tapif questions

So a few weeks ago I made a post opening the blog to questions from TAPIF (Teaching Assistantship Program in France) questions. I received a comment asking about the initial email to the school. What is appropriate, etc.

So here is a little about the message I sent to my school.

Yes, I wrote in French. I started out by introducing myself as the new assistant and saying that I got their address on my “arrêté”. I just discussed a little about myself and my background (i.e. where I’m from, where I studied, what I studied, and a little about my summer plans before my arrival).

After this, I posed some questions:

• What type of school is it (big/small/etc)
• ages of the students
• if there are other assistants in the school or town, and if so whether I could have their contact information
• information for housing (whether the school had some designated or what)
• information on transportation in the region
• the specific roles of the position in the school.

These are all good questions to ask. My professeur référent did not provide me right away with the contact information for the other assistants, however she did provide me with the email address of the former English assistant. Eventually she gave me the email addresses of the other two assistants (German and Spanish) and the email address of a landlord that had rented to the previous year’s assistants. So, I got lucky with the lodging and it all fell into place.

Those are all the questions I asked at the very beginning and I think are a good place to start. Of course you can ask any questions you want to know about – but do not necessarily expect answers right away.

Click “continue reading” to read (in French) the email I sent

(more…)