french teacher in england;will do anything to earn money in france!

[mrmulliner]

hello there,

i am newbie making their first post. i wanted people's views on my prospects of finding a job. at the end of this academic year my contract will come to an end at the school at which i teach. me and OH are considering this to be the prime time to make the move we have dreamt of. however, im very aware of the employment situation in france and that is the one thing that concerns me. so if i lay out the stats-maybe one (or more!) of you nice people can tell me what my (our) chances are.

me-6 years working for large english bank in money laundering. 2 years teaching french to GCSE.

OH-middle manager for international charity-learning french and probably at about a-level standard and advancing quickly.

we would only need approx 9600 euros between both of us per year (food and billls as house bought outright)

we plan to move to a big city or v nearby and will do anything to earn our keep, but would obviously prefer if i could teach in some way. OH is aware he may not get a job for a long time due to non-transferable skills and limited french.

so, what do you reckon?

 

 

 

 

[Nick Trollope]

[quote]hello there, i am newbie making their first post. i wanted people's views on my prospects of finding a job. at the end of this academic year my contract will come to an end at the school at which i t...[/quote]

Welcome to the no-rose-tinted-spectacles forum.

Sorry, but your prospects of getting a job that will gross you 10K are slim. Your taxes alone will come to me than this, if, for example you resgister as 2 seperate enterprises (Most working ex-pats here work for themselves).

Read through the earning a living forum and, if that does not put you off, good luck!

 

[mrmulliner]

hi nick-thanks so much for responding!

yes i definitely need the non-rose-tinted-glasses view.

so can i clarify that even without working my partner and i would have to pay more than 5000 euros in tax each? bloomin' eck-what tax is that?

and that it would be difficult, even in the big cities, to get jobs paying 5000 euros each, even if we were happy to do absolutely anything? i didnt realise the situation was as dire as that, to be honest. i need to change the colour of my glasses 

 

ps we wouldnt intend working for ourselves

 

 

[Afy]

[quote user="nicktrollope"]

[quote]hello there, i am newbie making their first post. i wanted people's views on my prospects of finding a job. at the end of this academic year my contract will come to an end at the school at which i t...[/quote]

Welcome to the no-rose-tinted-spectacles forum.

Sorry, but your prospects of getting a job that will gross you 10K are slim. Your taxes alone will come to me than this, if, for example you resgister as 2 seperate enterprises (Most working ex-pats here work for themselves).

Read through the earning a living forum and, if that does not put you off, good luck!

 

[/quote]

10 K a month or year?

[KathyC]

If you are moving to an urban area where there is a demand for it you might consider doing a TEFL/TESL course. Also, is your degree in French? I do think that some of the earlier comments are very discouraging as  you are not planning to set up in business in a rural area but plan to find emplyment in the city. Good luck

[Tourangelle]

Do not despair.  I think that you have had some discouraging answers so far too,[:(]

but I think what you are suggesting is feasible, but not easy.  I

did something similar, although with not the same financial

constraints, seven years ago. 

Generally, and I have seen this with other people to, if you are

articulate and degree educated, you will find work teaching business

English in the big cities.  I do stress in the

big cities, before I get jumped on for making it sound so easy, as lots

of people who use this forum do live in rural areas.  There will

be no reason for you to become self employed.  You would

just have to accept lots of short term contracts and evening work

initially, but there is no reason why you should not come to earn the

sum you suggest, but do come with savings to tide you over.[:)]

[Apero]

I know of someone who taught English over the telephone to employees of French companies. Quite bizare until you think about it[:)]

The company he worked for supplied him and others to teach executives in the Paris area. He made quite a good living out of it, kept a flat in Paris which is not cheap. Therefore you could live anywhere in France and do this.He is now in Germany doing exactly the same. Pm me for further info.

If France is the place for you, you wont be put off.

I wish you well in your endeavours and hope you suceed.

Compliments of the Season and a Guid New Year.[D]

[mrmulliner]

thanks to everyone who got back to me. it was 10k a year btw (5k each-partner and myself) and my degree is in french and english.

thanks for comments. it's something i really want to do, but i certainly wont do it until i know as much as possible where i stand.

merry christmas and happy new year to everyone.

 

[Renaud]

The money laundering sounds a hopeful qualification for France. If you added fraud and should your A level french be up to prevarication and procrastination you could try for a job with the EU Commission when they come to Strasbourg.

Apart from that I sincerly wish you the best of luck.

[0zeb100ddMMyyyy0Falseen-USTrue]

Hello

9600€ per year you must be joking. I think you need at least 3000€ per month to be anywhere near comfortable.

 

[opas]

Zeb, my matress would need a lot more than 3000 notes to make it as comfy as it is!

Wouldn`t know what to do with that much disposable income per month,  nothing better than rummaging through the reduced section in the supermarket.

As to the orriginal poster, I hope that your punctuation is normally better than that as you will need to have a CV and a letter of motivation which is flawless.

Mrs O

[Polycarpe]

Happy New Year to you all!

9,600 euro pa is a very tight budget and doesn't allow for overspends or emergencies. It seems a bit unrealistic. Owning our own house and taking into account EVERYTHING - local taxes, car, telephony/internet, insurances, clothes, food and fun, we run on a budget of 1000 euro pcm for the two of us. No way we could do it for less and not be miserable and hungry.

As for 3000 a month..... We dream of 3000 a month! Couldn't hardly spend 3000 a month!

Take note of all the advice you can get, positive and less so. Don't be put off, so long as when you do come over, your eyes are wide open. Don't underestimate the high cost of living over here. Right off 45% of your gross income for taxes, professional "cotisations",  and health insurance.

