Entry 7 - Practice Makes Perfect

(This blogpost won't follow the guide of anglaisenaction)

This week, I noticed many differences between English and French. I looked at the different ways to express ideas and grammatically correct sentences. I also focused on different accents during the week.

Linguistic observations

The translation of this week allowed me to see that the English language is more focused on people than French. Indeed, we usually try to avoid talking directly to someone or including ourselves in our writing in French. We would use impersonal pronouns like "on" or "il', or no pronoun at all, instead of mentionning "I" or "we". However, I noticed that the use of those pronouns is more common in English. Therefore, I had to translate sentences like "We only need to watch television" into "Il suffit de regarder" or "How will we choose" in "Comment choisir". So where French tries to avoid naming people, English focuses more on them.

Accents

As I was meeting my supervisor through Skype, I took time to analyse my host's speech and tried to see how his first language, Portuguese, could interfere in his English, even though I don't speak Portuguese. I noticed that he had a strong accent. For example, he pronounces the "ing" sounds in verbs in the progressive tenses or gerunds "ink". The "g" transforms into a "k" in his speech. He also pronounces "r" like in French, a rolled "r". I found interesting to see how his accent shows where he comes from. I then wondered if I had any particularties of speech like him and I noticed that I still have some trouble with my "th" sounds and sometimes I don't pronounce "a"s correctly. I put too much accent on the "é" sound of words. Therefore, I have an accent as well, an heritage of my Quebec native language. 

Vocabulary

Finally, here are the vocabulary words I learned this week:

• Pioneering: It is the act of innovating, of opening up new areas of thought, research or development. 
• Alumni: I saw this word in the section concerning the university partners. I found it interesting because it looks like a name of a sect or something. However, it is a former student or a graduate of a school.
• Backbone: It is originally the vertebrate spine. However, this word can be used with the meaning of a main support or a sustaining factor, for example "humanitarian aid acts as true backbone for unfolding a new reality in the Amazon". We barely use this expression in French.