Another thing- my city has been without any sort of a bilingual school for all of my life, until recently! I just found out that there is a French bilingual school that just opened in my city, but it's very small. Do you think it'd be wise to continue with this type of school?

Hey! I haven't been here in a while. Just wanted to come back and thank you again for your help! Also, I wanted to give you an update. This semester is coming to a close and I have maintained A's in my classes, including French. I am very happy about that!

I have also decided that I would like to move forward with opening a bilingual French/English school. I am very excited and eager to get started. Something I've been battling with is should I get started on my school now or is it a requirement that I need a degree? It will be a private school, starting out for grades K-3 grade (I may possibly consider adding a Pre-K, I am not yet sure though. But I definitely know I want the school to focus on teaching gardening, musical instruments, and cooking classes). What do you think about me starting the school now without a degree? (I know I have heard stories about parents starting their own school, but not sure if they had a degree or not :/)

Also, it looks very expensive to start a school. Do you have any good ideas about where I can begin to look to receive funding/grants?

Thanks again for all of your help! I'm really excited!

Does anyone here know of schools in the Middle East or Africa that would be a good option for a new graduate?

Many thank to you in advance.

[quote="FutureTeacher33"]@PsyGuy

I just wanted to say that I have also been networking with a lot of teachers here in the States and they are telling me that it's truly hard to find a job here in some parts of the country. I am not so sure that after graduation I will be able to gain two years of teaching experience here.

I am thinking about QSI or possibly applying for schools in the Middle East or Africa after graduation. With no experience, but with a M.A. English, minor in French, and an ESL endorsement, do you think that could be a good option for me? I haven't really considered jumping right into the international teaching field, but things are looking bad in the U.S. and I want to make sure I can get my foot in the door.[/quote]

That was a typo!
I meant to say, with a B.A. in English, minor in French, an ESL endorsement, and a Master's in Teaching degree.

@PsyGuy

I just wanted to say that I have also been networking with a lot of teachers here in the States and they are telling me that it's truly hard to find a job here in some parts of the country. I am not so sure that after graduation I will be able to gain two years of teaching experience here.

I am thinking about QSI or possibly applying for schools in the Middle East or Africa after graduation. With no experience, but with a M.A. English, minor in French, and an ESL endorsement, do you think that could be a good option for me? I haven't really considered jumping right into the international teaching field, but things are looking bad in the U.S. and I want to make sure I can get my foot in the door.

[quote="PsyGuy"]Well internships are very competitive, though they are paid (and provide housing, if its typically part of the compensation package), they arent all that different from the compensation package of a regular teacher contract (with one big exception later). Not every school has an internship program, and when they do its either an excuse to hire cheap labor, or they only have one maybe two interns. Its not uncommon for there to be 20 or more intern applicants for a single internship. Usually they interview the interns in a block of time one after another with about 10 minutes per intern. When they contact you, you have to decide on the spot yes, or no they cant wait 24 hours to hear from you and go to the next person.

Some interns are indistinguishable from a teacher position. They have their own classes, and everything. Some interns have aid or assistant teacher roles, mixed in with clerical duties. Every year there are a couple internships for boarding supervisor positions, and other support staff type positions. Depending on your duties and what you do you can count the year of experience, and the combination of IB and international experience would make you considerably more marketable, as well as providing an opportunity to remain at the school as a regular teacher if everything works out well.

The "big" internship fair is the Search BOS (Cambridge) fair. I recommend using an agency considering not every school has an internship program, they arent very many of them and you have to be open to a wide geographical area. Many schools generally only post their internships on the agency website. It would be a lot of work trying to hunt them down yourself. Search also has a dedicated internship coordinator.

The biggest issue and unfortunately is likely to be a deal breaker is your family. Internships dont provide for dependents, and with a trailing spouse and two kids would be a very difficult if not impossible challenge to an internship. Schools just wont be interested, as youre too expensive, and in WE a family of 4 would not be able to live on one salary.[/quote]

Yeah, I actually just spoke with D. Kerry from Search and she informed me that they wouldn't feel comfortable accepting my application/fee because the schools are very unlikely to be interested in me as an intern. I was more or less talking about an IS in the U.S. though, that way I don't have to be a 'foreign intern' and worry about the additional cost. So, what I'm going to do is just contact these schools directly and see what they say.

