Job Discussion Forums

[cdrixon]

I am soon to be a university graduate with a degree in French/English as well as an ESL diploma. I'm currently in the process of preparing the application for the 2006-2007 assistantship program in France. If anyone has worked as a language assistant in France, I would love to hear about it. I'm curious to know what it's like. Where were you located? Was it easy or difficult to adjust? Did your French improve? Improving my fluency level in French is one of the main reasons I am applying for this program. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[NMB]

You should peruse the unofficial assistantship website: www.assisantsinfrance.com

[3plus1]

I'm working as an assistant right now in three primary schools.

BAD POINTS

I have heard of other assistants being offered places in ZEPs or in schools located in the Styx so you will need a car to drive to school there. Hardly anyone I know from my acad�mie actually has a car. I can't even drive, personally. I'm lucky I was offered a city with public transport, small as it is. If you don't want to drive or can't drive in France, write that in the section of the application form reserved for disabilities. Otherwise you may well get offered an appointment you actually cannot carry out.

Just noticed you are from Canada and probably do not hold an EU passport. Good luck with your carte de s�jour...

Whichever country you are from, do not hold your breath getting housing benefits until way after you have run out of money.

France = administrative nightmare.

GOOD POINTS

You may get nice children. If you do, teaching is fun and the job isn't that difficult. It can be nice when you notice the kids' English improve.

Certain teachers may let you do whatever you want with the children rather than following a fixed schedule. The French approach to teaching languages involves phonetics and other such interesting things. I can't think of any faster way to convince a small child to give up language learning. As an assistant, you can bring an element of fun into teaching.

Children can learn effectively through games, songs and chants. Using these methods makes your job pleasant and their experience of English a lot nicer. Songs with lots of gestures also improve your fitness level :p

YOUR FRENCH

Theoretically, you're only supposed to talk English to the children. If you are in a lyc�e, that might be possible. Not in a primary school. The children's level of English will be basic. So you do need to practise your French with them and you need to quickly learn "Child French". This is like French but spoken more quickly and often with a hand in front of the mouth.

If you live in a foyer or share a flat with French people, your French will improve simply from having to speak in French all the time. If you choose to rent a private flat by yourself, you'll have fewer opportunities to practise your French and be liable for council tax. I don't recommend it.

Any specific questions, I'll probably pop back to Dave's at some point. Good luck with your application.

3plus1 x

[Canedolia]

I was an assistant in France a few years ago and I loved it. I know that some people have more difficulties than others, but based purely on my own experience, I would recommend it to anyone who a) likes kids / teenagers and b) is interested in teaching. There are assistants who don't, and then they wonder why they hate the job. You also have to accept that there are lots of uncertainties (you aren't guaranteed, for example, to be placed in a big city) and be prepared to make the best of your own situation. I lived in a small town in Picardy (famous almost exclusively for its WWI battlefields), worked in 2 ZEP schools (the "difficult" ones) and had a great time. I did the assistantship as part of my degree and when I went back to uni, it was all the ex-assistants who spoke the best French, so I would recemmend it for that reason as well.

Good luck with the application and feel free to ask me if you have any other questions.

[francofile]

i am also a canadian applying for an english language assistantship.
i have a few questions which i am sure have already been addressed, so pls forgive my redundancy.

one. i would like to be place in the paris region (i know, i know- but really my reason is not to BCBG it as much as it is to study urbanism), however, i know the chances of being placed there are slim to none...I would be very interested to hear if anyone has an opinion on the merits of a specific region listed in category A,
(Amiens, Besancon, Grenoble, Limoges, Nantes, Reims, Rouen, Starsbourg)
OR category C: (Caen, Clermont-Ferrand, Lille, Nancy-Metz, Orleans-Tours, Poiters, Rennes).

two. i dont have a certificate for teaching english (TEFL or CELTA)..is this something that would be a huge advantage to me?

three. am i permitted to teach private lessons for extra cash, or have another job, in addition to the 12 hours/ week i work as an assistant?

four. what is the likelyhood of me being placed in a university? i have my master's degree in architecture...i dont know if that makes any difference. i have experience teaching/helping other students with courses in architecture.

thanks so much for reading through my list of questions, any advice would be appreciated.

[/list]

[NMB]

Your chances for the Paris region aren't as slim as you think. Slim to none for the Acad�mie de Paris...but quite high for Cr�teil, as it is one of the largest acad�mies in France, if not the largest. If you're as fortunate as I was last year to be placed in a decent suburb not too far out, you could possibly commute.

I'm currently living in Nancy, and though I find it quite charming, it's just too bloody cold of a region for my taste. I haven't visited yet, but I've heard rave reviews about Lille (also cold, but bigger), espcially for its easy access into neighboring countries.

Giving private lessons is usually not a problem. In fact, it was the best means of supplemental income I found that fit around the erratic assistantship schedule.

[francofile]

thanks for your reply, 'preciate it. its heartening to hear being placed in paris might happen.

i guess living in the centre of paris and commuting to the suburbs to go to work is an option that i didnt really consider. (why i am not sure).

i am going to place paris as my first choice and leave the other two choices as 'no preference.'

if anyone else has input on the other question i posted previously, i would love to hear from you. thQ again.

[Canedolia]

If you're really keen to live in a city, you should probably state a preference for academies that actually have big cities rather than putting "no preference". The academie of Rennes, for example, is largely rural, and a lot of French "cities" aren't all that big.

