There are many misconceptions that people have when they think about moving to France to teach English. I’ve found six major misconceptions that people might have about moving to France and teaching English. Here they are in no particular order:
1. You can only move to France to work as a nanny, au pair, or teaching assistant.
This simply isn’t true. The TAPIF (Teaching Assitant Program In France) may be more well-known, but the positions aren’t as good. They pay much lower, and you only get 8 months or so in France. You may need to supplement your income with government subsidies to get by. But some of the best English teaching jobs are at the university level as a lecteur de langue, maitre de langue, or contractuel de langue. They pay much better, are year-long programs, and you teach at the university level so your students tend to be more mature and easier to manage. You’re also paid the same amount each month, even during the summer when the university is closed. The reason for this is that the university pays you a certain total amount for the year, and divides it by 12 instead of by 10 or 9.
2. Plenty of people speak English in Paris.
Unfortunately, this is not true. Yes, Paris is a major cosmopolitan city full of immigrants, expats, and tourists. But it’s also full of many working French people who don’t speak any language other than French. It’s not uncommon for bus drivers to only speak French. Many of the cab drivers may speak only basic English. And if you plan to move to France, especially to Paris, you’ll need an intermediate French at minimum to handle basic operations like opening a bank account, finding and securing an apartment, signing up for internet and a phone plan, signing up for the universal healthcare they have here (social security), etc.
3. If a university hires you, they’ll take care of all the paperwork!
Perhaps this is true for multinational corporations, but unfortunately, it is not the case for universities that hire teachers. When I was hired by the University of Strasbourg I was given my contract, and eventually a form from the French government that gave me the right to work in France.
That’s it.
I then had to take these two documents, as well as a bunch of other documents like my resume, copies of my passport and diplomas, etc. to the embassy myself, along with the proper visa form, and apply for my visa myself. And they took a good month to process my visa! I had to give them my passport too, so I couldn’t travel outside of the country while they did this. There was some back and forth with the embassy as well, as they required other documents like proof of travel health insurance for the first few months I lived in France to give me time to enroll in the social security healthcare system. Eventually everything was squared away, but I had to do all the work of submitting all the necessary paperwork myself, and all the correspondence with the embassy was stressful at times.
4. Finding an apartment will be easy!
Finding an apartment will very much depend on what area you are living in. The most important thing is to understand how apartments are listed (apartments for rent are called location in French, which has nothing to do with the actual location of where they are situated. This confused me a lot when I was starting out!) When I got an apartment in Strasbourg, I was able to find a 1-year lease without submitting much of a deposit, and I coordinated directly with the landlord. I found the apartment on leboncoin, the craigslist equivalent in France, and I must say this website is a must-have if you’re living in France. I’ve used it so much for various things since I moved here. Finding a good apartment in Corsica, the next place where I lived, was much harder. I ended up moving twice for various reasons. But my apartment here in the Biarritz/Bayonne region was definitely the most difficult by far. I was only able to find a 10 month lease, I had to get my parents to be guarantors even though I had a stable salary that pays more than half the rent, and the only reason why I was able to see and finally get the apartment was because I submitted to the landlords all my paperwork and contacted them within 30 minutes of them posting their place. They got so many inquiries that they stopped responding to people after the first couple hours. This might impact where you apply for a job–it’s definitely better to live in a place that isn’t seasonal!
5. French people are lazy, so it’ll be hard to get anything done.
I don’t know how this misconception came to be, but French people are definitely not lazy. Compared to American standards, the French may work less because they have a healthier work-life balance, but that definitely doesn’t mean that they’re lazy! French people can be very productive during the week, and they will often work long hours when they need to, especially if they live in Paris. They usually reserve 1-2 hours for lunch, where they don’t work at the same time usually. There is actually a rule that states that employees cannot eat lunch at their desk, they have to leave and take a break! Whether this is actually enforced is questionable, but it shows the priorities of the French. They also like to discuss a lot amongst each other, but there’s this real fraternal atmosphere. Assigning
6. French people can eat whatever they want, and never gain weight!
This is definitely not true. French people who are overweight exist just like anywhere else. Compared to American standards, perhaps the plethora of different cheeses and the quality bread would suggest that the French should gain weight. But the difference here is that in general, the French are really good at portion control. Unlike American portions, French portions are always either just right, or tend to be on the smaller side. They also really care about the quality of their foods, and French food tends to be less processed than what you might find at an American grocery store. Definitely you won’t find high fructose corn syrup in all the foods, the way you’d find it in American groceries.
Final thoughts
So those are my 6 top misconceptions! What do you think, do you agree or disagree with them? Are there any that I missed? Let me know in the comments below! Also, if you like this content in video format, I also posted a video on my YouTube channel talking about these 6 misconceptions. Check it out below.
