Primary teacher looking to learn French and live in France

[Cherrydove]

I am a 25 year old fully qualified primary teacher from Scotland. I have been teaching for 3 years and am looking to find a similar temporary job in France in order to boost my french language.

I have had private language classes and am at B1 level (intermediate) with an aim to reach close to conversational fluency as soon as possible.

I would like to live in France for 2-6 months and am looking for advice on the best way to do this whilst boosting my language as much as possible and making enough money to get by - and I realise pay will not be as good as in the UK!

I'm open to primary teaching in France but as teaching can be stressful i'm also interested in au-pairing as well as taking the TEFL teaching English route in order to leave more time for language learning. I would also consider other work at a simple pay bracket. What I wondered was if anyone had any suggestions as the best route? Is there a way to sort accomodation + work + language learning in one bundle?

I have travelled around a lot of France and regionally would be happy in most places with a particular love for Lyon or the west coast.

All suggestions welcome!

Thank you.

[alittlebitfrench]

I would go down the au-pairing route. There is a well known French (or is it Swiss? ) company that deals with this sort of thing but I can't remember the name. You will need to google about.

This would only work in affluent cities like Paris, Lyon or Nantes.

[ericd]

As mentioned, the au-paire line would be the best (especially with your UK teaching qualifications). Otherwise, a small private school might welcome your help. You are doing the right thing, total immersion is what is needed. Good luck.

[EuroTrash]

+1 for the au pair route.

The only other way I can think of to get work and accommodation as a package would be to work for one of the holiday companies such as holidaybreak, but that wouldn't offer a lot of opportunities for learning the language as you'd be working alongside other English speakers, also you don't say what time of year you're thinking of.

Trying to find work and accommodation separately might be tricky because apart from holiday lets which are more expensive, it can be quite hard to find somewhere to rent if you don't have a permanent job in France. Most French landlords insist on this because tenants have so much protection under French rental law that once in it's hard to ever get them out.

So au pairing sounds the best route.