teaching english in France

[micahmccauley]

Hello all, undoubtedly this question has come up at least 100 times on this forum, but I'm gonna go ahead and be the 101st person. You see next school year I will be doing an assistantship in Nancy, France. It's a sort of partnership between my university in the U.S. and one in Nancy where french students come over to our university to be assistant french teachers and our students go over there to be assistant english teachers. What I'm wondering about is how to possibly make a long term career out of teaching english in France, as I'd like to stay there for a while. Is this at all feasible? I know there are various programs for english teachers such as TEFL and some other ones I can't think of right now. Any advice you can give would be of great benefit! THANKS

Micah

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

First of all, to teach English properly, you need to know how to spell.

I'm in the States at present and I'm waging my own little revolution to teach you Americans how to spell properly.

You guys really don't like the letter 'u', do you?

:)

[Tancrède]

[quote user="micahmccauley"]gonna[/quote]

[Sprogster]

Micah, unless you have an EU passport, you require a work visa to take up paid employment in France and these are extremely difficult to obtain unless you can demonstrate that you have such highly specialised skills that there is no French citizen able to do the job. The only practical way for a US citizen to work in France is either to marry a French citizen, or work for a company that has offices in France and is prepared to temporarily transfer you there.

There is a long stay visa that enables you to stay more than the 90 days you are limited as a tourist, but this prohibits employment, as this is primarily aimed at retirees.

The US immigration rules are even stricter on EU citizens wanting to work in your country, including students, which has undoubtedly led to a tightening of restrictions for US citizens wanting to work in the EU, as these sort of visa arrangements tend to work on a reciprocal basis.

[TheCliveMachine]

You need to improve your English if you want to teach it ;)

[cooperlola]

[quote user="TheCliveMachine"]You need to improve your English if you want to teach it ;)
[/quote][IMG]http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q103/cooperlola/rolling.gif[/IMG]

Although I have to say that our o/p is not alone.  I'm not at all sure that it's a requirment any more.

[Rabbie]

[quote user="cooperlola"]

[quote user="TheCliveMachine"]You need to improve your English if you want to teach it ;)
[/quote][IMG]http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q103/cooperlola/rolling.gif[/IMG]

Although I have to say that our o/p is not alone.  I'm not at all sure that it's a requirment any more.

[/quote]You are so right. There is a whole generation in England who seem ignorant of both grammar and spelling but that is probably best left to another thread[:D]

[woolybanana]

If yu gonna bee at a Uni in France, then yu culd get sum extra bucks translatin n stuff too, n maybe givin conversashun claases n stuff too![;-)]

[JSKS]

[quote user="Mr Coeur de Lion"].........to teach you Americans how to spell properly........[/quote]

They spell it as we do:

P-r-o-p-e-r-l-y

 

Splitting the infinitive to give ''how to properly spell'' would remove tha ambiguity at the risk of upsetting those that feel that Latin rules should be imposed on a Germanic language.

[JSKS]

[quote user="micahmccauley"]Hello all, undoubtedly this question has come up at least 100 times on this forum, but I'm gonna go ahead and be the 101st person. You see next school year I will be doing an assistantship in Nancy, France. It's a sort of partnership between my university in the U.S. and one in Nancy where french students come over to our university to be assistant french teachers and our students go over there to be assistant english teachers. What I'm wondering about is how to possibly make a long term career out of teaching english in France, as I'd like to stay there for a while. Is this at all feasible? I know there are various programs for english teachers such as TEFL and some other ones I can't think of right now. Any advice you can give would be of great benefit! THANKS

Micah
[/quote]

Can't help with your query but don't let the idea that the English own the language dissuade you from this idea. Twain, Mencken, Frost, Steinbeck et al didn't suffer from a lack of ''proper'' English.

[cooperlola]

Although not all of those men actually taught the language to others.

I suppose all depends upon whether Micah is teaching an audience which expects to use its language in Europe or the States, or both.  I imagine these days it matters less and less though (as sad for our version of our language as that might be.)

[mint]

[quote user="JK"]

[quote user="Mr Coeur de Lion"].........to teach you Americans how to spell properly........[/quote]

They spell it as we do:

P-r-o-p-e-r-l-y

 

Splitting the infinitive to give ''how to properly spell'' would remove tha ambiguity at the risk of upsetting those that feel that Latin rules should be imposed on a Germanic language.

[/quote]

I enjoy your post, JK.

To be fair to Richard, he didn't put "properly" in quotes as in......well, "properly"![:D]