonants at the end of a word are pronounced at the beginning of the following word. In English, however, this rule doesn't apply. The same goes for the subjunctive in English: it's almost nonexistent.

New words, expressions or structures

Where did you hear/see this language? What was the context? What does it mean? How will it be useful to you in the future?

I've heard the expression “I beg your pardon?”, which was said by a staff member to another one. It's a synonym of “Excuse me?” but it's a very polite form. It will be useful for my future when, for example, I'm doing a job interview and I don't understand a point or a question.

I've also heard the word “Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia” but that was just for fun: I asked a employee if he know any complicated words and that's what he told me!

Oh, it means “Fear of long word”! See you in my next blog post!