From September 2021 to May 2022, I lived and worked in France as a participant in the program known as TAPIF: Teaching Assistant Program in France. I was an English Teaching Assistant at a high school in Aiguillon, a small town near Bordeaux. For the most part, I thoroughly enjoyed my experience there, but as in all situations, there are always pros and cons. So today I wanted to go over some parts of my experience that I really liked and some parts that were a little more difficult, and ultimately ask myself the question: Would I participate in TAPIF again? So without further to add, let's get into it!
Pros/Parts I enjoyed during my experience in France:
The work
One of the parts I really liked when living in France was the work I did as part of the program. The TAPIF program places language assistants in cities all over France to assist students with learning another language. In my case, I was helping the students with English because I'm a native English speaker. You can choose what type of school you would prefer to be placed at, primaire (elementary school) or secondaire (middle school and high school) and you can also set your preference for the Académie you would like to be placed in. I choose to be placed at a high school, and I set my preference as the Académie de Bordeaux. I choose Bordeaux because it is a nice town in the southwest of France, known for its wine, with a warm climate. Bordeaux is also not that big, which I liked. However, I was not placed exactly in the town of Bordeaux -- I was actually placed in the small town of Aiguillon, an hour and 10 minutes from Bordeaux. I lived right next to my school and I worked there Monday through Friday, helping the English teachers and their students. I really enjoyed this job because I got to see real progress in my students throughout the year in their English as I talked about American culture and English grammar. I could also note differences between the French educational system and the American educational system, in terms of the relationship between teachers and students, the subjects taught, and the breakdown of the school day. What's more, I loved the high school I was placed at. All the English teachers and staff at the school I worked with were extremely nice and forthcoming, and I did activities and had meals with them outside of school hours too. In short, the work aspect of this program was wonderful and very fulfilling, as I was taking in so much new information about the French education system and seeing significant progress in my students' English skills.
2. Travelling
One cool aspect of the French academic calendar is that every 6 weeks, there is a 2-week vacation. Meaning, they start school in September, then have a 2-week break for All Saint's Day, then back to school, then a 2-week break for the Christmas holidays, then back to school, then a 2-week break in February for a winter vacation, then back to school, then a 2-week spring break for Easter. This is due to the intensity of their school days -- some days of school go from 8am to 5:30pm. The students also receive a lot of school work and have to constantly be preparing for le bac (an exam like the SAT/ACT test) which takes place throughout the year, so, a break is needed. For me, this was not a problem at all because it meant more travel time. I tried to travel almost every weekend, and especially during these 2-week vacations. During the weekends, I would mostly stay local, or usually go somewhere in France. But during the two-week breaks, I would aim to go outside of France because I had more time. As you can probably see from all my previous posts, I did do some extensive travel, and this is also why I had such a great experience. I had the chance to go to so many countries, meet some very interesting people, try very exotic foods, and see some amazing sights. Italy, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Scotland, England...the list goes on. Whether I was by myself or with a buddy, I loved going on these trips and seeing these places I had always dreamed of. I am so grateful to have gotten to go to all these cool countries and cities -- they truly opened my eyes to different ways of life around the world, how extremely kind and helpful people can be, and the massive amount of history and culture that Europe contains.
3. The Food
If France is known for one thing, it's their food, because boy oh boy, it is delicious. Most days, I would eat at the school canteen for lunch and dinner. One thing to note about French meals is that they are very structured. They consist of an hors d'œuvre or entrée (introductory course/appetizer), plat principal (main course), and fromage (cheese course) or dessert, sometimes with a salad offered before the cheese or dessert. The canteen at my school offered this 5-course meal every day for lunch and dinner, so I definitely had my fill. I would commonly get lobster with mayonnaise or eggs with mayonnaise as my entrée and my plat principal was usually fish, meat, pasta, or quinoa, salad, and a slice of a baguette. Many times they would also have duck (confit de canard), and salmon. And yogurt, fruit, and a piece of cheese (Brie) was my dessert. They also had foie gras, which is a paté made from duck or goose liver that you spread over your bread. The food at the canteen was healthy and delicious -- quite different than what you receive at American cafeterias. Many of the teachers would eat at the canteen daily as well and I would sit and talk with them at lunch. Outside of the school canteen, I tried to eat delicacies known to France, like snail (les escargots) and frog legs (les cuisses de grenouilles). One time I saw pig feet (les pieds de cochons) at a market, but I didn't have the courage to try that one. But it's safe to say that French food was very tasty and made with the utmost attention and detail, both for taste and for show.
