Tobin Posted March 17, 2015 Share Posted March 17, 2015 Single, 45-year-old English speaker moving to France in June. No degree, nothing... starting from scratch. Excellent English writing skills, but sub-par French. Looking for a pearl from a pile of oysters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyh4 Posted March 17, 2015 Share Posted March 17, 2015 Good luck, but you are probably certifiable to come to a country with near as damn it 10% unemployment - and almost all have way above sub-par French.Most of them would be happy with a mussel let alone a pearl. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonzjob Posted March 17, 2015 Share Posted March 17, 2015 As Andy said, unless you have very good French you will be lucky to get any work? So once again, good luck.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foxie Posted March 17, 2015 Share Posted March 17, 2015 Good luck Tobin but you would be setting yourself a mountain to climb, I hope you have plenty of savings to fall back on because without an income you'll not only have to fund your lifestyle but also pay for your own private health insurance.It sounds as if you're hoping to make a living from writing but that's not going to be easy. I moved to France around 10 years ago as an established freelancer with clients in the UK, and also with fluent French. It took me at least 5 years to be able to lose the UK clients who weren't profitable for a French business and replace them with French clients and eventually achieve a sufficient and reliable income, and most of it is from translating not writing per se. It was harder than I expected and I couldn't have pulled in French clients without being able to approach them in French. Being good at writing English isn't in itself going to unlock many doors, there are too many expats here already for it to be a unique skill.If you must do it, move to a big town not a little village in the middle of nowhere, and don't burn your bridge back to the UK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MLD Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 Tobin, Just a little word of warning. We earnt a reasonable amount in the year before we moved permanently to France. I needed health care - we ended up paying thousands to the equivalent of medical insurance. We would have done better to have EHIC cards for the first year, and kept closer links with the UK. We were also taxed on what we had earnt as we came from outside the EU. Don't burn bridges!But, go for it - and learn French before you arrive! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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