Tips on TAPIF

Somehow,  my first 8 months of teaching in France have flown by and come to a close. I still remember when I got the email on my 22nd birthday that I had been accepted to the Teaching Assistant Program in France and jumped in without looking back. I spent the following 3 months trying to prepare for something I have very little information on. While I knew this experience wasn't going to be as organized as my study abroad program, I was still hoping for a constant flow of communication and assistance throughout the process.

TAPIF is confusing, frustrating, and hard, but completely worth it. For anyone looking into TAPIF or even just teaching abroad, I am going to attempt to outline some of the tips/frustrations/guidelines that you should be aware of.


1. Learn to be patient
If you think waiting for your pizza to be delivered after a Badger game day when everyone else is ordering pizza is slow, try dealing with the French bureaucracy, move home, order pizza again, and you'll be giving Toppers an olympic gold medal for speed. I moved here 8 months ago and I finally got my medical insurance card 2 months ago, I was technically an illegal citizen for 5 months because it took them so long to send me my official residence card, and it took me 3 months to get my first housing subsidy. These are just a few of the bigger issues I had with the government. But actually, things here are so incredibly slow you are sometimes amazed how they do it. Around month 4 you will find yourself embracing the "¯\_(ツ)_/¯" emoji because that is just French bureaucracy in a nutshell. Just be patient and it will come when it comes, it all works out! (It just may be way later than it should). This also goes for your colleagues or any other French citizens you are in touch with. They will probably be a little late (and you will learn to be late too) and always give a grace period of about 4 days for email responses...once again             ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

2. Embrace the culture and lifestyle
You're living in Europe. Things are different, just embrace it and experience it. It may feel weird and uncomfortable in the beginning stages because you really do not know what you're doing and your  language skills are still not up to par, but it will be worth it. Before you know it, you'll find yourself eating dinner at 9pm, taking the full 2 hours for lunch, having 3 courses with every meal, buying fresh food the day of, going out for a drink before dinner, and more.

3. Be social and proactive
Being in TAPIF or any other program gives you kind of an automatic group of people to bond with. This was very, very nice and I have friends now that I will have for the rest of my life. However, try to branch out a little bit as well. You're surrounded by french natives and even Spanish or German or Italian or Finnish people no matter where you go. Take advantage of the different people around you and learn more about them and their lifestyle. In Angers there were international meetings every week at a bar where you could just chat with french people or other international workers who had just moved to Angers. Go out and talk to people at bars; that is how I met my boyfriend the first part of the year before he moved to Hungary. But just being with him for 4 months benefited me so much in terms of learning other cultures and improving my language skills.

4. Things will not come naturally
This ties into branching out and being proactive and embracing the culture as well. It will all feel very weird and awkward at first. Trying to speak a foreign language and approaching people and becoming friends with people that don't speak the same language as you or being thrown into a completely random group of Americans or becoming a teacher when that isn't what you studied. Everything feels weird at first. Teaching english to a bunch of kids who knew how to say hello and then speaking in only French with my colleagues was a weird contradiction at first, but you get use to it all and it eventually it becomes second nature.

5. Arrive Early
Many teaching programs will start about a month after the students start. This way the kids have time to adjust to their school, new grade, teachers, peers, etc. For me, I started October 1st. I arrived September 19th and that was a good amount of time. I HIGHLY recommend to arrive no later than 2 weeks before you are supposed to start. You need to get settled, get a phone plan, open a bank account, AND FIND AN APARTMENT. I really lucked out with my apartment and found one 4 days before I was supposed to start. I had a couple of friends who didn't even have a place to live until the end of October. You really need to arrive and give yourself time to adjust and get everything figured out. Most programs will not help you with accommodation or administrative work, you need to figure everything out by yourself and you need the time to do so.

6. Wait to Find Housing 
While finding housing within the 2-3 week period of when you arrive can be hard, you really need to wait until you get to your city to find housing. There were many times I looked at places online, excited about visiting them. However, when I arrived they were absolute sh*t holes, or were very far away, or there were fees for the apartment that weren't listed online. If you had rented that apartment solely based off of what you saw online and then arrived to see it was not was you were expecting, you're screwed. It is stressful to not have an apartment when you arrive, but it would be more stressful to end up in an awful apartment for the entire year. When you arrive, stay in an AirBnB in the city, that way you have your own space to decompose and rest and figure everything out.

7. Live in The City Center
Your experience will be so much better if you live where all the action is. Yes, it can be more expensive sometimes but it will also add up if you're spending all your money on the bus or tram or subway to get downtown every time people want to hang out. It is more enjoyable to be within walking distance of all of your friends, restaurants, bars, etc. I even had friends who worked in small towns over an hour away from Angers but had apartments here and commuted every morning. It's better, trust me.

