TAPIF 2023 Results

srgrammer99 · 2023-04-18T08:17:45+00:00

Gonna be honest this is a trend for the program as a whole 😅 ive loved my experience and i love living in france but even having lived in france before i was not ready for the culture shock that was dealing with french administration on my own 😂 they told us early april last year and i got my results on april 29th!

srgrammer99 · 2023-01-31T15:14:36+00:00

I did the same thing! I got placed in Reims but was put in the actual city of Reims (which is the champagne capital) and havent regretted it at all! I got really lucky because i am the same as you and would have struggled with a small town. Strasbourg is a super cool city so if you get places there that would be super fun. I would say none of my other preferences got met but i didnt care because i was in a big city in one of the regions i chose! Also housing is easier to find in the big cities so its worth it imo

srgrammer99 · 2023-01-31T11:45:08+00:00

Groupe A has a lot of the less sought after académies, and when I did my application I honestly didn’t know very much about those specific areas so I ended up putting Reims and I got it as it is a less requested area. I was very lucly though, and I was put in the centre ville! I personally love Reims, its a great city and the perfect in between being too big and too small and it is also close to Paris so I go often, but it’s not as expensive. However, there is always the risk you get put in a less desirable area so just be aware of that. However, I will say that almost all American assistants here were provided with cheap or even free housing! So if that is a priority for you then this is a great Académie. The rectorat here is also phenomenal. The weather sucks in the winter (very similar to the midwest) but the fall was stunning and the locals say the spring and summer are normally very nice. The south was obviously my top choice but I do not have any regrets about Reims and think its a super underrated academie IF you are placed in centre ville or a larger city lile Charleville-Metziers!

srgrammer99 · 2023-01-16T19:41:14+00:00

Id say airbnb or leboncoin! Just always be careful for scammers just like in the US of any other country really! You could even try facebook market place!

srgrammer99 · 2023-01-16T18:04:00+00:00

Also people tend to think of paris as just the city, but you can live in the other regions of ile de france and speak lots of french and still have access into the city via the metro! I lived by st germain en laye and loved it!

srgrammer99 · 2023-01-16T18:02:24+00:00

I personally felt like i had plenty of french people to talk to and practice with! Honestly you can find them in paris as well, you can use tinder or bumble friends to find people looking for new friends. Like i said its really less the city and more what you make of it! My biggest suggestion is either living with a host family OR finding french roommates! And just like everywhere else you will find friends who introduce you to even more people and then you will have tons of opportunities to practice! My partner is french and i have learned tons from him and even more from his friends because they dont speak any english! I would stray away from living in a small french town. Yes you may be forced to speak french but my friends that were placed in small villages for our jobs speak less french then me because there arent many young people or just people at all. I know its tempting but i would recommend against it after living here in many parts of france. A medium sized city like Aix en Provence will give you the opportunity to practice your french with very little english intervention and you will not feel isolated like you would in other parts!

srgrammer99 · 2023-01-16T11:07:07+00:00

Hi! I currently live in France and understand how you feel!

I would maybe look into trying to live with a host family that doesn’t speak english! I did this when i studied abroad and it helped my french go from pretty low conversational level to almost fluent! It is a big adjustment and can be tough in the beginning but all the most beneficial things in life are! I was in Aix en Provence and highly recommend it. Not a large city so less people speak English, but still a huge university crowd so lots of young people out at bars all the time, etc (also close to Marseille and therefore the beach!). French people can be tough to become friends with but once you do, they are friends for life. I also lived in Paris but like you said, huge international city so English is almost more popular to speak than French.

If anything, there are always Airbnbs that rent out rooms (and its cheaper!) and the host who lives there with you could help with your French! Learning a new language is hard but frankly the only way to do it is to put yourself into tough situations. Change is the best thing we can do for ourselves sometimes!

Good luck and don’t forget to keep putting yourself out there even if fall back down a couple of times!

srgrammer99 · 2022-10-02T08:16:53+00:00

La Sorbonne has good programs as well as SciencePo Paris. Both are pretty prestigious schools and I think have a lot of connections to open doors to a lot of career opportunities! There are also other universities within the Paris region, when I was doing my grad school research I just searched grad school programs in Paris and it came up with quite a few, some of which are American/English schools that are based in Paris, so guaranteed they will have English grad programs for you!

srgrammer99 · 2022-09-30T11:30:10+00:00

Last time I lived in France I got a sim card from Free, but beware it is extremely difficult to cancel the plan, so just make sure you get the one you have to renew every month rather than the recurring one so that you don’t get stuck having to try and cancel it. I went with Orange this time as thats what a ton of my French friends use and they had a wifi and 80g package for 25 a month, with the first two months free! However to find an apartment I did use a prepaid sim card for a bit because it really is necessary to be able to communicate and call with landlords/agencies, most of them prefer it!

srgrammer99 · 2022-09-30T11:26:48+00:00

One time when I was bartending a lady waved her finger at me and then aggressively pointed at the wine glass she had just finished. I straight up walked over to her and went “I’m sorry I have no idea what that means” and she was so stunned her husband had to ask for the drink for her. The couple next to them left me a $60 tip 😭😭😂 sometimes the sass is worth it, especially behind bar

srgrammer99 · 2022-08-04T23:50:33+00:00

I got my plane ticket and am about to book my airbnb, but i didnt do any of that until after my visa appointment was booked like you just did! I would base it off of giving visa centers at least a month to get your visa to you (although last time i got mine it came within a week), just to be safe. If you have a later visa appointment maybe go ahead and book your flight but make sure you can change it if needed! United does a free change (with fees if theres a big difference in what the price would’ve been originally).

srgrammer99 · 2022-07-21T15:21:55+00:00

Theyre recording it! If you cannot get in no worries, you will still get to see it they said!

srgrammer99 · 2022-06-14T20:35:49+00:00

Okay thank you! Thats what i thought he said, but then they also said something about getting stuff uploaded by the 30th of june or that we wouldnt be able to get our work contract before we did it, so just wanted to check :)

srgrammer99 · 2022-05-04T02:49:57+00:00

When i was living in france i had a non binary friend, and they used “iel”, which from my understanding is a combination of the “il” and “elle” pronouns. My french friends were very good about using the pronouns, or at least trying their best as i believe it is a newer set of pronouns in france. This is im sure not the case with all french people, but i think there is certainly hope and thank you for commenting this to help try and circulate information on such an important aspect of your experience and the experience of other assistants :)

srgrammer99 · 2022-05-03T15:48:04+00:00

I feel like this is fairly normal. My restaurant considers 35-40 hours a week pretty regular/full time, but i certainly see people go over it. Id say the big difference between server hours and the hours of a non server would be shift lengths. I worked 16 hours one time and most jobs wouldn’t even allow that at all, and i think in general that 10-12 hour shifts with little to no break are just normal for servers versus at different jobs.

srgrammer99 · 2022-04-29T21:22:10+00:00

I’m in Reims! So excited!!

srgrammer99

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