2nd English Workshop – 29th June 2011

Yesterday I had my second session with the young people (“les jeunes”) who are going on Leonardo projects… I was so tired! I don’t even know why… I’d been speaking my own language and there were only 3 people there!!!  But I think they enjoyed it more than last time, which is a definite plus. 

Once again, I had a lot prepared and no time to do it… How time flies! I found that they ended up writing and were fairly quiet most of the time, so next time I will try and have them up on their feet and speaking… I’ve discovered that it can be fairly difficult to get people my age motivated to learn hehe!  I’ve gotta make sure it’s really interesting stuff.

I began with a quick exercise called “Lie Detector”, where everyone said 3 things they did the day before, with one a lie… the others wrote down which they thought was a lie and at the end everyone revealed their lies (phew that’s a lot of lying!).  It was good fun and I joined in, so I’m pleased with that!

I then did an alphabet race, which Yves (the boss) joined in. There were therefore 2 pairs racing against each other. Yves’ pair won and when both lists were complete, the pairs took turns to explain their lists… I found that this sort of exercise could be very good for developing vocabulary, particularly if you limit the words that the learners can use!  Though on reflection and with input from Yves, it would definitely be possible to get everyone on their feet and really active and involved with this one!!!

The third task I worked through with the young people was an outline of useful phrases and structures for presentations, as I assume they will have to give presentations whilst volunteering.  I put key words on the board and then tried to brainstorm with them possible topics they could do a practise presentation on… It was like trying to get blood out of a stone!  Everyone claimed to not have a clue.  In the end one guy chose to do the difference between Japanese and American “Cosplay” (look it up, I had to hehe).  The other two people did a short presentation on “Places to Visit in Nord-pas-de-Calais” (that was as far as my imagination stretched to get both people involved lol).  After 20 minutes each mini group presented what they had planned.  I was so pleased to see that they had understood the structure and what I was asking, as well as doing very well with pronunciation and grammar. 

Explaining the Presentation Information

Just to finish off on I covered another song with a gap fill sheet but it turned out it was too hard… I am definitely going to have to listen in a lot of detail to songs if I want them to be effective!  Regardless of this, I feel that the “Atelier” (workshop) went well and will think more for next time about getting everyone on their feet and talking more.

Today, I had planned on working on a booklet for the people who will be leaving (and for future volunteers), although I am yet to do that.  In the booklet, volunteers will be able to keep a log of events and discuss things such as preparation for leaving, expectations, skills, details about themselves ready for presentations and many more aspects of the volunteer experience as a whole.  It is definitely inspired by Everything is Possible’s “Passport Portfolio” so thank guys ;-)  This morning I recapped all the vocabulary I have learned (on my last count around 400 I think phew… I’m so proud wahey!).  I learned 60 or so this morning… Can u believe I dreamed last night about my vocabulary exercises… Can’t a girl get some rest!?  J

For now I’m going to head off… I shall try and be more productive with my time now for the next couple of hours before I leave, and then rowing this evening.  Rowing, now that’s a story for another time… J

1st English Workshop – written 27th June 2011

Ok, so I just ran my first English workshop this afternoon. I’m a bit unsure on how I did.  It was so difficult to do with a wide range of English levels amongst the 6 people in the room.  Overall, I think I kept calm enough considering it was my first time doing anything practical like that, but I’m definitely glad that Yves, the boss, was there!!! When I struggled to explain a concept, he stepped in (phew!).

The young people in the workshop at the moment are those who are planning on going on Leonardo placements in September.  These will be in Ireland, Germany and possible Italy.  These placements will last for 10 weeks and they will almost undoubtedly need to use English.  The range of levels of English is upper beginner to higher intermediate and I have not yet figured out how to include everybody in the exercises with either somebody not understanding and getting lost because the English is too difficult or somebody becoming bored because it is too easy.  It is a difficult balance to achieve!

In the planning that I had done for the workshop, I hadn’t allowed enough time for each exercise and had tried to include far too much, so therefore I had to adapt it massively as I went along.  I managed to cover a lot of vocabulary work, including how to give advice and the 100 most common words.  I will look at developing a more efficient way of explaining “You should…” and “You really ought to…” etc… things like that that I’ve realised are very difficult concepts to explain!!! You just take them for granted when they are your first language!  Also, I feel I dived in too soon with some mind-boggling stuff, so I need to get the group going a bit more next time maybe with some more games and fun stuff…. A bit more talking etc.

I am pleased of the fact that I managed to include everyone in the exercises with everybody talking… So that was definitely a good point. Also, they said at the end that it had been interesting; must be a good sign!? I just hope that they weren’t just saying that because they felt they should! J

Just around the corner from the office :-)

In all, I’m glad that I have my first workshop out of the way so that now I have more of an idea of what levels people are at and how is best to interact with them. I have also learned how important order of activities is! I’m going to start using some more games in between the more tedious activities and will try and stimulate a little bit more conversation in the room (they were all fairly quiet!). I’m relieved but hoping to improve on my delivery next time. Despite this, all in all what a great opportunity to practise delivering English workshops in this environment. It is all such interesting yet challenging work, always keeping me on my toes!

My Welcoming Organisation – The “Mission Locale de Lille”

I now volunteer at an organisation called the “Mission Locale de Lille”. They work with 16 to 25 year olds who may not have much education, may be disadvantaged in life or may be unable to find employment.  I am specifically in the “Europe and Citizenship” branch of the “Mission Locale”, which helps young people to volunteer in another country with either the EVS or Leonardo de Vinci programmes, who rather than general volunteer placements offer work experience related training placements, which are also voluntary.  This helps the young people to achieve international mobility.