8. Invest in a Carte Jeune and/or TGV Max
Everything is at your fingertips via train. Unlike the US, the train is comfortable, relatively cheap, and very fast. I used the train more than any other form of transportation this last year and I dont know what I would have done without it. Additionally, in Europe anyone under age 26 is considered a "youth", which qualifies you for many beneficial discounts in anything from transportation to museum entry to flights, etc. With that being said, invest in a carte jeune and/or TGV Max. A Carte Jeune is for anyone under the age of 26 and is 50 euros for the entire year. It gives you a discount on every single train you take! It is amazing. Similarly, the TGV max is something that recently was produced within the last 4 months of me being here and I fully took advantage of it. It is 79 euros per month, but your train tickets are free. You can go almost anywhere in France for free when you have the TGV max. I went to round trip to the other side of France for free when it originally would have been 250-300 euros round trip. I highly recommend it. Also with a carte jeune you can use it in any country. I used it in Spain, Italy, France, and more. It is very easy to go from one country to the next just via train as well. Planes are not always needed.

9. Compare your Options Before Deciding
When I arrived I was your definition of a naive American who could manage a little bit of french, but definitely needed more for what I was taking on. I had to go make bank appointments, open accounts, get a phone plan, electric plan for my apartment (after finding an apartment), all on my own and all in French. Because of this stress, I often took the first option and did what people told me. Because of this, there were some iffy phone plans and electric plans I signed that caused me to lose some money in the long run. So, for future assistants, just remember take your time and look at multiple options. You can get the information for multiple banks or multiple phone companies and then compare and decide later. Especially do this for PHONE and WIFI plans, those are where prices and plans differ a lot and you want to know what you're getting for your money. This doesn't mean go for the cheapest option necessarily, but go for the best option. For instance, on paper my phone plan was the cheapest, but I get monthly charges that put me way over what any other plan was offering.

**Side note: get your phone plan first. Go to SFR, Free, or Orange (if in France) compare the options and get your SIM card or phone plan immediately. You will need a phone to make calls to possible rental agencies, people subletting apartments, etc. Email will not be enough in the housing search.

10. Bring a Student ID Card
While most of you have already graduated college, including myself, bringing a student ID card got me a lot of goodies throughout the year. While for 95% of any activity in France, my residency card and VISA counted as free entry, there are some places that don't go by those rules. If a visa doesn't get you free entry, your student ID will probably get you a discount. Additionally, there will be restaurants, hotels, activities, fitness centers/gyms, movie theaters, other museums, tours, etc that will give you a discount for showing a student ID. As long as you have it you're good. Especially if it is an American University ID, they won't know what to do with it.

11. Bring in Things That You Care About
This more so applies to the teaching aspect of your time in Europe. Yes, surprise you do actually work. For teaching, a lot of teachers and colleagues will ask you to bring in ideas or subjects for lesson plans. That is a good time to be creative and bring in things from your childhood or topics you care about. If you have older middle school/high school kids that you will be having conversations with, you can bring in Pop culture, politics, or any other interesting topic that you and the students would be engaged with. If you are in primary/elementary school like I was, you can bring in fun things from your childhood; i.e. nursery rhymes, songs, books & stories, topics, etc that you learned when you were younger. It is fun because you get to take a trip down memory lane and also do not have to prepare as much because you are familiar with the subject material. Also, bringing images or items from the US is always fun. For instance, when doing a unit on animals, I used pictures I had of my dogs, friends' cats, etc for the flash cards. When doing a unit on the United States, I brought in real money and an American flag for the kids to see. It makes it more fun for you and the students, even your colleagues too!

12. Speak
I went from being able to read and write some french and speak poorly to professionally proficient in 8 months. Constantly being surrounded by french forced me to speak it and improve it and I am so thankful for that. However, there will be other cities such as Paris, Nice, Normandie region, etc that are very use to tourists and everyone speaks english. More times than not workers in touristy cities would hear my english/american accent and automatically switch to English without letting me proceed in French. Don't give up. Many times in the beginning I switched to english when they did because I felt bad about my french thinking that the reason they were switching was because I was worse than I thought. However, this is not always the case. A lot of times people will hear your accent and realize they can speak English with you and genuinely want to practice (I encountered this a few times in Angers, Nantes, and other smaller/less touristy cities). In big cities like Paris, they will usually speak english to think they're accommodating you or because they do not want to deal with your beginner French. Finally I got the courage up to just continue with french when they would switch to English. Believe in your skills and keep going. Many times we would get far enough into a conversation that they would realize I didn't read a French-English dictionary before I came here. Speaking is the only way you will truly improve.

13. Travel
790 euros a month is rough. You need to come over with savings, that is a given. However, even though you are paid so little, traveling is still feasible and should be done. While I probably traveled more than I should have, I do not regret any of it. You also don't have to be jet setting to Norway or the south of Spain for new experiences. Some amazing cities will be 30 minutes away by a cheap train ticket, and because you're probably under 26 years old, it will be even cheaper or free. Many of my trips were conducted solely by trains, which are my favorite way to travel as well. Traveling is very cheap here. It can be too expensive for your salary but there is always a place you can get to for cheap. A few tips are to travel places during their off season, maybe add a couple hours to your travel time by flying into another airport or taking a train, stay in airbnbs with other people (they will be cheaper than hostels a lot of times), and invest in travel passes. We went to Greece for a great price in February. We definitely lucked out in weather, but we also didn't have to deal with other tourists and high prices. Many times, cities and stores will have different price for in-season and off-season, so traveling during the off season is a great way to see amazing places at a cheaper price (and it is definitely better without all the other tourists).

Hope this helps, à bientot 

Libby