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Ready to give up


hannah jenkins
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I am moving to the Dordogne to be close to my parents. My partner speaks no french and although I have been teaching him for over a year, it just doesn't stay in his head!

To get HGV work he'll need to take the FIMO (?) which I believe is only done in french? Does anybody know if there's any way around this? Ie can he use a translator?

I'm about ready to give up and go without him! (lol)

(edited to add a "lol" in case anyone else chooses to cast aspersions on my character or judge me based on only a couple of sentences and their own experiences!)
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 [:)] I think we call that closing the stable door, Hannah ....the orgiginal post did give an odd impression

However, have you tried getting your partner the Micheal Thomas course ? Isn't trying to teach your OH to speak French a little like fathers teaching their kids to drive ??

Are there going to be jobs for HGV drivers where you are hoping to move to ? Is he already an HGV driver ?

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Thank you RH. I was about to make comments about Violet Elizabeth stamping her feet and scweeming and scweeming and scweeming.

RH is right. Your partner needs an intensive pwofessional cawrse followed by immediate uth in Fwance. And he should also bone up on the language of lorry driving specifically by getting the French highway code and lorry codes if they exist.

Can't he swap his UK licence for a French one?

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Russethouse

lol maybe so but I didn't expect to be judged so harshly based on a couple of lines! Perhaps my sense of humour doesn't migrate well to new forums!

He is an HGV driver, and recovery mechanic here, he can drive anything except a coach and we'll be living not far from Bordeaux.

The Michael Thomas course good? I'm always dubious of that type of learning. ThinkI'll suggesr it to him if it's any good. He's adament that he "just hasn't got a language brain" and doens't seem to bothered but I worry that he'll become isolated and depressed if he doesn't make an effort :(

It's very much like teaching your kids to drive, but I'm teaching him french and he taught me to drive so we're sharing "I want to throttle you" moments lol
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I do think he has a point, some people just dont have the brain for language learning and learning when you are 'older' can be really tough.  Many people I know in France cant speak the language after living there for 5 years so dont be too harsh on him.  Sadly I dont think  he will  have a chance of work without being near fluent, it's a very tough job market in France even for fluent speakers.

 

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I'm usually pretty nice to him until he starts trying to tell me I'm wrong, which is when we tend to take a break.

This is what I worry about though, he seems so laid back about it all and thinks work will just fall into his lap. Plough on and try to find what learning method works best for him I think.

Or pray for a fairy godmother.
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 I might be wrong but I think you could borrow Micheal Thomas from the library..... I quite liked it. I haven't got a brain for languages, leave alone a mouth !

Work is difficult to find in France and its no good pretending it isn't.(Although HGV is probably a good skill to have) I think he is REALLY going to have to be enthusiastic to make it work or you could be right, he could become isolated and depressed.

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library! Genius! I get so used to the internet I forget libraries exist occassionally! lol

I think you are right. I can't fix this for him unfortunately, it's something he'll have to do for himself. I don't want him to be one of those expats who regret the decision after seeing that a holiday is different to living there!

Funny how complaining on the internet never makes a magical solution appear! Oh well lol
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If he is working in France for  a French company he will have to take the FIMO course and do regular renewal courses.  These are rarely paid for by the French employer and this is therefore a big drain on personal finances.

 

One way round would be if he could work primarily on the continent for a UK haulier / IIRC he only has to return to the UK 5 or 6 times per year for this to remain fully legal and above board.   The problem is that off-hand I cannot think of many UK hauliers that would fit the bill.  (There are plenty of continental firms who work in the UK)

 

I have lots of sympathy with his inability to learn French -the OH suffers similarly and one roadblock is the fear of making mistakes - something in reality we all do, even in our mother tongue.

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[quote user="hannah jenkins"]I didn't give any reasons for our moving as it's personal and wasn't necessary to explain the problems we're having![/quote]Could have sworn that you said you were moving to be near your parents [Www]

Don't be too hard on the old man, some have a natural ability to learn languages, others do not. I unfortunately fall into the latter group and can therefore empathise with others similarly challenged.

I've got the MT course, and others, but after an enthusiastic start it wasn't long at all before my brain simply began to switch off and absorb nothing. Ultimately prolonged exposure and osmosis is probably the only thing which is going to work for me, assisted and corrected by my OH who is exactly the opposite and soaks it up like a sponge.

Sadly, until I am able to cast off the shackles of daily toil to spend 100% of my time at home in France, I don't have the opportunity to practice it sufficiently.

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Could he still not work in the Uk and come home as and when ? What are you planning to do work wise ? If your going to stay at home to look after kids /parents , could he not do that and you go out to work as you have good french ?
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One further thought following from my earlier posting.  He might be able to get a job at the UK base of a French haulier and arrange to do most of his work within France -again, he would have to return to the UK a set minimum number of times per year for this to be legal.

 

Norbert Dentressangle would be a good starting point (IIRC UK head office in Manchester)

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Good suggestion from Pads about working in UK which has the merit of providing your health care on an ongoing basis. If he is paying class 1 UK NI then he should be entitled to a 'workers' E106 which is renewable on it's anniversary as opposed to the normal one which, if you got it now, would expire in Jan 2012. If neither of you had secured French employment by that time you would be forced to take out private insurance.

 

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Being close to my parents is a simplified version of our reasons :p

Thanks for all the suggestions, I have renewed optimism :)

We'll both be working, I will be helping my Mum to start off her new business and eventually running that full time with her but I also will have a job at a local bar/touristy artificial beach thing and will be doing some french/english lessons on the side if possible while I finish my OU degree, then I hope to become a registered translator, but that's a few years off.

If he could find work from England then it seems like that would be the easiest option to start with, but I don't think we'd be happy with that being a permanent solution, he'll need to learn the language to be happy there I'm sure.

We were hoping to go next year...
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hi, he'll need to do the fimo otherwise he will not beable to work as a hgv driver in France, also does he have a drivers card ( not sure what that is in english) Most lorries need them over here now and most companies will ask the driver to have one, it replaces the paper discs that you fill in before you start work. As for the language my husband is french and worked for 7 years as a lorry driver in england without speaking a word of english but I'm not sure you can do the same in France. good luck with the move and everything, we came back to France 4 years ago after spending 7 years in England and have not regretted it
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Lisa

that is not 100% true - see my posts above.  Foreign drivers are allowed to drive foreign plated trucks in France without doing the FIMO course - witness the large number of Spanish, Czech, Polish etc trucks on the motorways.

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For the fimo you can find out more by contacting a place called AFT they are pretty good and have a good reputation in this area(66). They do the course for the fimo so they might beable to help you with the question of the language barrier.As for the card yes it replaces the tacograph that you used to fill in by hand. The card costs roughly 60 euros , the fimo quite a bit more!
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