Life as an English assistant in France

When I'm working the opening shift I wake up at 7:45 and cycle into work for 9am. I generally arrive around 10 minutes early so I open up the language school. This involves disabling the alarm, switching on the lights, the heating, the computers, the printer and the television, cleaning the boards and tables in the classrooms that were being used the previous evening, putting the tables, chairs and plants outside and generally just making sure everything is looking ready for when clients come in. I then open up the company emails and check the agenda for the day. I like to see who's got classes at what time that morning so that I know who is arriving when.

If I don't have a class first thing, I settle in at reception and start doing my daily tasks. First I check the appointments sheet to see if any of the teachers have made new appointments that need to be put on the agenda. Then I check the emails to see if anyone has emailed in new appointments and I add everything to the agenda. Whilst I'm in the emails I also open up any class sheets that have been signed digitally by students or teachers and I save them all under the right name so that we have the most up to date version in our files.

Another thing that I do every day is sending the class sheets to students and teachers for all the online classes that will take place the following day. I look at the agenda, note down the names of all the students and then make sure the dates of their lessons match with the existing file before sending them off for signing. After this I file away all the physical sheets from the previous days lessons in their folders according to language so that the reception area stays tidy and organised.

With all my regular morning tasks completed I'm then free to get on with whatever else needs doing. Part of this is always lesson planning which I spend some time on each day to prepare for my upcoming classes. The amount of preparation required for each lesson varies hugely according to the level of the student, the topic of the class and the student's requirements. There are files of resources in the office which I sometimes use but I also like to look on the internet for new ideas or create my own resources. Beginners usually need more guidance and I prepare activities which will help them to practise specific grammar points or introduce new vocabulary. I also have to be aware of how many students I have in the class - many of my lessons are one-to-one but I also take group conversation classes which can have up to five students in them so I try to make sure my activity is appropriate for all the students in the class. All the students have different learning objectives and some people come specifically to improve their English for their work so this means I have to adapt the topics to suit their needs - I've taught business English to a physiotherapist, the owner of an embroidery shop, a technical entrepreneur and a tourism manager so far so obviously all of these classes are completely different to a regular English conversation class. Some students are also there to prepare for a specific exam which means they need to work on certain skills and take mock exams so I also have to learn about the format of the exams in order to help the students prepare.

On a typical day I teach around three hours of English conversation. I have every level of English from A0 (complete beginner) to C1 (almost fluent). Everyone takes courses for different lengths of time and new students are constantly starting so although I get to know many of my students pretty well, I also have new students every week. It's really nice to be able to get to know people but it's also interesting to always have new people to meet. Most of my students are really lovely but of course some are easier to talk to than others! At the beginning I found the classes quite stressful but I've kind of got used to it now and there are lots that I really look forward to. It definitely helps that most students are adults who are there because they really want to learn English so they are motivated and eager to learn.

When I'm not in a lesson or planning a lesson I'm given plenty of other tasks to keep me busy. These are pretty varied but include archiving files, entering data on spreadsheets, preparing paperwork, creating social media content, going to local businesses to hand out flyers and put up posters, testing language platforms, helping other staff with business English and doing cleaning and tidying around the office. At the moment one of the things I'm working on is a booklet to help adults learn to read and write in French. I'm making a page for each sound with example words and syllables which will hopefully be given to people who are trying to get French citizenship but their literacy in French doesn't match their spoken French.

In the school holidays we run language courses for teenagers so this involves quite a bit of extra work. First there is the promotion of the courses - creating posters and social media publicity - and then I need to prepare a bag for each of the students with their jotters, textbooks, timetable and various other bits of paperwork. I make up the timetables and prepare the information sheets for the students. Every student does one hour of lessons, half an hour of conversation class, half an hour of written exercises and an hour on the multimedia platform each day so it all needs to be timetabled to ensure everyone knows where they're going whilst they're there.

During all of this time I am sitting at the reception desk so I'm also welcoming people who come in, informing teachers of which classrooms they can use, taking class bookings, answering the phone if there is no one else available and basically just doing anything I'm asked to do. I keep an eye on the emails all day and I make sure the agenda is up-to-date. At some point during the day I also get to have a half hour lunch break!

In the evenings I do a bit of cleaning - I empty the bins from all the classrooms, clean the whiteboards, disinfect the tables and computers, sweep the floor and turn off all the electronics before setting the alarm and locking up. If I'm working the closing shift I leave at 7pm but if I started at 9 I leave at 4pm. Then it's time to go for a run, watch the sunset at the beach or have dinner with friends!

I enjoy the job, it's usually quite varied and I like the people I work with. It gives me lots of French practice and it also makes me think more about how English works which is really interesting. Taking conversation classes is good practice in conversation for me too and it's definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone. I'm enjoying not having any deadlines and taking a break from full time study. I really like having structure in when I work and only working at work so I can properly relax when I'm not there.