4. Improving my French
I started studying French because I had to take a foreign language in middle school, and I continued it because I liked it so much. I don't think that when I started I was particularly good at it, but when I spoke and tried to communicate with others in French, I genuinely had so much fun. I had studied the language all throughout middle school, high school, and college, so I finally wanted to put it to good use and become fluent. So that was another reason I wanted to live and work in France -- to improve my French.
During my seven months there, I tried to talk to as many French people as I could and make French friends, and I also tried to read books and watch a lot of TV and news in French. Talking French to my coworkers at my school wasn't the easiest sometimes. I would walk in the teacher lunchroom and always slightly panic because I was afraid I wasn't going to understand the teachers I sat with as they were talking so quickly. But, I sat anyway, tried to listen to what they were saying and input as much as I could, and make mistakes along the way. I tried to put myself out there as much as possible. I would talk to French people in the towns I visited on my own, and I would talk to people at the train station. And by the end, I know I improved on all aspects -- my accent got better, my vocabulary expanded, I worked on understanding the southwestern French accent (which is very strong), I learned more colloquial and native phrases and sayings, and my writing skills improved too. When people speak French extremely fast, that is still a bit hard for me to understand, so I know that will always be a work in progress. But overall, improvement was definitely made, and it shows in my articulation of French words and in how I can speak the language more fluidly now.
5. My living situation
As language assistants, you either have to find your own housing, or you are provided an apartment by your school. Fortunately, I didn't have to go through the hassle of finding my own apartment because I was placed in the apartment right next to my school and it took me approximately 45 seconds to get out the door and onto school premises every morning. So, it was very convenient. And, my apartment was spacious, compared to a lot of the other assistants' apartments. We had a big family room and kitchen, a lot of storage space, and a pretty big bathroom. And my rent was super cheap. The view outside my apartment was nice too -- I could see the beautiful French countryside and breathtaking sunsets every night. So, my apartment in France actually turned out to be pretty great. However, not everyone is this lucky, so just be warned that your apartment may be a little smaller or more expensive if you're in a bigger town. Also be aware that you may have a roommate if you live with the other language assistant at your school. Random roommates are always a little risky, so be ready to compromise and have an open mind about where other people come from because they may, and probably will, live differently than you.
6. Cinema & Film
After living in France for seven months, my appreciation for cinema and movies has definitely grown. France is one of the film capitals of the world and is responsible for many of the contributions to the film art form. In 2020, there were more than 6,000 active screens of cinema in France. My town had its little movie theatre and showed many recent movie releases in their original version and in French. And since my school had a cinema speciality, meaning students could take more film classes if they wanted to for their high school degree, I went to the cinema a lot with my classes before every vacation. Films we saw together ranged from recent releases, like The Mauritanian and House of Gucci to French classics, like the Le Hussard sur le Toit (The Horseman on the Roof). The school even showed a significant amount of movies in class too, if they related to the topic on hand. When one of the classes I was helping was learning about the tumultuous history between Ireland and England, we watched Bloody Sunday, a film about a massacre during the Troubles conflict. We also saw Jane Eyre directed by Franco Zeffirelli, after we read the book. Cinema specialty or not, the amount of time the teachers put films in front of their students' eyes surprised me, and showed me the importance of being "cultured" and how films can be a powerful form of storytelling in the face of love, pain, or injustice.
Cons/Difficulties I had during my experience in France:
Isolation & loneliness
There were so many cool parts of this experience, but there also were some downsides and one of them was dealing with isolation and loneliness. Aiguillon, the town I was placed in, had a population of only about 4,500 people, so it was a very small. Besides the students at my school, there weren't many young people my age who lived in the town either. The town was mostly made up of elderly folks and many foreigners, namely Portuguese and Moroccan immigrants. So, it was pretty hard to make friends where I was. Since there also weren't many events at the town, if I wanted to do something on a Friday night, I would go to the nearby bigger town, Agen, to go to a soirée with the other language assistants who lived there. It's not to say my town had nothing going on -- there was a fresh market every Tuesday and Friday morning, a theatre, and a little park. But besides that, I had slim pickings for entrainment, so that's why I usually had to go elsewhere to seek this fun. So, because of its size, population, and lack of vivacity, living in this town was a bit isolating and lonely at times.
