Entry 4 - The World Is your Classroom

This week, unfortunately, I haven't had the chance to meet my host through Skype. However, I did make some interesting observations about linguistics and the processus of learning outside of a classroom.

Interference of first language

This week, I focused on observing how my first language, French, can interfere in my communication or comprehension in English. I noticed that there are many words in English that are exactly the same as in French. I remembered in class, we called them "cognates". However, even if these words are shared between the languages, they can be used in different contexts for each. Therefore, sometimes, I need to replace the existing word by another in order to express the same meaning in French. For example, in the sentence "the consensus to discuss the exchanges under an indigenous perspective" "consensus" would be "entente" in French, instead of the same word.

Classroom vs Internship

I noticed that I might learn even better in an English environment than inside a classroom. Because I am translating, I actually have the opportunity to analyse the different structures of English and the language itself. Not having a teacher to explain the grammar, I had to developp strategies and methods to be able to understand by myself. When I don't understand words, I look for the context around them, but also if I can recognize some parts of the words, for example "wife" in "midwifery" or associate them with another language if they are cognates. These strategies help me learn better because there's nothing like searching the answers by yourself to remember them.

Vocabulary

Finally, I had the opportunity to enrich my vocabulary with new words. For instance:

• Assessment - It is the act of evaluating or estimating. I often encountered this word in the expression "need assessment", the evaluation or estimation of the needs of the indigenous communities.
• Westernized - I recognized the word "West" in this word, so I figured out it would be related to the "West civilization" and indeed, this word means to be converted into the customs of the West, of the Occident.
• Midwifery - In the website, this word was used in a context of maternal health, therefore I knew it had to be related. This word means the techniques used by the person who assists a women giving birth.