When I clicked accept on my initial acceptance email from TAPIF, I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into. I knew that I was going to France for seven months, and at that point, not much more beyond the age range I would be teaching. In a way, clicking accept was me running away from responsibilities post graduation, but in another, it was me wanting to keep exploring the world, and spend some quality time in France. Now that my time in Angers is done, I can safely say that the program wasn’t entirely what I expected it to be, but this didn’t make it a bad seven months either.

I was accepted to the académie de Nantes, which was not my first choice (although that point seems meaningless now), and placed in two primary schools just outside of the city of Angers (where you ask? Don’t worry I did too…) I remember being stressed at the cities (or communes according to wikipedia) in which my schools were located, as they were small, and definitely not what I had had in mind for my experience in France. Not the best start on paper. After my arrête came through though, I started being able to reach out to fellow future assistants in the area, and was fortunate enough to be able to arrange my housing before leaving. Things started looking better on paper.

After two planes, one train, and 18 hours of travel later one day in late September, I stepped out into the Angers train station with sun shining, and bags aplenty. At first, the city didn’t present as much, and it felt a little lacking in liveliness. Although Angers isn’t the most vibrant of cities, it still offers museums, a castle, and other little things to explore, which I was pleased to discover as the days went by of my living there. Before moving there, I thought Angers would just be another French city that nobody knew because it wasn’t Paris, and its size would be hindering, but when I think of it now, I think of the friendships I made, movie nights, tram rides, and adventures to the English Library when the wifi was out at the foyer.

Before moving there, I thought Angers would just be another French city, and its size would be hindering, but when I think of it now, I think of the friendships I made, movie nights, tram rides, and adventures to the English Library when the wifi was out at the foyer.

Working with primary aged students was another small hurdle in my TAPIF experience, in that I had applied to work with secondary students. That being said, most of my other work experience has been centered around working with younger children, so I waltzed into my schools on day one, confident in my ability to work with the kids, unaware of how unprepared I truly was. Working with kids, and teaching them English as a second language are two separate ball games, and the latter was one in which I’d never played a single minute, or had any training before being taken off the bench (did the sports analogy work?). I had naively imagined myself having small conversations with my older students, and working on vastly different things with each class, only to be met with many of my students not knowing how to count to ten, or how to tell me what their favorite color was. After that small crash to reality, I realized that working with these students would be less of the dream classes I had created in my head, and instead more of me having to sing baby shark twelve times in each classroom while we studied the family.

With all that in mind though, working with primary kids lends itself to some of the best stories, anecdotes, and experiences. I was always greeted by hugs and excitement (although some of the latter was more directed at me personally, and less at the prospect of going through an English class), and my personal favorite mantra of theirs was hearing them constantly ask me “but why won’t you speak French to us?” I got to make them laugh as I imitated emotions for them to guess, have them show me their newly lost (and sometimes grossly loose) teeth, and hear them giggle after they had (not so subtly) taped a fish to my back for poisson d’avril (The French April Fool’s). When I had my last day, I was presented with cards, drawings, chocolates (a lot of chocolates), and even more hugs, and even if the kids never remember me after this year, those reactions were enough to make me feel happy about my decision to come to France to help teach English.

The TAPIF contract is only 12 contact hours a week, which on paper, seems like a breeze and a half. Everyone’s hours get doled out differently, but I was still in a school building four days a week, and I was in a school building for more than those 12 hours. It’s true that the contact hours don’t require much from an assistant, and you can easily get by with little preparation, and lots of YouTube videos (sometimes, that’s all you want to do, honestly). In part, those hours are what you make of them. There’s nothing worse than showing up to a class with an activity that is too complicated, or no one enjoys, but on the other hand, it felt like such a success when I’d show up with something that would engage the students, or in which I could tell they wanted to participate. It’s easy to shirk off work as “only” being 12 hours, but it feels like so much more (and at the same time less, what with classes being in 30-45 minute chunks). Even if I don’t plan on becoming a teacher, there’s still that remarkably pleasing moment when something clicks with the students, or you can tell that they’re interested, and I’m glad I got to see that first hand throughout my time in the classroom.

Even if the kids never remember me after this year, those reactions [to me leaving] were enough to make me feel happy about my decision to come to France to help teach English.

Another worthwhile experience is the travel aspect of being in France. I was able to not only explore France really well, but also leave the country, and check some new countries off my list of places I’ve always wanted to visit (or even never thought of visiting). I regret not using my first two weeks of October/November holiday more wisely with travel, but after that I made sure to utilize every day of the six other weeks of vacation we were lucky enough to have as assistants (yes, eight weeks of vacation in seven months, you read that correctly). In addition to my two week adventure throughout France, I also got to explore Spain, Portugal, Malta, Disney Paris, London, Prague, and Berlin. It’s hard to regret such an experience when it meant I got to see so much of the world, and so much of one country.

Even when the going got tough, and my frustrations with French bureaucracy, or with the way I was being treated as an assistant were riding high, there were still those bright moments of being in France. Whether it was working with a French woman on her English using question word flashcards, dancing with the four year old I babysat to those good old Disney tunes, having my students ask me how to say the most random words in English, or staying in to watch Netflix and drink tea with a fellow assistant living almost next door, those shining spots are what I’ll take with me when I think about my time in France more than the ridiculous amount of paperwork required to do simple tasks, or the fact that lunch lasts 2.5 hours for everyone. I might complain about some of those idiosyncratic things, but in the long run, those things don’t really matter because it just means I learned how to navigate another country, and another culture, all while speaking another language.

If you’re thinking of participating in TAPIF, I can only say to go for it. It’s easy to get sucked down the rabbit hole of reading other people’s experiences through Facebook or blogs (maybe that’s why you’re here even), but it’s important to point out that everyone’s experience is different in TAPIF. There are so many variables (location, age-range of students, the students themselves, teachers, livability… the list goes on) that make up the seven months of being an English Teaching Assistant, so there’s no way to predict how those cards will line up for you. The only way to find out though, is to apply (or say yes if that’s where you are in your process). You never know what kind of amazing memories you’ll make.

It’s hard to regret such an experience when it meant I got to see so much of the world, and so much of one country.