By Monika Salita
@monikasalita or About Monika
When I first arrived in Montpellier, France, one of the most valuable things I did for myself regarding learning more about my new home base (thanks to the guidance of some kind souls at the prefecture) was to visit the Pôle Universitaire; otherwise known as the student center for the city’s three main university campuses.
By: Christina Rowe
By Jean-Pol GRANDMONT (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0), GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Most of us have dreamed of working abroad at some stage in life and it it has often been a topic of conversation among my friends. The questions, ‘Where to live? France, Spain, Morrocco? What to do?’ usually follow, once we have decided we are going to fulfil that dream. I had been working in London for a few years and kept saying to myself, ‘one day I’m going to work in France’. Realising that it wasn’t magically going to materialise out of thin air, I decided it was time to actively infuse some effort into my goal and Voila! The job presented itself. I thought ‘if not now when?’.
And so I came to live in Languedoc-Roussillon, the largest wine making region in the world; unknown to me at the time but in retrospect I think , ‘how very fortunate’ to be in such an idyllic part of French country 🙂 . I flew into Carcassonne, home to the ancient town ‘La Cite’, one of Europe’s largest fortifications. Winding through quaint villages and vineyards to the Minervois region that would be my home for the next three months, we soon arrived at the place I would call home during my time there.
By Jon Duckett
Experienced TEFL teacher and director at TEFL Jobs World
By Taxiarchos228, cropped and modified by Poke2001 (Paris-pano-wladyslaw.jpg) [CC-BY-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
There are lots of opportunities for English language teachers to find TEFL Jobs in Paris. There are around 300 language schools in need of teachers, and it’s also possible to make a living freelance teaching.
The focus in Paris in on business English. Businesses in France have to spend money on continued training for their employees or face a higher tax bill. Business English courses are seen as a good way to spend that money, perhaps partly in recognition of English being the EU’s official language. Unfortunately this has led to negative consequences too, in that there are a lot of poor quality schools which keep the wages low for teachers (as little as 12 Euros an hour). Also students can be quite lethargic as often they are not studying out of choice.