Can I feasibly work to bilingualism in France?

Hello,
I'm a 24 year old university graduate from Ontario, Canada with a British/EU passport. I am therefore entitled to work in France and the EU more generally. I've been to France a couple of times before and have always enjoyed practising my broken French with the locals and I aspire to work in the country long enough to become fully bilingual. As a Canadian I am deeply ashamed of being essentially unilingual. Career prospects in Canada and much of the world are, I understand, more hopeful with two spoken languages.
So the question I have been asking myself for months now is how can I work in France? Or for that matter, how can I work in Belgium or Switzerland? After graduating from university last year I couldn't even get a job in England or English Canada. How can I possibly find work in the Francosphere? The only job I can think of is English teacher, but I really don't want to do that. Especially considering the month long course that is required first.
If someone out there is kind and informed, please do inspire me with any options I may have. I'd even be willing to do volunteer opportunities if they would house me and feed me.

Thanks in advance

There's an old joke around Europe;

What do you call a person who speaks several languages?
Polyligual.

What o you call one who speaks two lingos? Bilingual.

What about only one language? American.
We yanks can maybe speak what's called Kitchen Spanish for maids.

Get the magazine that is called FUSAC, it is a classified paper for english speakers in Paris. Quite a few jobs in there; not many glamorous but it would pay the bills if you live cheaply.

Thank you very much for letting me know of FUSAC. That is really a huge help. I feel like boarding the next flight out of here now. There are some interesting jobs like working in tourist shops and doing English-only telemarketing. I'd be very happy doing either of those until I've achieved the holy grail of bilingualism.

Thanks again. If anyone else has any further tips I would really love to hear them.

Stay away from telemarketing schemes!

Lots of them are meant to scam retired expats out of life savings.

I have to say, if it pays a living wage I'm not much bothered by that. I would prefer working in a tourist shop or an English speaking restaurant or something though until I'm comfortable with my spoken French.

"Lots of them are meant to scam retired expats out of life savings."

To which you reply, "I have to say, if it pays a living wage I'm not much bothered by that."

Please show this to your parents. If you were my son/daughter I'd take a stick to you, maybe even a baseball bat.

I sincerely hope your plans come to nothing. You deserve nothing with an attitude like that.

You sound like a person with a job. When you've been unemployed for a long time you can't allow yourself such high moral standards I'm afraid. In any case, self-interest makes the world go round and I'm interested in self improvement. To do that, I need a living wage in France. I'm sorry if this offends your self-righteous little bubble.

"such high moral standards"

I wouldn't call it high moral standards dcook, just morals. It seems you don't have any.

There are plenty of jobs you could get in Ontario even if your degree is in basket weaving. Trying to justify immoral jobs on the basis of self-interest is disgusting. Go apply to MickeyD's or Timmy's at least it's honest work.

It is honest work, no doubt about that. The point of this thread though is how to find work in France. I'd be thrilled to work in a McDonald's in France but I don't speak fluent French so I need to choose between the few English-only jobs listed on FUSAC website. The telemarketing job that is supposedly meant to scam pensioners is one of very few that are available to a person in my position and I will not rule it out. If you've got advice on my other options in France I would really be thrilled to hear it. If not, I'm sure there are many better places on the internet and even in real life to take your moral crusade.

You don't give any indication of what your work experience or degree(s) are, so specific advice or job contacts is impossible to give you.

And yes 'working at bilingualism' takes 'work'. I can understand not wanting to teach English - I've done it and didn't enjoy it - but most jobs worth doing will require some training if you haven't studied or interned in the field. A month is pretty minimal to say the least.

Check out sites like http://BritishExpats.com for more links and ideas, or http://transitionsabroad.com

Well I've got my undergraduate degree from a university in London, Ontario, Canada. My specialization was in Finance & Administration. I spent my fourth year on exchange in London, England.

My work experience is just unrelated mix of some part time and full time jobs here and there. Retail, furniture moving, recording concerts, fixing shopping carts.

My sights are set really very low. I'd consider it a privilege to clear tables at a restaurant or cafe or something. The language skills required I imagine would be quite low, but I'd have enough exposure to the waiting staff to get some good French practice. There were other job opportunities I saw on the FUSAC website in telemarketing in English and also in tourist shops.

Thank you very much for the links. I will have a look at them.

