Advice needed - Scottish girl looking for a job in Montpellier

Hi Shona,

Welcome to Expat.com

You can post an advert in the  section of Language classes in Montpelier which might help a bit to improve your French but the best thing to do is to keep talking to your friends and learning how to pronounce some basic words and don't hesitate to ask if you don't understand the meaning of some words and give yourself time to learn.. there's no rush

Also regarding jobs I will invite you to please post your resume in the Personal and household services jobs in Montpellier section

Check out this article from our guide as well please ----> Find a job in France 

Best of luck with everything !

Thank you

Maximilien

Thank you !

Hello!

I Know you wrote your post a while ago, but maybe you might see this I'm not sure! But I am in exactly the same position as you were in. I have just moved to Montpellier from London to live with my French boyfriend and I am looking for friends and work.

I am 22 and starting at a french school in Place de la Comedie in June to improve my French How are you getting on? You must be all settled by now?

Joanne

Hi Joanne!

We actually moved back to Scotland about a month ago but I'm more than happy to give you some advice! I know how overwhelming and scary it was for me starting out in Montpellier!

First of all, honestly don't spend too much money on these French schools they are really expensive and I found the best way to learn is just listening and getting involved in conversations with people there are loads of free ways to learn! There's an organisation called the French American centre in the arceaux it's mainly for French people learning English but you can go and help out at things or you can request a language partner and they will assign you a French person you can meet up with in a cafe and it's a kind of language exchange where you help each other out. You can post an add on Leboncoin (it's like gumtree) advertising a language exchange if you prefer.

In terms of a job I won't lie to you it's really really hard. I couldn't find anything in a bar or restaurant despite being way over qualified, and they will expect you to be half decent in French.  I found a couple of things - I taught English privately to the daughter of one of my boyfriends colleagues and I was a kind of au pair/babysitter/English teacher for a family and looked after 2 little boys.

You can email me if you want *** or find me on ***. Im happy to answer any other questions and can maybe put you in contact with some of the people that I worked for or learned French with.

Good luck!
Shona x

Dear Shona,

Wow thank you so so much for your help. I have added you on Facebook. I will definitely look into all of that. My boyfriend is a rugby player here and owns his own business exporting and importing windows, and luckily
I've met a lot of friends through his rugby team but I am finding it really lonely at the moment due to the fact i know no French, it's really isolating! I graduate from university in June So I go back to London in May for my exams, and because of my exams my boyfriend won't speak to me in french or anything because he wants me to concentrate on studying, which is fair enough but then of course when I see his friends it's difficult to communicate!

The language conversation sounds a good idea I will definitely look into that thank you. You stayed in Montpellier for a year though so it just have gone OK? My boyfriend has a little girl here and his own business so if I moved back home we would break up which I definitely don't want! It's lucky that you could both move back to Scotland

Joanne