You seem to have good transferable skills. Hope you get the chance to make the most of them.

Best wishes,

Rob

[mrmulliner]

thanks again to everybody for all the advice. ive just found out that ive got a bit more money to go towards potential house so thats good news. but i certainly dont expect to run into anything blindly. working in money laundering-to be honest thats not something id even thought of-i just imagined doing something fairly menial-but i do have a diploma in that which is possibly transferable-worth looking into!

my budget may seem small and probably will grow with experience of what everything will actually cost-but 3000 euro seems a lot to me. thats probably because we get by on very little at the moment here in england because we have deliberately overpaid on our mortgage for a long time (probably the reason why we're lucky enough to even be thinking about making this move at our relatively tender age of late-twenties).

for the person who criticised my punctuation-i didnt find that helpful and it was not the sort of advice that i requested. i teach a-level english in a school with the best results in the city in this subject, so communication and my native language is certainly not a weak point-obviously my register is flexible enough to take into account my audience and 'forum' (if you'll excuse the pun!). i also found it interesting considering the amount of typos in your own posting. attend to the beam in thine own eye....

 

thanks again to everybody who took the time to give me information. i shall keep watching the boards for more info!

 

[Opalienne]

You have a diploma in money laundering??????? From the University of the British Virgin Islands or what?   Sorry, not being nasty, just fascinated!

[Grays]

can i suggest you rent in whichever city / town you move to, for at least the first year, until you have made progress jobwise and decided it is the place for you.  It may cost initially but it could take some of the stress out of the situation. Also if you find you want to try a different area you will not have the hassle of finding a buyer..etc.

And of course most importantly , you will not be tying up most of your cash in a property, just in case things go t*ts up.

I say go for it,  & best wishes guys

Gram

[Debra]

[.

[Debra]

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[Renaud]

mrmulliner's typography reminds me of Archie the cockroach's love poems to Mehitabelle the cat. (Sigh) Except Archie did not bother with full points or exclamation marks.

[mrmulliner]

for opalienne -

yeah i know it sounds dodgy put that way -when i used to do the job and people asked what i did and i said 'money laundering', id always get the same remark "har har, yes ive got some drug money, can you launder it for me!". anti-ml. check this link out. theyve only been doing it a short while-theres the cert and the diploma.

http://uk.search.yahoo.com/search?fr=slv1-wave&p=%22diploma+in+anti-money+laundering%22

 

[Opalienne]

Ah, now if you'd said 'prevention of money laundering' I would have understood!  Depends where you want to live in France, but if you were prepared to commute from Brussels (which would probably mean living in Lille or thereabouts) it might be worth looking into whether you could work at OLAF, the European Commission anti-fraud office.   You'd need to do the Concours and have a good level of knowledge of Europe and its institutions, though.

[le bouffon]

Yeah and not be elected by anyone and not speak out of turn turn up and take the money,truth is stranger than fiction.

[Opalienne]

I wish I hadn't mentioned it now........ Do you think that any municipal employees/civil servants/fonctionnaires are elected by anybody?  At least Commissioners are answerable to the European Parliament, which in turn is answerable to us.  More than you can say for senior civil servants in the UK.   BTW, I don't work for the Commission, but I know plenty of extremely  highly qualified (at least 3 good degrees), intelligent, and hardworking people who do.  Sorry if this is going off topic, but I couldn't let this go unanswered.

[le bouffon]

"Commissioners are answerable to the European Parliament,"quote.So if that is the case why have a commission? 

[Opalienne]

The Commissioners have hearings before the Parliament before they take office.  If the Parliament isn't satisfied it can choose not to accept them.   This happened with the proposed Italian Commissioner (I forget his name) this time round, though he didn't even get as far as the hearing - MEPs made it quite clear that he was unacceptable.   Commissioners can be called before the Parliament any time and grilled on any issue - and fired, if the Parliament so chooses.   It's quite different from the British system.

Why have a Commission?   To prepare legislation, and to deal with the running of the EU.   A Parliament certainly could not do the latter; the European Parliament is unusual in that is does not do the former.

[The Riff-Raff Element]

Some years ago, a friend of ours doing a degree in law at one of the

UK's better universities got himself (on the basis of somewhat ropey

GCE French and a tenuous contact) a summer job as a courier on a French

campsite working for a British holiday firm - a Eurocamp sort of thing,

though it wasn't them, as I remember.

During that summer he helped out doing BBQs and preparing picnics, etc.

The next year he did it again, and decided that what he really wanted

to do in life was not to become a lawyer at all, but, instead, to work

in France as a chef. Being a sensible sort, he completed his degree,

though his heart wasn't in it, and then took any job, any job at all,

that would get him into a kitchen in the UK. Each summer for two

further years he worked on the campsite to improve his French, and

finally burned his bridges in 2003.

He stopped with us for three months while he looked for a job in a

kitchen. Eventually he got a job somewhere near the ski slopes. Nothing

special, perhaps, but it got him into a French kitchen. Now he's

working as chef pâtissier in a two star joint somewhere near Tignes. He has no formal French qualifications for what he does.

It is possible to get a job in France, even without an armfull

of "proper" qualifications. Flexibility and tenacity are two of the

more important qualities needed, because, frequently, it is not easy..

You have French, it would seem, to a good level, and this should make

life easier, though people do learn "on the job." Someone has already

suggested renting for a while, and I would strongly second that - being

able to move at relatively short notice could get you that job.

Good luck.