Hey, I just watnted to get some information about doing an Intership with Search or through an International School directly.

I'm working towards being a Secondary English teacher and I have a husband and two kids. I am thinking about doing a teaching internship after I graduate college and just wanted to know if any of you have done an internship before?

Is it hard to be selected for a paid internship if you have dependants, like it is for an actual job in an international school? Do they provide housing? Is it best to go through Search after I graduate? Or should I go directly through a school? If I do get an internship and I work in an IB setting will this count as 1 actual year of work experience and 1 year of IB experience?

I think an intership would look great on my resume and be a good way to get my feet wet in the international teaching industry. Any information you can provide will be most helpful. Thank you!

[quote="FromPhilly"]Teaching in France is, believe it or not, an option.

I imagine you are on the younger-ish end of things? If you are under 30 (check that age) and a native speaker of English, you can teach as a co-teacher in a French public school. This program is called "Language Assistant". Perhaps the title of the program is off-putting (paybe you dont want to be an "assistant") but seeing what your goal is, teaching in France in this program may be the way forward. You do well there, and then visit personally every international school in the area for a job, and voila!

Buyer beware: having lived in Paris myself, and having worked with French public school teachers - let me tell you; it is no walk in the Bois de Boulogne.

I would recommend going for a small school in the campagne somewhere outside any big city. If you are a francophile like moi, you would have seen that movie "Etre et Avoir" Go for a small country school, like that.

You will find everything you need to apply on this site:

[b]www.edufrance.org[/b]

Also, for jobs in French schools overseas as a Blingual Immersion Teacher, try:

[b]AEFE or La Mission Laique.[/b]

In addition, Swizterland also may have a similar English-Language Teaching program in the Swiss Romande regions. Try the Neuchatel and Geneva areas.

If not, there is always the JET Program. Applications may be starting now. That is in Japan and is a similar program to the French English Language Teaching Program. Of course, Japan is not France (dare I say it - its cooler?) but it is a start. Make your contacts there and move on from there. Cf course, there are plenty of Lycee Francais in Japan, as well...

Ah - to be young and to have so many choices!

Bonne courage, ma puce.[/quote]

Just wanted to start off by saying: we are both from the East Coast! I live in VA. :)

Oh, yeah, I am definitely under the age of 30. I actually just celebrated my 21st birthday a few months ago, haha. I have heard of the program, but I wasn't sure if it was the best option for me or not. Even though I am young, I have a bit of an interesting situation, if you want to call it that lol. I am married and we have two small children. So, based on the salary of the Assistant Program, I was not sure that I would be able to support my family.

I have a background story to all of the post I write on here. I am a young mother with a family who has just entered my freshmen year of college. I am an English major and minoring in French (wanted to double major, but that's too much). I am in a '5 Year Program' to get my Master's in Teaching.

I want to teach abroad in International Schools, but I have heard that a lot of schools do not hire teachers with dependants, especially if one of those dependants include a trailing spouse. So, I have been speaking with people on here trying to get more information about how I can make myself a more competitive candidate for hire because teaching internationally is my dream and I want my family to experience it as well.

I have read things online about French teachers being very...strict, for a lack of a better word at the moment. But if you still think I would have a possibility of being hired after knowing my situation, I will definitely consider the program and use that as a way to network with the International Schools there.

Thank you so much for the bilingual schools in France!! That is great!! Do you happen to know if you have to be certified to teach Elementary? I am not going for elementary certification simply because I have been told that although in demand, it's a saturated field, so it's best for me to avoide at all cost, being that I have dependants.

Any additional info you can give is appreciated and thank you for your reply!

[quote="FromPhilly"][quote="FutureTeacher33"]Hey,

I have posted here before and PsyGuy has been a TON of help-can't stress that enough. I have spoken with him in regards to getting my undergraduate degree in English or a foreign languge. I am really leaning towards the foreign language (based on what I have in mind for my long term goals) and just wondering if anyone here teaches a foreign language in an international school and wondering if you can give me your experience on how that has been for you?

Some other things I'm wondering is:
1. Has there been a decent amount of positions at job fairs?
2. Is the language your mother tounge?

And anything you can give me, again, will be helpful.

