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Guide for English Language Assistants in France: Part 1: Application & Lettre de Présentation
Part 1: General Information
| The Application | The
Lettre de Présentation | Waiting
Part 2:
Figuring out your Arrêté de Nomination
| Obtaining your Visa
Part 3: Packing & Bringing Money |
Arriving: The Paperwork Nightmare
Part 4:
Teaching Tips & Lesson Plans | Vacations:
Travelling
Part 5:
Before Leaving France | Staying in France:
Renewing, PACSing, Unemployment
Académie de Grenoble & Annecy Information
ESL Lesson Plans to Download
Documents & Links for Assistants
For all Expats: Obtaining a Carte de Séjour | Getting PACSed or Married in France
If you'd like to skip ahead to the page of useful documents and links, click here. If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me at ielanguages [at] gmail.com. Also try searching the assistantsinfrance.com forums, as most of your questions have probably already been answered there. This page refers to the American application process and the French Embassy in Washington D.C., so if you are not American, your country will have different procedures, deadlines and contact people.
I started writing this guide in May 2006 when I learned that I’d be teaching ESL (English as a Second Language) at the secondary level in the académie of Grenoble (city of Annecy) for 7 months through the French Embassy. This is a chronological journal of my experience beginning with the application process. If you are interested in teaching ESL in France, please visit the French Culture Website for the current application (for American citizens). The 2008-2009 application was finally uploaded on November 28, 2007. Canadian citizens please visit La France au Canada site; Australian citizens please visit France in Australia; and New Zealand citizens click here for the application and click here for general information about the program.
In order to qualify for this program, you must be an American citizen, between the ages of 20 and 30 (as of October 1 of the year you are applying), are currently in college (at least 3rd year) or already have a degree, and have a basic proficiency in French (for example, 3 semesters in college.) You will spend between 6 and 9 months in France (or the overseas départements) teaching English 12 hours a week and you will receive a salary of about 780 € a month (after social security is taken out) if you are placed in mainland France, about 1,000 € if you are placed in Corsica, Martinique, Guadeloupe, or French Guyana, and about 1,200 € if you are placed in La Réunion. (In addition, Australia & New Zealand assistants can apply to New Caledonia). I would recommend doing this program while you are still a student in college, especially if you are under 25, because there are so many discounts for young people in Europe. But if you do wait until you graduate, you can try to defer your student loans until you get back. You will need to talk to the financial aid office at your university about this, but you may qualify for an Economic Hardship deferment if you can prove that you make less than $10,712 per year (or $5.15 per hour or $892.66 per month).
Technically, this program is also open to native speakers of English from several countries – England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, India, Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago, etc. However, the number of posts for each country varies greatly. For example, the United States sends about 1,500 assistants each year, Canada sends 300, and Australia sends 80, and New Zealand 60. The qualifications and requirements may be different for each country as well, so if you are not American, check with your local French Embassy. There are also official teaching assistant programs for Americans to teach ESL in Spain, Austria and Finland and several programs for UK residents to teach ESL in 20 countries through the British Council.
Things to Know
Moving to France for almost a year is quite an experience. This program is a great way to spend time in France without having to work or study full time (and get paid to be there!) However, there are a lot of things about this program that you should know before you apply and accept your position, especially if you're not an EU citizen. First of all, you may or may not receive your paperwork from France on time, which would delay your getting a visa (and you MUST get a visa, but it's free). In most cases, you must go to the French consulate to get your visa - you cannot get it by mail; and therefore, you must pay for transportation to the consulate as well as lodging if it's far from where you live. You must pay for your own plane ticket to France. You may have to find housing when you arrive, or it may be provided for you by your school. If your school decides to not help you find housing, it may be very stressful for you to find a place to live as well as expensive if you have to stay in a hostel for a while. You will have to open a bank account in order to be paid, and you must apply for a residency card shortly after your arrival. In order to get the residency card, you need to do a ton of paperwork as well as have a medical visit, which will be scheduled for you. The medical visit is mostly a chest X-ray and they will also check your weight, height and eyesight. (However, American women should be warned that you will not be given anything to cover up with during the chest X-ray - you really do have to walk around topless). British and Irish assistants don't need to get a residency card or have the medical exam because they are already residents of the EU.