2. Making friends
Like I mentioned above, there weren't many people my age in my town, so it was a little difficult to make friends. My roommate and I were the only two language assistants in our town because there was only one school, so to hang out with the other assistants, I would have to travel to a nearby town. This wasn't terrible. The nearby towns with language assistants were only 15 minutes away by train. But it wasn't as easy as having a friend just 5 minutes away from you in the same place. So my friends mostly consisted of these language assistants in the other towns and the teachers and staff at my school. I did some traveling with the other language assistants, as well as with my teacher friends, and many of my teachers also invited me to their homes numerous times for the weekend, or just for a nice lunch. So, although it was a bit difficult to make friends in my town, the other language assistants and the individuals at my school definitely made up for it.
3. French bureaucracy
Another slight downside during my experience was all the French bureaucracy and paperwork that I had to do. Know that basically doing any administrative task in France takes forever. When I created my bank account, I had to give them many documents that I didn't know about that my dad had to send me from Georgia after I had already arrived in France. I applied for French health insurance in September, and I finally got the health insurance card, the carte vitale, in January. I had also applied for a housing subsidy, the Caisse d'Allocations Familiales, otherwise known as CAF, and it took approximately 3 months of filling out paper and online forms, mailing different paperwork back and forth to their office, and making various phone calls to their office, to finally start receiving money. Ending contracts is also quite inconvenient in France. To end my phone plan with the phone company, FREE, I had to write and send them a letter asking them to end my phone line. The same thing happened to end my apartment insurance -- to terminate that bill, I had to write and give a letter to my bank saying I was moving out and returning to Georgia. So, be prepared and be patient because administrative work is never easy in France and usually requires multiple hoops to jump through.
4. Les Grèves
When living in France, you will often have to deal with les grèves, otherwise known as strikes. This is something that the French are definitely known for, as they tend to have more strikes than other developed countries. The strikes are an attempt by public sector workers to show their dissatisfaction with their rights as workers and other government plans. In particular, many train workers go on strike, meaning they just choose not to work some days, therefore, the trains don't run. The train strikes happen frequently during the holidays, which can really mess up plans if you travel by train. For instance, one time I was traveling from Tours back to Bordeaux, and the trains went on strike. So, my friend and I had to rent a car, instead of take our train, and drive back to Bordeaux. It was a hassle and it was expensive, and the thing is, these strikes are not that rare in France. You may be wondering if I ever got refunds for those train tickets. I did get a refund for one of the tickets, but not all, so also know that reimbursements are not always attainable unfortunately.
Conclusion
In conclusion, when asked the question if I were to do TAPIF again, the answer is 100% yes. Despite the negatives, like loneliness and the difficulty of making friends, this assistantship gave me so many new experiences that I never would have seen and lived through if I had not lived in France. And when moving to a new country all by yourself for seven months, you're signing yourself up for a little loneliness, right? And you won't have a million new friends right away -- creating friendships takes time, effort, and work. So, although I had these difficulties, they weren't the end of the world because they were to be expected. And by the end of my time there, I had really become comfortable with just my own company. If I could find a travel buddy, great, if I couldn't, it wasn't the end of the world -- I would still go to a city because I just wanted to. My time in France also really pushed me out of my comfort zone as I tried to speak French as much as possible with the natives, and speak up for myself when I needed something. It was also my first time teaching formally, which I thoroughly enjoyed. As my students learned a lot from me, I also learned a lot from them, from the trending French artists to their personal backgrounds. Overall, France gave me countless memories, challenges, and experiences that I am still processing today. It taught me to just go for things, to just do it. It taught me to say yes whenever I could to meet new people and to make friends. I wanted to travel to and live in France, so I just did it. And for whatever you want, go for it too. Say yes to things. Make errors and laugh about them. Don't let people and doubts hold you back because you'll never know when you'll have that opportunity presented to you again.
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