I am interested in French and know that I will need to fully immerse myself in the language to be truly fluent, so anything you can prove to me is appreciated. Thanks everyone.[/quote]

Im a language teacher myself, by training. Having worked in IB schools, it has been my observation that most schools select native speakers only. With that said, one of my previous schools hired a non-native speaker to teach a world language, but that was the exception.

I would advise doing a double major in French and Arabic, or French and Chinese, etc. Difficult but if you're a language person, that is where your talent is. You are much more marketable with a double language with one world langauge being a majority language like Arabic or Chinese. If that doesn't work for you, there's aways the CIA, who needs Criticial Language Speakers (if you are American or possessing a permanent residency card).

Best wishes and best of luck.[/quote]

Thanks! I was considering learning Arabic or Chinese, but I may have to save that for a later time, doing the 5-year Teacher program and what not, it may be too much work. But I really do appreciate it!

Are you teaching English as a second language abroad?

Thank you so much for all of your help!!!!!!

I am just going to continue majoring in English while minoring in French. As much as I would love to open a French Immersion school in my hometown in the U.S., it requires a lot of dedication career-wise that I won't have if I follow my true dream, which is to teach internationally. So, I am going to continue to work towards teaching internationally and hopefully, I may be able to open a school internationally. Possibly France or elsewhere? Only time will tell (and I'm not sure how hard it is to open a school in France).

Thanks so much for your help!

Oh yeah, something I wanted to add..

As far as open a bilingual schools (again, many years after teaching) will be NOT having a degree in Elementary education be an issue? Or should I be able to open my school no problem?

[quote="PsyGuy"]You have to pick one, your really doing to much a double major in language and lit, in a 5 year masters teaching program is really 4 majors (1 in french, 1 in english, 1 in education and 1 masters). All of that AND a family while student teaching (and dont kid yourself that semester your student teaching is an 8-4 all day, every day of the week "course").
You need to decide on one or the other. The amount of work you have to do to maintain Native fluency and be competitive as a french teacher at an IS is a career in itself because if your not working and living with french you have to make a lot of time to keep your fluency sharp. You need to spend a couple years living/studying in France or a french speaking region, how do you do that and your senior honors english paper, student teach, and study for your masters comprehensive exams (im just assuming you arent going to do a thesis) all in that same year? How are you going to drag your family to France for those couple of years while your studying?

I know several people who have opened up ESL and language immersion schools. What you need is a Masters degree, and LOTS of experience, and hopefully your masters program gives you some business/entrepreneur training/skills. If your running the school you need to be a good manager/admin, the subject mastery isnt as important (you hire teachers who have that). What you is a lot of experience in the business. Identifying the location, targeting your market, hiring your staff, and then delivering good value to your customers for their money. It sounds easier then it is.

which ever one you do you need to decide now, because the french cant wait. Youw ant to spend your junior and senior year abroad, which means you only have this year and next to get through your general ed classes, and a majority of your french major in the next 2 years. So that when your in France you will have the scheduling flexibility to take electives (because you will have a far narrower schedule of courses to choose from) and your education courses and/or French immersion courses.

FYI: If you complete your degree in France at a French university and pursue a H.Bach (Honors Bachelors degree) you can "read" (meaning take the comprehensive exams) for your masters at the same time, with no (or very little) additional coursework. The requirements are pretty narrow, but essentially the disciplines have to be the same (same faculty). So if you did a H.Bach in French Comparative Lit, you could read for the M.Litt (Masters of Literature) in your final semester as well.[/quote]

Thanks for your reply!

I do actually know what I want to do, but just not sure of the best way to go about it. I want to teach abroad for a while. So, that's the 1st thing I want to do after graduating, whether it be teaching English lit or French. Then after years of teaching abroad, I want to come back here and work on the French Immersion School project. I understand that for this specific amount of time while I'm in college currently, that to accomplish everything I mentioned, is not possible. However, I wish to do many, many things throughout my life, which a lot of people do, and I don't see why it seems to be pretty impossible to get 2 different things accomplished. (Not directed at anyone-just saying this is general)

@ PsyGuy, What do you think about me Majoring in French and minoring in English? That was I can do most of my French major abroad and be able to work on my English courses as well (not sure if I'll be able to do study abroad through Senior year then after that I can come back and complete education courses/Master's Program..but will speak with my school to see how that can work-I may not be able to do the 5 year program and may have to end up applying for the graduate program after getting my Bachelors).

