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| Rebekah Warburton |
Everything is still going great here in my project, although quite honestly I do not know where all the time is going !!! I have already been here nearly 7 weeks (tomorrow!) and it feels like only last week that I arrived ! I feel like I have really settled well in to my project and the people I work with are all great to be around and very welcoming, but 6 months here is just not long enough. I mean yes it is amazing and everything, but I want more :-)
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| La Place de la Reblique - next to my office and one of the places where I spend my lunch breaks |
In terms of my French development, although I feel that I am progressing, it is almost as if the more I understand the harder it gets. Let me explain ! When people are talking to me, I can usually understand what they are saying if they are looking at me (don’t ask me why hehe). I then get incredibly frustrated if I understand a conversation or a question, but find it difficult to express myself in my response… It’s like the more I progress and understand, the more pressure I put on myself ! Regardless, bit by bit I am definitely learning new vocabulary and slowly picking up more grammar :-) I’m hoping to be able to speak very comfortably by the time I leave Lille.
Also, I had my fourth English Workshop last week (13th July) which I was very pleased with. I am starting to develop a relationship with the young people which is great. I started with some general discussion about what they had been up to and if they were planning on doing anything for the 14th July bank holiday. I then handed out a worksheet with a script on it regarding talking on the telephone… We worked through it as a group, ensuring that we had all understood. I then had them do role playing, which was the first time I had done it. It worked really well and everyone was speaking in English. I asked them to take turns with one person asking to book a room for 3 nights, the other person playing the role of receptionist. I think I will definitely do more role plays in the future !
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| "Who Am I?" - Everyone getting involved (from the 3rd ''Atelier Anglais'') |
Afterwards, I had them doing a quick worksheet on syllables for revision and some pronunciation practice. They tend to try speaking too fast, so I ensured everyone took their time and pronounced things properly. In between these exercises, we also watched You Tube clips which everyone enjoyed. You Tube is also a nice way of breaking up the more difficult exercises because it is a rest from speaking or writing. Afterwards, it is very easy to have a discussion about the topics on the videos. I played a video called “21 accents” which is interesting to listen to, to see if the learners can notice the difference in pronunciation. I also watched a clip of a French guy in America doing a comedy sketch in a speech competition, where he compared stereotypes and general culture of the USA and France. He did this by switching between a cap (hat) for the USA and a beret for France. It was very funny though sometimes difficult to understand, so I was pausing the video to explain.
Finally, I also did work on the preparation leaflet that I talked about before. We looked at the section where the volunteers must find information regarding France so that they know the facts to present when they are in their hosting projects. It was very interesting and they had to use the internet to research at times because quite often they didn’t know the answers. It is intriguing to find out things that you really don’t know about your own country !!! I had to do the same yesterday in fact. This afternoon I am going to another organisation that sends volunteers on EVS projects. I will talk about my experience and will do a presentation on England. When preparing my presentation, I realised that I really didn’t know any useful facts ! Terrible or what ?! Now I am all clued up however.
To read more about Rebekah's volunteering in France, visit her blog : http://bex-warburton.blogspot.com/