"The telemarketing job that is supposedly meant to scam pensioners is one of very few that are available to a person in my position and I will not rule it out."

Well, I will rule you out dcook87 and that is your loss.

Let me tell you why I first came on to respond to your post. I read that you were a university grad from Ontario with a British passport and looking for a job in France. Your OP was reasonably well written and you sounded OK if somewhat over the top regarding not being able to speak fluent French. But I put the last down to youth.

Now as it happens I was looking for someone for a job in France. So I clicked on your post, only to find that you had already written " I have to say, if it pays a living wage I'm not much bothered by that.", in response to information that the telemarketing might be about scamming pensioners.

What I had clicked on to do was arrange to have a conversation by phone and if that went ok, to meet in person for an interview. That thought of course was immediately ended when I read what you had written.

An acquaintance of mine of many years currently lives and works in Paris. He works for a widow who is Greek but lives in Paris now and speaks Greek, French and English. She is in her 70's but still in good health and her family are moderately well off. Enough so that she employs a driver/companion (my friend) and a full time housekeeper. My friend lives on the property in his own separate apartment over the garage. Each weekday he goes into the house around 10am and has breakfast with 'madame' before taking her out shopping or visiting friends for a few hours. In the afternoon he is free and she naps, reads, has visitors, etc. In the early evening the housekeeper prepares a meal for 'madame' and my friend to share unless she has company in which case the housekeeper brings my friend's meal to his apartment. The housekeeper also does all his cleaning and laundry for him. His weekends are free to do as he wishes and he has use of the car at all times.

What 'madame' wants most from him is to talk about things of interest to her. She particularly likes to hear about his travels and life in other countries. He is from The Netherlands and she enjoys hearing about his childhood there, the customs, etc. He is a companion (nothing else) and also peace of mind that there is someone there if anything goes wrong.

My friend has been in this job for 3 years since being recruited by her Son while living in Greece. He's ready to move on and has no complaints about the job. It's just time to move on. During his 3 years with her he has also accompanied here twice on visits to her home and family members in Greece and twice to Switzerland for a month at a time.

So now he is planning to leave, her Son has asked him to find a suitable replacement for himself (they trust his judgement) and he in turn has asked me to find someone suitable from Canada as 'madame' has expressed an interest in having someone from Canada. Apparently, she has been reading all of Pierrre Berton's books on Canada.

I have interviewed several candidates and last week made a choice I think will work out. I arranged yesterday for the young man to fly to France early next month for an interview with 'madame.' She will of course pay for his trip there and back. If all goes well my friend will leave in September and the new fellow will take over. As it happens the young man is a graduate of Guelph University, Ridgetown. Only an hour down the road from you in London.

I didn't ask him in the interview if he would be willing to scam pensioners dcook87 but I feel confident he would not. So in answer to your last comment to me, ""If you've got advice on my other options in France I would really be thrilled to hear it. If not, I'm sure there are many better places on the internet and even in real life to take your moral crusade.", I don't have any other options that I would offer you in France as you disqualifed yourself from hearing about the option I originally clicked on your thread to discuss. As for better places to discuss morality, I don't think this is a particularly bad place to point out the advantages that being moral can bring.

Oh I forget to mention that the job pays 2,000E per month plus room and board. That's around $33.5k per year Canadian dcook87. How much do you suppose you can earn scamming pensioners by telemarketing a year?

Very good. I shall cry myself to sleep tonight.

"Your OP was reasonably well written and you sounded OK if somewhat over the top regarding not being able to speak fluent French"

What did you mean by this? I tried to accurately convey my ability in French. I said I'm essentially unilingual but have practised my broken French in France before.

I'd love to continue to hear input from anybody, especially waxybrushes. I had a quick look at that work abroad website and was somewhat attracted by the opportunities working on a farm for the summer with all living expenses paid. It seems like the different foreigners working there would speak English but one would get a chance to practise French with the landowner. That seems like a nice balance to me.

12, if OPie doesn't care about other people's life savings or welfare, I wouldn't recommend him for anything.

Except maybe getting robbed with no plan B.

My folks were burglerized four times. I lived there the first time.

It seems like a sick spirit inhabits the place for a week or so, after. You just don't want to go home.

Obviously selling risky investments over the telephone and breaking and entering + burglary is the same thing. God, it was probably me who robbed them!

Back to topic now if at all possible. Would love to hear from anybody who has something constructive to add about work prospects in France.