If you think you might want to continue teaching English after the assistantship, it's worth doing a TEFL course, but otherwise I wouldn't bother. It would be useful, particularly for teaching secondary level or adults, but most assistants don't have one and a CELTA costs the equivalent of 2 months worth of your future salary!

[francofile]

thanks for your reply.

the problem with placing a preference for a larger city (besides Paris) is that on the application form it seems like they have grouped all of the most requested, and major centres, into one category-category B. you are only allowed to request one region from each category. i posted the choices that i could select from the other categories (A and C) above, in an earlier post, but i am largely unfamiliar with the regions listed in those categories, besides Lille. My strategy was to choose no preference for the other choices with the hope that 1. i will be placed in Paris or 2. be placed in a city that is also in category B (which i am not allowed to request).

i hope to be placed in a major centre that is well-connected so i can explore parts of Europe i haven't yet, but maybe i will just leave it up to fate and make the best of whatever happens.

its good to know you are allowed to work in addition to the hours of the assistantship. i have a small weakness for shoes. and trips to morocco. and electricity! ha ha.

regarding the TEFL: i dont intend on teaching english for longer than a year or two. although i think its a fantastic life, i have a degree in something else and my goal is to improve my french so that i can be tested and declared 'bilingual' by the Canadian government... i am sure these are famous last words of people who end up teaching english for the rest of their lives!

[NMB]

[medusa]

Hello, I'd just like to add a few (hopefully) helpful tips for those of you wishing to come over to France to teach next year. I'm British so don't have the obvious problem of visa or carte de sejour but have spent over 5years living and working in Bordeaux. If you don't get the position you really want, in the town you want as an assistant nothing stops you going out there anyway and looking for work in a private school. Paris is bursting with opportunities for native english teachers in language schools. If you are more adventurous and feel like turning up and testing your luck there is also the possibility of enrolling at the "rectorat" of the twon / academie where you want to work at the beginning of the academic year. Guaranteed, every year many assistants drop out after the first couple of weeks for various reasons and english teachers are needed asap. Definately worth checking out if you have a valid visa.....
Private teaching can also be done through "acadomia" the most popular home teaching in the country and quite well paid. Otherwise if you can always work 'cash in hand', of course not legal but very very common.
If you want to work in a University, you are no longer an assistant/e but a lecteur/lectrice and most Uni's have partnerships with English or American Unis. I hope this helps you all make your desicions! enjoy france

[cryptolect]

francofile: I was an assistant in Salon-de-Provence, not too far from Marseilles, and that city would be an excellent place to study urbanism, if that's what you're into...

[francofile]

thanks everyone for replying.

i sent in my application earlier this week, so now i just wait, apparently until May. i really hope it goes through.

[3plus1]

You're not actually allowed to hold down a second job whilst being an assistant, regardless of whether you're European or not. The exception to the rule is Paris and perhaps the outre-mer posts as well - this is because the cost of living is so high, you're expected to give private lessons to make up for it.

Unofficially... I think most people who can bring in extra money teaching privately, do.

[akalucyliu]

I was a Teaching Assistant this past year for the Academie of Lille at Lycee Dupleix in Landrecies (see also: Middle of Nowhere) and here are a few things to keep in mind:

BAD
1. Putting down the names of large cities (e.g. Lille) does not guarantee that you will actually be placed in this city. I thought I would be in Lille and I ended up 2 hours by train from Lille in the cow-town of Landrecies. It was a great experience all the same, but definitely not what I expected when I chose the Academie. Sometimes getting placed in the rural areas isn't actually so bad- your hardly ever get interrupted by cars burning or demonstrations (with exception to the CPE). Also, smaller towns come with that small-town feel, which is endearing.

2. If you are a Canadian citizen, you need to make sure that your birth certificate has the names of your parents on it. I only had the little card version with me and had to have my mom request copies of the official documents from the Canadian government so I could finally get my Carte de Sejour (a week before my contract expired). I second the statement, "France = Administrative nightmare!!!"

3. I agree that a TESL certificate isn't necessary. In my experience, the teachers I worked with hardly gave me any guidence ("Make the students talk!" was my only instruction the whole year) and my "training" was worthless, except for the free lunch. But I got by trading lessons with the other assistants and consulting ESL teaching websites. Half the time, the students didn't show up anyways.

4. Turn in your CAF papers ASAP. They only retroactively refund you for up to three months before you turn in your papers. I found this out the hard way.

GOOD
1. I can affirm that my French improved tons thanks to the Assistanceship.

2. Being in Cowtown meant that I bummed rides of the teachers who also couldn't stand living in Cowtown and lived an hour away in the slightly larger town. If you end up in a small town, try to live in the nearest bigger town with other Assistants (=social life). It was a great excuse to practice my French in the car and to make some new friends for life out of the teachers.

TIPS
1. Don't bother bringing bedding over. You can probably borrow some from a teacher.

2. Don't bother booking a hotel/hostel for when you get there. It is the school's responsibility to find you housing for that first night and theoretically until you can find a place. Some schools have apartments for the Assistants in the dormatories.

3. I saw my students in random groups of two or three that would change every week. I had no way of knowing their level of English beforehand or what their teachers were doing with them. Eventually, what worked best for me was to prepare lessons for all different levels and then adapt the lesson once the students came to class. By the end of the year, only those who were the most motivated and advanced (and who probably needed the extra English help least) showed up for class and I just prepared rhetorical or cultural questions and it became a cross-cultural communications class. Other Assistants I spoke with also conferred that by the end of the year, their 12-hours per week had been reduced to about 5. Whatev- just think of it as a raise in your hourly wage.