Success in this program depends more on luck than preparation, because it's really up to your school to help you or not. You could arrive in France with no clue how to use public transportation, no place to live and no one to help you, so you need to be prepared for the worst. You need to have a lot of money saved before going to France too. If you rent an apartment instead of living at your school or living with French people, you will most likely need three month's rent and a security deposit, which will probably exceed 1,000 €. Plus you might not get paid for your first month of work until November. Finding an apartment is also extremely difficult if it's hard for you to speak French on the phone, or if you don't even speak French that well. Some people will be patient with you and talk slower, but others won't even care if you don't understand them. I do recommend this program to people, but I also think it's important to know about the stressful things that could happen. I was homeless for a while when I first arrived in France, and completely miserable, but as soon as I found a place to live, everything turned out great. If you can survive the first week or two of finding housing, opening a bank account and filling out mounds of paperwork, then you will be fine for the rest of the year. Plus you will be paid 780 € a month to work only 12 hours a week (and possibly even less than that), including 7 weeks of paid vacation. Obviously there are advantages and disadvantages to this program, but I do believe this is the best way to live abroad and I am glad I decided to do it. In fact, I now live in France permanently with my French boyfriend and I was able to renew my contract and work for a second year as an assistant, so I am extremely happy that I did this program.
Update: As of July 1, 2008, all EU citizens, except those of Bulgarian or Romanian citizenship, will have full working rights in France. If you are an EU citizen, or have dual nationality with an EU state, then you do not need to obtain a visa in order to enter France legally and you do not need to obtain a residency card once you are in France. In short, life in France will be very easy for you!
Application: Due December 1, January 1 and February 1
You can view the 2006-2007 application that I filled out here (minus my personal info). The French Culture Website will have the application up for the next year at the beginning or middle of October. The 2007-2008 application was available as of October 9, 2006; but the 2008-2009 application was not uploaded until November 28, 2007. You can download them here: 2008-9 Application and 2008-9 Application Instructions. The Assistant Information also provides some practical information so you know what to expect and when.
There are usually three deadlines for submitting the application (if you are American): December 1, January 1 and February 1. However, because the application was uploaded so late this year, the deadline for the 2008-9 application for American citizens was February 8, 2008. The deadline for Canadian Citizens was March 7, 2008. The deadline for Australian citizens was November 23, 2007. The deadline for New Zealand assistants was January 31, 2008.
The sooner you mail your application, the better your chances are of getting the level and location you requested, but there is no guarantee. There are 4 levels total: primary (ages: up to 10; length: 7 months), primary (ages: up to 10; length: 9 months), secondary (ages: 11-18; length: 7 months) and adult (ages: over 18; length: 6 months). All of these levels require you to begin teaching October 1, and your contract will end April 30, June 30, April 30, and March 31, respectively. If you choose primary, keep in mind that the kids are really young and probably speak no English, so a fluency in French is a must. At the secondary and adult level, you will most likely be asked not to speak any French, and only English, in the classroom. I mailed my application a few days before Christmas, so I was under the second deadline. Consequently, I didn’t receive either of my first choices (IUFM in Nice), but instead I received both of my second choices (secondary in Grenoble.)
Along with the application (and two copies of pages 1-5), you will need:
Submit everything in one package at the same time. If you mail some documents later, such as the recommendations, your file will be incomplete and most likely returned to you. You do not need to make copies of the transcripts, recommendations or medical form. Do not take them out of sealed envelopes! The only copies you need to make are of pages 1-5 of the application form.
