Teaching English in Toulouse, France

Most private language schools in France pay €16 to €25 EUROS an hour to newly qualified teachers. Language schools are now increasingly asking their teachers to set up as freelancers ("auto-entrepreneurs") though, so they do not have to pay your tax! You just bill the school for the hours you work there.

You can charge upwards of €30 EUROS an hour locally if you are qualified and set yourself up as a freelancer ("auto-entrepreneur") which we show you how to do.

As a freelancer not working for a language school you can tell your students that you will be away on XYZ dates, but can find a replacement teacher if they want one - ideal if you have another lucrative part time job or want plenty of free time or flexibility.

It is common for teachers to be freelancers AND have a contract with a language school. Contracts offered are usually CDD (short term contracts) or CDI (long term contracts). Most teachers have at least 2 teaching "jobs" at once, e.g. working privately and then with 2 other language schools.

Universities here in Toulouse pay TEFL teachers up to €50 EUROS an hour -although the catch is that you have to have another contract somewhere else. But a great option if you do!

Teaching more than 30 hours a week is going to be tiring. The great thing about TEFL teaching is that you can usually take on more or less work depending on your personal aims for any given period of your life.

In any case, make sure you have access to enough money to survive for a couple of months until you get a full timetable - although in sunny Toulouse you can spend a morning quite happily with a €2 EURO cup of coffee!

If you teach privately, there is less of a "hiring period" - individuals are looking for teachers all year round and you will surely find work by ensuring you have plenty of ads up around town wherever you live. The majority of hiring in language schools gets done in September, October, June and July for the coming academic year, and again in the New Year, but TEFL is booming in France, so there is work to be found in the local language schools all year round.

Any time is a good time to qualify to be an EFL teacher in France! Also because many people work in TEFL to travel, the turnover in language schools is quite high, as people want to try teaching in another country.

The cost of living in France is about the same as in the US or UK or perhaps a little cheaper. Toulouse is less expensive than Paris or London, of course. As a rule of thumb, eating and drinking wine is cheaper; drinking beer is generally more expensive than the UK or USA. Eating out at night in France can be much cheaper than most imagine -a fabulous French dinner with plenty of wine can be had for 25 EUR in Toulouse - and for about 11 EUR at lunchtime. There are great organic fruit and vegetarian markets here too which can save a LOT of money, as French supermarkets tend to be a bit pricey. A bottle of wine costs about 4 EUR at supermarkets. For renting post course, a room in a shared flat goes for about 300 EUR a month, your own little studio for about 500 EUR a month. Toulousains love picnicking by the river too when the sun's out - and it costs virtually nothing! If you want to save even more money, you can pop across the border to Spain and stock up!

Travel to Toulouse, France

Public transportation is cheap; everyone uses the rent-a-bike scheme and taxis can be pricey.

Some of the places you must visit include the Toulouse Cathedral, The Capitole de Toulouse, the Theatre du Capitole (opera house), the Donjon du Capitole, Le Cite de l'espace (a theme park of space exploration), The Jardin des Plantes (a botanical garden) and the most significant Hotel palace in Toulouse: the Hotel d'Assezat.

Toulouse is the seat of the Académie des Jeux Floraux, the equivalent of the French Academy for the Occitan-speaking regions of southern France, making Toulouse the unofficial capital of Occitan culture.

Toulouse was the capital of the Visigoth Kingdom in the 5th century and the capital of the province of Languedoc in the late middle ages, making it the unofficial capital of the cultural region of Occitania (Southern France).

In the Treaty of Paris of 1229, Toulouse formally submitted to the crown of France. The county's sole heiress Joan was engaged to Alphonse, who was a younger brother of Louis IX of France. The marriage became legal in 1241, but it remained childless so that the county fell to the crown of France by inheritance after Joan's death.

It was not until the 15th century that Toulouse started to enjoy a 'golden age'. Reinforcing its place as an administrative center, the city grew richer, participating in the trade of Bordeaux wine with England. A parliament was created by Charles VII and the city's merchants grew ever wealthier. Their economic well-being was mostly based on a plant-based blue dye known as "pastel", which was exported across Europe. These pastel merchants built grand town houses and, before long, both architecture and the fine arts flourished in the city as never before. However, when the "indigo" dye arrived from America in the 16th century, the pastel trade vanished. Religious conflict broke out between the Catholics and the Protestant Calvinists. At the same time, buildings were destroyed by fire and there were yet more outbreaks of famine and plague.

During the remainder of the 18th century, the city was slowly modernized. This included a period of urban rebuilding, which began in earnest from 1750. New projects included the building of the Jardin Royal, The Grand Rond, the Canal de Brienne and the Quai Dillon.

Visit http://www.toulouse-visit.com for more info.