EU citizen searching for job in France

[anikolova]

Hello! My name is Aneliya, Bulgarian national, recently graduated with a BBA in Tourism Management in Breda, The Netherlands. I would like to go to France for some months to study the language and work part-time during my stay. I have a basic knowledge of the language, but would like to improve it as much as possible in order to go on an internship starting January 2010 where I would have the possibility to perfect my language skills. I have been trying to find websites where you can find jobs for expats with basic knowledge of French but I cant find such. I was also looking at language courses, but most of those are quite expensive, so I would like to get a second opinion from someone that has experience in the field and could give me some orientation. Id be very pleased if any of you could help me out.

Greetz,

Ani

[Bevdeforges]

Hi Aneliya, and welcome to the forum.

If there were a website with jobs for expats with less-than-perfect French, I think they'd probably be overwhelmed with traffic. We do get lots of similar requests here and I don't know of any handy sources.

One factor may be that many training courses in university and elsewhere in France require students to work short term jobs (called "stages") throughout their coursework. These stages are often unpaid or very poorly paid, and the employers don't have to contribute the social insurances, either, so it's very popular to employ a student for six weeks or six months rather than incur all the normal costs of a full-fledged employee.

Your best bet is probably to do like the French students do, and go directly to potential employers and travel companies.
Cheers,
Bev

[anikolova]

Originally Posted by Bevdeforges

Hi Aneliya, and welcome to the forum.

If there were a website with jobs for expats with less-than-perfect French, I think they'd probably be overwhelmed with traffic. We do get lots of similar requests here and I don't know of any handy sources.

One factor may be that many training courses in university and elsewhere in France require students to work short term jobs (called "stages") throughout their coursework. These stages are often unpaid or very poorly paid, and the employers don't have to contribute the social insurances, either, so it's very popular to employ a student for six weeks or six months rather than incur all the normal costs of a full-fledged employee.

Your best bet is probably to do like the French students do, and go directly to potential employers and travel companies.
Cheers,
Bev

Hey again,

I would not mind doing an internship while studying French even if it is poorly paid, its just that I have trouble with finding such internships where they would take a person that does not speak the language. The programs I have seen (language course + internship) are very expensive.

[missmulticulture]

Hi Ani

when I was studying French I was in the same situation as you and during my uni holidays i worked at a hotel in the south of france - this was an excellent choice as it was a beautiful location and i became very quickly fluent in French - if you want send me a PM and i will give you the contact details.

Regards
R.A

Originally Posted by anikolova

Hello! My name is Aneliya, Bulgarian national, recently graduated with a BBA in Tourism Management in Breda, The Netherlands. I would like to go to France for some months to study the language and work part-time during my stay. I have a basic knowledge of the language, but would like to improve it as much as possible in order to go on an internship starting January 2010 where I would have the possibility to perfect my language skills. I have been trying to find websites where you can find jobs for expats with basic knowledge of French but I cant find such. I was also looking at language courses, but most of those are quite expensive, so I would like to get a second opinion from someone that has experience in the field and could give me some orientation. Id be very pleased if any of you could help me out.

Greetz,

Ani