Many applicants were rejected for the 2008-9 academic year because of an "unprecedented amount of applicants." Please keep in mind that having a French degree (even a Master's degree) and speaking French (even fluently) is not important for this program. Having some sort of teaching experience and pursuing an Education degree are much more important. This criteria seems to change from year to year though, as having teaching experience was never required in the past and this year's application still states "You need not have previous teaching experience to be accepted." A few people will be put on a waiting list instead of being rejected, but they will not hear anything until July or later and even then, they will most likely be given 7 month secondary contracts (for which you don't need prior teaching experience.)
The académies are grouped together in a certain way so that, for example, you cannot request the three most southern académies. In addition, the most southern académies are the most requested anyway, so chances are lower that you will be placed there. Priority is given those who sent their applications in December and January as well as students or alumni of universities in the states of Michigan, Kentucky, Connecticut, and Indiana. There is a special education agreement between the American and French school districts of these states. Therefore, if you write No Preference for your choice of académie, you will most likely be placed in Lille or Amiens if you are from Michigan, Dijon if you are from Kentucky, Toulouse if you are from Connecticut and Strasbourg if you are from Indiana. This agreement gives students from these states an advantage over other applicants because they will be considered first for these académies. If you are from one of these states and do not want to be placed in the assigned académie, make sure to indicate your preferences on the application. On the 2008-2009 application, there are several more states and cities listed, but I do not know yet what all of the agreements are for these areas. I'm not sure about Florida, Georgia, New York, Seattle, Utah, or Washington DC; but these have been confirmed: Wisconsin - Aix-Marseille & Bordeaux, Louisiana - Rennes, Nebraska - Besançon, Oklahoma - Amiens, Pennsylvania - Lyon & Grenoble, and South Carolina - Clermont-Ferrand
This is how the académies are grouped for the application (this is not
how they are grouped for vacation dates). You choose one from each color (Group
A is green, Group B is blue, and Group C is red).
Once you mail your application, you just have to wait. (Get used to it.) You can check your bank account to see if your check has been cashed – at least then you will know they did receive your application. My check was cashed on February 8. But you will NOT know if you've been accepted until MAY.
The lettre de présentation tells you in which académie you will be teaching, at what age level, and how long your contract is. This will not tell you what school(s) you are assigned to. Most Americans receive this letter between May 1 and May 15. I received mine on May 10 and I lived in Michigan. It seems that applicants in the UK and Ireland receive their letters earlier (this is because they are EU citizens and their jobs do not have to be approved by the French Department of Labor) and applicants in the Caribbean and Australia receive theirs much later. Here is a scan of my lettre de présentation.
As of 2008, the French Embassy in the US started sending out acceptance e-mails on April 29 with académie assignments. However, these e-mails did not include the length of the contract nor the level. It does not seem that the new assistants will actually receive the lettre de présentation as in previous years.
By the end of May, you should receive an e-mail from Marjorie Nelson (she's the main contact person at the French Embassy in D.C.) that tells what you should be doing at the moment. (I received it on May 26, 2006.) You can download the first e-mail here. Also at this time, assistant information should be posted on the French Culture website that explains some things about the paperwork you will have to suffer through soon.
If you are accepted into the assistantship program, but decide not to go to France, you should send a resignation letter to the embassy so that they can give your post to someone on the waiting list. You cannot defer the assistantship until the next year like you can with graduate school. You must re-apply the following year. The organization that runs the assistant program, the CIEP, has a rule that you can only be an assistant two times (consecutive or not). However, just being accepted into the program counts as one time, regardless of whether or not you actually go to France and work as an assistant. So even if you re-apply the next year and work as assistant then, you cannot renew your contract for the following year because in the CIEP's eyes, you've already done two years.
Now you have to wait for your next piece of information (arrêté de nomination). In the meantime, you should be saving money (at least $1,500) because you might not receive your first paycheck until the middle of November (though you can request to be paid at the end of October if you open a bank account and fill out the paperwork as soon as you get there). You’ll need plenty of money for food, transportation and perhaps a security deposit, a few month’s rent, etc. depending on where you live, plus extra money for travelling during your vacation times.
