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A Visa for founders, engineers and investors willing to join France

visa.lafrenchtech.com

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Re: A Visa for founders, engineers and investors willing to join France

#41

Post by anirul »

paraboul wrote: post #14
bogomipz wrote: post #4

Does anyone know how big of an impediment is not knowing French? EDIT: I should have articulated my question better by saying "in the short term." I agree its foolish to not learn the local language if you plan on staying. But if the office language is French that is going to be almost a non-starter for someone who doesn't already speak it. It can be intimidating enough changing jobs in your native language. I know S…

Like not speaking the local language of any country : won't work in the long term.

In Switzerland (we already have 4 local languages) it is very common for people not to speak the local language. I have seen people leaving in Geneva for more than 20 years and still not speaking french. The swiss government is even translating the laws in English for foreigners.

Re: A Visa for founders, engineers and investors willing to join France

#42

Post by camus2 »

bogomipz wrote: post #4

Does anyone know how big of an impediment is not knowing French? EDIT: I should have articulated my question better by saying "in the short term." I agree its foolish to not learn the local language if you plan on staying. But if the office language is French that is going to be almost a non-starter for someone who doesn't already speak it. It can be intimidating enough changing jobs in your native language. I know S…

French here. You have to learn french, people in the french administration aren't going to communicate with in you English.

Obviously in Paris more and more people know English since it's a touristic area. But it isn't like Berlin,Amsterdam or Brussels where you can live with very little local language knowledge. Correct french is a pain in the ass to learn, the language is needlessly complicated.

Frankly If I were a "foreigner" (outside the EU) who wants to move to a non English speaking European country, I'd go to Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden or Austria. I lived and worked in all these countries without problem and with little knowledge of the local language.

Just don't come here with 0 french and expect to find work, that's not realistic. If you are an "expat" (i.e. you already have a guaranteed job in France), then by all means...

Re: A Visa for founders, engineers and investors willing to join France

#43

Post by paradite »

endymi0n wrote: post #12
bogomipz wrote: post #4

Does anyone know how big of an impediment is not knowing French? EDIT: I should have articulated my question better by saying "in the short term." I agree its foolish to not learn the local language if you plan on staying. But if the office language is French that is going to be almost a non-starter for someone who doesn't already speak it. It can be intimidating enough changing jobs in your native language. I know S…

Honnêtement, je pense que vous allez être bien sans parler un mot.

Google Translate for the lazy:

Honestly, I think you're going to be fine without speaking a word.

https://translate.google.com.sg/?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&client=tw-ob....

Re: A Visa for founders, engineers and investors willing to join France

#45

Post by nkkollaw »

richthegeek wrote: post #38
nkkollaw wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. Not every country is the same. I was in Berlin, and I was never spoken to in German (since I don't really look German), and I would ask the person if they spoke English just to be polite before I started speaking to them, and they would almost get offended. Actually, I hardly heard any German being spoken. On the contrary, in Warsaw I had problems getting basic directions in English even if I asked young…

From dating a Polish girl, and meeting some of her relatives and friends in Poland, I'd say it's mostly a problem of confidence. Once they started talking there was rarely a problem (at least for non-rare words), but a lot of them didn't speak English to non-Poles often enough to feel like they actually could.

I too believe that young people are just self-conscious, perhaps because they're not used to speaking it.

A lot of old people dislike foreigners to a certain extend, however, and I bet some of them wouldn't speak it on purpose even if they could. For instance, an old lady at a drugstore complained to the cashier at the register because I took too long picking some medicine, while "there were Poles waiting in line".

Let's just say that Berlin was more foreign-friendly in my experience.

Re: A Visa for founders, engineers and investors willing to join France

#46

Post by renaudg »

ajeet_dhaliwal wrote: post #24

Good to see things like this. Even though I would not participate in this particular scheme because I cannot speak French and have no interest in living in France it's still great to see this sort of thing happening if only for freedom of movement for hard working talented people.

There's a healthy number of startups in Paris where English is the working language. It's true that day to day life may be more challenging without speaking any French, but probably less so in Paris than elsewhere

Re: A Visa for founders, engineers and investors willing to join France

#49

Post by camus2 »

lawless123 wrote: post #34
jlangenauer wrote: post #5

Apropos of this, I was in Paris recently at a startup event, and was pleasantly shocked at the sheer number of startups and people I saw doing things. This is a good move by the French, and will help attract entrepreneurs away from other countries (particularly like those just across the channel currently inflicting generational economic damage on themselves.)

The timing can't be too much of a coincidence.

The issue is why can't France even attract engineers and investors from WITHIN the Eurozone, these people don't need Visa. The issue is elsewhere, not in the pool of engineers. France can't even retain its own engineers.
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