Hi

still looking for a something to do on my gap year and i've applied to a couple of places but haven't heard anything. I've seen on the internet that you can teach English as a foreign language either in a school in France or to a host family in France and i was thinking of maybe a host family because it would help improve my French a lot and also give me the full experience of French life and culture. I was wondering has anyone stayed with a host family what was it like and what do you do when you arent teaching?, or if anyone has taught English in a French school what was that like ?

When i went to Alliance Francais classes in Toulouse, a lot of the students there were also au pairs in families; offering their native language as a pull for the families employing them. Have you thought of this?

As for teaching in schools, as I understand it is mostly in secondary schools and they prefer people with some experience

The French Embassy has a program where you can work in a French school as a native language assistant working 12 hours a week.

My daughter has done this--
but a)she is a college graduate and
b)she is from USA--but I think she said there were British people on the program as well.

I do think it might only be open to college grads, not gap year students, but worth looking at.

However--it is hard work,and the kids are not necessarily all hugely interested and /or well-behaved! Not very well paid but very few hours, so lots of free time to enjoy France and earn a little extra money teaching English privately, child-minding, or whatever.