If you are still a university student, you can buy the International Student Identity Card (ISIC). You will be eligible for 32,000 discounts throughout the world (airlines, restaurants, hotels, museums, etc.) If you are not a student, but under the age of 26, you can get an International Youth Identity Card. And if you are a full-time teacher, you can get an International Teacher Identity Card. These cards cost $22, and you can buy them online through STA Travel or at a local card issuing office (usually the International Office at a university.) You will have to put your own photo on the card when you get it, and it will be valid for one year.
You can research plane tickets prices now, but you might not be able to get the return date you want yet. Most airlines require the return date be within 330 days, so if you want to return home in May of the next year, you’ll have to wait until later in June before you can book the ticket. Plus you won't know the location of your school or city until you receive your arrêté. I was in the Grenoble school district, so I could have been close to the airports in Marseille, Lyon or Geneva, so I waited until I knew where in the académie I was going to be. But if you plan to fly into London or Paris and then take the Chunnel or train to your académie (which might be cheaper anyway), then you can probably get your ticket before your arrêté arrives. Just make sure not to leave too early in September in case you don't receive your visa until the last minute. And beware that your académie may have the orientation before October 1, so in some cases, you need to be there a week earlier.
STA Travel, Student Universe and Travel Cuts are three great student discount sites for buying plane tickets. STA and Travel Cuts require that you have an ISIC card and Student Universe requires verification that you are a student. I bought my plane ticket from Student Universe for $788 from Detroit to Lyon, September 26 to May 8, and all I had to do was verify my university e-mail still worked. STA and Student Universe also allow multi-city tickets (I flew back from London instead of Lyon), but STA's prices can be a little misleading (they change once you choose the actual times and flights and are usually over $100 more expensive that the original quoted price in the search results.) So overall, I prefer and recommend Student Universe for plane tickets from the US to Europe.
If you have no teaching experience, you might want to read up on teaching ESL and/or try to gather some materials to use in your classes. Of course, you can't really plan lessons until you find out which classes you will have, but you can try to bring some authentic materials that your students will be interested in. You can bring a map of your country (or state), your yearbook from high school, holiday-related items (if you are American, you will have to teach a ton about Thanksgiving...), peanut butter candy, etc. Just think about what your students would enjoy seeing and learning more about. For the theoretical as well as practical aspects (lesson plans!) of teaching ESL, I've recommended some websites and books on the links page.
If you're not yet fluent in French, you should probably take some time each day listening to French radio, watching French movies, reading French books, etc. You will be completely immersed in the language once you arrive, so you need to get used to it. If you've never studied abroad and only learned French from college courses, you'll need to learn slang and idioms since those are rarely or never taught in college. I'm continuously working on my Informal French & Slang page with the help of my French boyfriend. I try to read Voici and Closer (trashy celebrity magazines) because they are full of current slang. You can also check out the Anglicism wiki to learn the current English words that have been borrowed by the French. There are some good books for learning slang, such as Tune Up Your French by Natalie Schorr, Street French by David Burke, Merde! by Genevieve, and Hide this Book by Berlitz. Berlitz's website also has mp3s files of all the phrases in the book that you can download for free. Champs-Elysées is an audio magazine program for intermediate to advanced learners of French that you might find useful. Some good French podcasts you can download are French Pod Class and Learn French by Podcast. The French in Action video series is now available for free online as a streaming download (if you are in the US or Canada...) and the BBC's Languages site has some other good video programs for learning French, such as Ma France and the French Experience. And here are some documents on Faux Amis and Written vs. Spoken French.
By the end of June, you should receive another e-mail that includes a list of all of the e-mail addresses of the other American assistants in your académie. (I received it on June, 26, 2006.) You can download a copy of the second e-mail here (minus all of the addresses).
Go on to Part 2: Arrêté de Nomination & Long-Stay Visa
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