working in france for the summer?

plein de force

does anyone know how going about doing this?
i'd love to go next year after my leaving cert to improve my french before going to college to study it as part of my degree

if anyone has done it how would you recommend going about doing it, such as actually finding work, i'll literally doing anything, money is money

i didn't know where to put this, just thought the french forum would be a good place to start


Merci d'avance

Mackleton

Hey OP. I did exactly that, the summer after my LC, and am currently working in France as well. I can only speak from my own experience but if you are a girl, then au-pairing is a fantastic way to practice French. I have done it three times now and honestly my French improved more over those periods than during my six years in secondary school. I am studying French as part of my degree and it definitely gives you a huge edge over others in your year who may not have lived in France.

I can't recommend au-pairing enough, but if you are a guy then I'm not really sure how you would go about it. Sorry if this has been totally useless but definitely go for it if you can. Feel free to PM me for info if you like.

neaideabh

Hi... I worked in France a few years ago on campsites. I got a job as a courier (Holiday Rep) with an Irish camping company called Campotel. Their Office address is, Keller Travel, Main St. Ballinasloe, Co. Galway. If you want to go to france and enjoy the summer go for it. For me it was like a working holiday. You do the work (cleaning mobile homes) then go to the beach or town or whatever. 2 or three days out of the week you have to do evening duty which means you just hang around waiting to welcome guests or just be around for guests to make enquiries, etc. At nighttime we partied! nearly every night.

I went to do this job to get a good foundation of spoken French in anticipation of starting french in college the following autumn, BUT... learnt little french. If you are intending to go to france to become pretty competent at the language. This is not a good idea as all you deal with is Irish Clients and Irish and English colleagues. There is French who work on site so if you try hard to befriend them and constantly socialise with them you might improve your franch greatly but it is too easy to hang around with you're english speaking colleagues!

You could go to do this job and use your days off to suss out employment opportunities in large towns and cities where you'll be immersed in the culture for after the holiday season.

You will improve your french from going to the shops and that but trying to get work in an area with no english presence, will have you returning nearly fluent! It takes time though. After my second season working on the campsites, I went to college in Grenoble for 3 months. In them three months I learnt more than I did in all my years of secondary school and college. But it still wasn't till the 2nd month where I started coming out of my shell and becoming confident to speak french more!

plein de force

neaideabh wrote: »

Hi... I worked in France a few years ago on campsites. I got a job as a courier (Holiday Rep) with an Irish camping company called Campotel. Their Office address is, Keller Travel, Main St. Ballinasloe, Co. Galway. If you want to go to france and enjoy the summer go for it. For me it was like a working holiday. You do the work (cleaning mobile homes) then go to the beach or town or whatever. 2 or three days out of the week you have to do evening duty which means you just hang around waiting to welcome guests or just be around for guests to make enquiries, etc. At nighttime we partied! nearly every night.

I went to do this job to get a good foundation of spoken French in anticipation of starting french in college the following autumn, BUT... learnt little french. If you are intending to go to france to become pretty competent at the language. This is not a good idea as all you deal with is Irish Clients and Irish and English colleagues. There is French who work on site so if you try hard to befriend them and constantly socialise with them you might improve your franch greatly but it is too easy to hang around with you're english speaking colleagues!

You could go to do this job and use your days off to suss out employment opportunities in large towns and cities where you'll be immersed in the culture for after the holiday season.

You will improve your french from going to the shops and that but trying to get work in an area with no english presence, will have you returning nearly fluent! It takes time though. After my second season working on the campsites, I went to college in Grenoble for 3 months. In them three months I learnt more than I did in all my years of secondary school and college. But it still wasn't till the 2nd month where I started coming out of my shell and becoming confident to speak french more!

thanks for your input
i'll look into it but i'd mainly want to learn a lot of french

I worked in a French hotel, mainly as a chambermaid but also doing odd tasks like helping in the laundry room, polishing glasses in the kitchen etc. The work was AWFUL, honestly. I'm no princess or anything, but cleaning toilets all day long is awful. They hired about 5 French women to work with me over the summer and nobody lasted longer than a day. The other maids were bitches to me as well as they thought I was a snob because I was in college and not a full time maid. The only good thing was that everyone else was French, so I used and heard French all the time because I had no choice. It's amazing what necessity does for your fluency. When I arrived, I was so shy and scared but after a week or so, I was chatting away. It's the most awful job I've ever done, but I can say it's the most French I've ever spoken as well. Wage was super basic though, 600e/month but with free accommodation and food.

kev9100

I did this this Summer. Its pretty tough actually. Depending on where you want to work, you need to have pretty good french and have a lot of patience. Also, keeping to a budget is crucial.