Just wondering your thoughts on this & if you think this is a better plan?

[quote="mrspepper"]I'm also a French teacher who is not a native speaker. Last year I began looking around for an International Teaching job and my hubby and I are trying to figure out if we're going to go all in and register with an agency this year. I have to admit, I think that being a non-native speaker makes it pretty hard to get a job (and I would say just about impossible if you're talking about West. Europe) in this market. By no means am I an expert, I'm just letting you know what I've seen during my half-derriered search this past year or so. Maybe consider adding an ESL minor? It seems like it's not a lot of credits compared to some other add-on endorsement areas.
For me, I'm considering adding something whether it be ESL, IT, Lib., or I don't know what. Le sigh...[/quote]

Oh yeah, I am definitely going to be adding the ESL courses once I get into my Master's program.

It does sadden me to hear that you aren't having much luck so far with job hunting. I really hope that changes for you as you realy get out there and attend the job fairs. The reality of not having a job scares me. I don't want to study for 4-5 years of my life and then be met with no opportunity once I graduate. :?

[quote="ringler24"]I think you need to figure out what you really hope to do. To be completely honest with you I think you're being overly ambitious. What you need to ask yourself is whether you want a career as an international teacher or to open an immersion school. For the most part I don't really think there are international immersion schools the way there are in the US. The language of instruction is English there and languages are taught as foreign languages. If your ultimate goal is to open an immersion school you need to refocus on US teaching both to build your experience and credibility as well as for the location of your school. You won't be ale to go and teach French abroad for a set number of years and then just move back to the States and open up an immersion school. In order to fulfill that dream you will need years of experience teaching in immersion programs. If that is truly what you want to do here is my suggestion (This is my exact background for your frame of reference):

Major in your target language (in your case French) as an undergrad. Go ahead and do the double major with English Lit if you want. Study abroad and do everything to master the French language. (This is good in the event that you change your mind or still want the option of international teaching)

After completing your BA do a Masters program in Dual Language/Bilingual Education as a preservice student (meaning you will do your student teaching whie completing the program). This will certify you to teach elementary Ed as well as dul language elementary and likely ESL on all grade levels. It takes about 18 months full time.

Work as a teacher in an immersion school for a good chunk of time.

Open your school.

In the event that you change your course at any point you could always apply to teach abroad through DODEA which is an amazing opportunity and one that I'm hoping for. You'll be qualified to teach French, ESL, and Elementary and if you got a position you would have a very stable financial situation for your family. They also don't care about how many dependents you have so that's a huge plus for me and for you as well.[/quote]

I really appreciate you taking time out of your day to answer my post with such detail. It is really nice of you.

I really do want to achieve this goal, so I really do thank you. I had no idea that you had a background in immersion as well. That is great to hear. Like you said, I really do have to think on it and decide what my next step is :?

[quote="PsyGuy"]Thats really hard to say, your starting out and aren't going to graduate for five years. Who knows what the market will be like then. Usually counselors for instance aren't in high demand, but this last yer saw a LOT of demand for college advising counselors.
In general I can say this: English lit has far more vacancies, but of course the candidate pool is larger as well. If your really good in French, and I mean near native fluency, then you could get lucky and find yourself at a nice tier 1 school with your first year in the IS market. You have a much higher chance though of being unemployed, and possibly waiting years for a vacancy to open up. With your family situation, you will be a much harder sell in either scenario. English lit in my opinion is the "safer" bet, but French has a higher and better payoff, though it's a lot more risky.[/quote]

This truly is a hard decision, PsyGuy. There needs to be a crying emoticon lol.

I want to do a double major in French and English, but a lot of ppl are saying that with the dual BA/MA program for teaching that I am taking on WAY too much, like you have also said, and I need to select one program. I was considering doing a double major and then apply to the Taching Master's program, that way it's not dual and I may be able to double major. Not sure if this is a good option though?

Another problem that's arising is that I would LOVE to teach in an immersion school and would hope to open my own Immersion school. But they are mostly elementary schools (at least here in North America) and I would need to be certified to teach elementary. But that's not something that would be in my best interest as far as wanting to have an international teaching career because mostly singles and teaching couples are hired as first priority for elementary positions.


Goshhh!! Stressful!