Teach Abroad in France

As a recent college graduate with my BA in French, teaching abroad was always a dream of mine. Truthfully I did not do much research while looking for a program to fulfill this dream. I simply google searched “teach English in France” and greenheart travel was one of the first websites to show up. The recruiter/program advisor Savannah was very attentive, and always responded very quickly to emails. I signed up for the program pretty last minute (middle of January), and I left March 2nd. They were very quick and smooth with the application/ sign up process. Basically anyone who can pass the background check will be accepted into the program. A few weeks after applying is when you receive information about your placement, host family, etc... I will say if traveling by yourself in a foreign country scares you, this program may not be a good fit. The host family will only pick you up from the train station closest to their home, or obviously if they live near the airport they will pick you up from there. As I never travelled alone before, the idea of getting on a train (or multiple) from the airport with all my luggage scared me. Luckily my family lived a half hour from the Marseille airport, so I paid a little extra and did a layover in England and they picked me up in Marseille.

The program within itself was fine. Basically everything I expected it to be. I always felt safe and supported by Greenheart throughout the 3 months. However, if I could go back in time, I would not do the program. The truth is, there are actually a lot of programs in France that will pay YOU to teach there while living with a host family. This program cost me 2-3 thousand dollars. I understand this is how this program works and I’m not angry, because it is quite literally what I signed up for. When I was in France I met so many teacher assistants who were getting payed maybe 600-1000 euros a month. I regret not doing more research on teach abroad programs before choosing Greenheart, as now I feel as if I could’ve easily found a paid teaching job over there, or at least something where I wasn’t paying anything to be there. I also probably ending up spending an additional 500 dollars in transportation costs to travel to and from the school to home.

So my final advice to those interested in this program is to try to look more into paid programs first. They are more competitive, but if you have a degree like myself, you will should have no problem being selected. If you do not find a paid teach abroad program, I do recommend this program, as they offer much support and are trustworthy. Of course overall this was a very great experience and I can say I achieved a life long dream of mine.