(Upbeat music)
- Hey everyone, my name is Jada
and I'm currently with the teaching assistant program
in France.
Right now I'm located in Belfort, France
and I'm taking over ITA's Instagram
to show you a day in the life
of being a teaching assistant.
A little more info about myself,
I am from Virginia in the U.S.
I am a college graduate
and I took ITA's online course
because it fit perfectly with my full-time schedule
as a college student during my last semester.
This is my second year participating
in TAPIF,
and I returned to the same city because
I love my students, I love teaching,
and I love my host teachers.
So, I started walking around my apartment,
and I realized that it's on the messier side,
so, while I'm cleaning it up before I give you guys a tour,
if you have any questions,
you can go ahead and put them
in this box, right here,
and I'll get to it when I can.
Okay everyone, so, we're going to start off with
a tour of my lovely, teeny tiny, Iternaw apartment.
You walk in, the first thing you see,
this nice table, coat rack.
We have a little section for cleaning supplies,
all things that I didn't have to buy.
Come into here,
and we have my lovely kitchen.
Nice section of groceries, my microwave,
my nice refrigerator with
a freezer portion,
which is on the rarer side in France.
A nice small sink, dishes.
I've got a range, a toaster,
and a nice kettle.
No oven,
but we make it work.
And then, my apartment is three bedrooms.
First, is my bedroom, the largest out of all of them.
Nice big windows, some bulk furniture, good stuff.
Second bedroom is right next to mine,
obviously much smaller.
And as you can tell by the background,
this is where I did my former online teaching,
which is great.
Here we have the third room,
again, smaller than mine, bulk furniture.
Keep it simple here in France.
Here is my toilet, nice and simple,
western style,
no big deal.
We move on to my bathroom, which
is nice that I have a bathtub,
and a shower-head that I don't always have to hold.
There's me, hey guys,
and I also have my own washing machine, which
is super convenient,
and some more storage space for cleaning supplies.
And more storage space for random furniture.
And then we make our way to the living room area,
nice big table, simple chairs, thin futon.
Nice bulk furniture, coffee table,
and side tables.
And the best part of this place is the views.
I've got about--
25% the school, 25% the city,
and 50% percent of the lovely sky.
- [Jada] Here we are in Belfort Center.
(Speaking in foreign language)
They move the river
in our city.
Nice cloudy day.
Here you can see they're setting up for the ice rink
that they have for Christmas time.
Down this road you have lots of different types
of shops, coffee shops, mini grocery stores,
pharmacies, everything that you possibly need.
Gorgeous architecture,
and as you can see again,
they started setting up these lights for Christmas time.
(City announcer speaking in foreign language)
Hey everyone, I am currently on my way to
my one class of the day.
Lasts for three to four,
as soon as this is uploaded I will try to get you guys
back in the loop.
And after that's over I will start answering
all of those lovely questions you sent me earlier,
so, stay tuned.
I personally did not have to do any searching.
I am fortunate enough that my school offers housing
for their assistants.
I already had a place to live,
lined up, before I ever arrived in France,
which is rare.
I do like living in France.
I like the concept of,
reasonably reliable public transportation,
not only within a city,
but throughout the entire country,
which makes it very easy to travel.
Yes, you can make enough money to live in France,
however, most people who come to work here
break even
and very often work online,
in order to supplement their income.
To answer some questions that I got
about language proficiency,
specifically for TAPIF.
Yes, you absolutely need to know French.
You do not have to be fluent,
but you have to have a minimum B1 level.
When you apply for the program,
you need to be able to prove
that you've either taken French courses,
or you need to take a language exam,
or you need to have some,
proof that you have the minimum level required,
in order to function for seven months in France.
Also, to address some questions about my expense page,
which I was expecting,
I want to be clear,
that one, my rent is so low
because it is sponsored by my school,
and cheap to low housing is common in
(speaking in french)
or the
(speaking in french).
Most assistants have to find their own housing
and pay a realistic price for rent.
Anywhere between 300 to 600 euros per person.
I'm very fortunate to have a low cost of living,
which enables me to live comfortably,
which enables me to have money to travel on our vacations,
and in order to save money.
Last year, I finished the program with about
$2,400 in the bank,
which is great.
At the time of application,
I did not have teaching experience,
however, I was finishing my Bachelor's degree,
and my TEFL certification simultaneously.
I did have experience coaching volleyball camps,
aged four to 17.
My personal life is pretty sweet,
for three reasons.
One, France makes it easy to travel.
Two, I'm not the only assistant in Belfort.
There are about 10 of us,
so we hang out with each other,
and three, because we all know French
we are able to meet French people
and make friends.
One of my final segments,
cooking as an assistant.
As you can see I've got this Parisienne,
which has got potatoes, green beans, carrots, mushrooms,
and little pieces of pork.
Flavored with a little bit of
(speaking in French)
which is parsely and garlic.
And over here, I've got some very basic spaghetti going.
We're going to mix it with some Carbonara sauce
and this
(speaking in French)
it's a regional cheese fermented
and it is absolutely delish.
All right everyone, I'm officially signing off.
Thank you for tuning into my take over here in France,
to see my life as a teaching assistant.
If you guys have anymore questions for me,
you can reach me at JDOWN21.
Bye guys.
(upbeat music)