It is a very stimulating environment, helping out people who otherwise may never have the opportunity to go abroad for any long period of time.  Currently, I have been working a lot on developing materials to run English workshops for youngsters that are subscribed to a Mission Locale who are preparing to leave for a project.  Most of them will leave on the 1^st weekend of September.  It has been very challenging trying to prepare the materials, because there are a wide range of abilities within a small group and rather than it being formal like school, it needs to be more fun and informal, mainly practising speaking skills.

As well as planning the workshop activities (for which I now have a large collection of activities), I have been doing a lot of linguistic work.  I have learned a lot of new words and I think slowly but surely my grammar is improving.  I have definitely noticed that I can now understand more if I concentrate (though it is still very hard work!).  There have also been a number of meetings that I have attended with Yves, varying from meeting with other coordinators in other Mission Locale’s, such as in Arras, to a welcome meeting for people who want to do Leonardo projects and another meeting for those who would like to do EVS projects.  I also sat in a preparation meeting with the coordinator from the “Mission Locale de Douai” and the volunteers who are leaving on the 1^st weekend in September.  She was discussing their welcoming countries with them and preparation beforehand and I was so amazed that I pretty much understood it all! Definitely gave myself a pat on the back for that one!!!

The more competent I become at French, the more varied roles I may be able to take on.  For now however I am really trying hard to improve my understanding and communication so that I can effectively say what I want to.  I have already prepared a presentation about my background, my home country, my sending organisation, welcoming organisation and the EVS, but I am yet to deliver it.  Who knows, maybe soon?! J

On Arrival Training – South of France 7th to 11th June 2011

Soon after arriving, and after only being in the office for one day (due to the previous Thursday and Friday being bank holidays), I jumped on a train with another volunteer and travelled 5 and a half hours to Sète near Montpellier right in the South of France. It was an amazing 5 days.  There were only 6 people in our group with a range of nationalities.  Other than me (English) the countries represented were Hungary, Italy, Germany, Bulgaria and Armenia.  EVS volunteers literally come from far and wide J

Our on arrival group with our trainer :-)

The five days were made up of a whole bunch of different exercises designed to build our confidence linguistically, discover other cultures and learn about France and the cultural differences we may experience.  What I found most rewarding was when I managed to prepare and deliver presentations in French; something I had previously been very afraid and nervous of doing.  We also met the volunteers who were on their final training near the end of their volunteering.  They were all speaking French to each other like it was no bother…Even those who had been beginners when they had arrived!  It gave me that extra motivation to really try hard with my language learning J

Games on the beach with the other volunteers

Sète turned out to be a beautiful seaside town, as we were able to discover it on Friday when we had all the afternoon to explore and to try and answer a quiz about the town.  I just wish we had more time because the things we learned from our awesome “formatrice” (facilitator) were invaluable!  On the last night, all the volunteers (the 6 of us and other 25 or so on the final training) had a mini party on the beach, which was great fun and fab for morale.

The wonderful town - very picturesque!

The next day in our group we all did an evaluation of how the training had been.  I decided that it was precious how much my confidence had developed and the facilitator and the structure of activities were top-notch.  All the information we were given and meeting the other volunteers was so important to us, so I just wish we had more time.  The only bad thing was the weather (can u believe it was windy and cold and at times raining!) and the amount of seafood on the menu!!!

Introductions

Hey everyone! For those who don’t know me, I’m Rebekah Warburton and am currently 22 years old.  I am originally from Leeds in West Yorkshire (North UK), but since I was 10 years old have been living in Yarm, further up North in Stockton-on-Tees.  I have just finished my degree in Psychology and for the past year have been thinking “What the heck am I gonna do after I finish?”  Scared of becoming bored after finishing my studies, I searched and searched on the web for jobs, sending in many applications (ultimately none being successful).  I spotted a leaflet in careers services at my university (Teesside University) for a European Jobs Day up in Newcastle…. I figured why not… Dropped dad at work and went for a drive.



My Desk in the Office in Lille :-)



That was where I decided that some kind of French speaking job / experience was the next step.  My first instincts were to apply for Disneyland Paris (!) but that didn’t happen.  I passed Everything is Possible’s stand and Steve asked me “Would you be interested in volunteering?”… My response was “I would love to but it’s just too expensive”.  Well lo-and-behold, the European Voluntary Service (EVS) doesn’t charge a penny for volunteering as it is funded by the European Commission, a programme that Everything is Possible work with.  The European Jobs Day ended up being the best decision I could have made.

Within a couple of weeks I was in Leeds meeting Ash, the coordinator of long-term volunteering programmes.  After a discussion on what I would like to do, it seemed that Lille, North France, would be the best option for me.  This worked out perfectly because I was visiting Brussels shortly afterwards, so I just jumped on the train and went to meet Yves, the coordinator in the welcoming organisation (i.e. the Boss J ).

It’s now 28^th June 2011 and I arrived in France on the 1^st June, just 4 days after my final exam! To begin with it felt like I must be in a dream, that I really am finally in France, but it has slowly sunk in and I am making the best of my opportunities here.  I want to use this blog to document my experiences here in France and life after my volunteering adventure. I hope you enjoy it!