Everyone

[DCLXVI]

To answer the recruiting question. I'll answer it this way...regardless of what the legion needs at any time is not important...you need to recruit yourself, first.
Second..I've seen nearly all of you on this board still flapping away how you will go and still are hear asking away...third...while you all did that I got in on my third time. Does any of this register to the wannabes?. Just get to the door and then go through it.

 

[Joseph Cosgrove]

How is accommodation these days? How many guys can expect to share room with and how many share toilet?

U guessed it depend on REG in which you are and building.

Had really bad experience with that when I was in high school campus. Terrible place, still have trauma from that period of my life.

Not to go into details it was genuinely bad in every imaginable aspect. Place was renovated couple months after my graduation.

Just to say, 60 of us were sharing 1 shower and 2 toilets, one of which was only for pissing.
Have such bad memories on that place and I was kept there almost against my will for 4 years!

Don't want to go again through that, but considering everything I saw related to FFL accommodation it looks much, much better from my facking campus.

dusaboss, I went to the new Castel to do my Echelle 4 (a Cch qualification) and I can tell you it is like the club Med compared to what Lapasset was like.
Just a bit of nostalgia for the older hands here. The rooms had wooden floors, do I have to mention wax? The beds were stacked three high. Single panned windows and radiators with 9 coats of paint on them. Cold in winter? You didn't want to be a brass monkey I can tell you.

Of course Volt could tell you what it was like in his day in Algeria.

My point is to say that you will enjoy your living accommodation and toilet facilities and the dining room and the foyer and the cinema in Danjou.

And then you go to the farm, bienvenue à la légion ! Ha Ha Ha.

 

[Joseph Cosgrove]

The only reason I ask if it could possibly be a disadvantage is that knowing French could make it seem as though you obviously had the resources to learn it, and thus, don't come from the type of background that they would consider for someone to become a good Legionnaire. It's been stated repeatedly how they want people with nothing to go back to and seemingly no opportunities prior to trying to join. And learning a language like French, from someone who is already from the US, can possibly make it seem as if that person isn't nearly in as dire straits as they think and as the Legion would want.

Killer, maybe before the days of internet you would come from a privileged family if you knew Chinese or Finnish but not nowadays. I can remember the days when having a computer was considered a luxury (In my boyhood it was even a colour TV).

Here is a site that is completely Free and you can get any language you like on it, including the above mentionned and French. They will send you an email with a phrase every day and break down the sentance for you. You can do games, verbs, volcab etc. You pick the level that you want and can even have a progress test every month. All for free. I get my Thai sentance every day and from time to time go on the volabulary quiz to see how much I've forgotten.

LearnWithOliver.com

Try it out and if you think it's any good let the others know.

 

[voltigeur]

Killer...
Listen, learning anything before or in the legion is always a good idea. If you can learn in the legion, you are ahead of many others, trust me..
Highlander...actually NO. Sorry, but the legion does not run around slapping hands of men who take pics. Sorry,but we take pics everyday here and so do our cch and Sgt...and above. I have pics of everywhere. Guys, don't worry its not some secret here. If a guy doesn't want to be in a pic, trust me, he won't be. End of that and I'll post loads of pics if volt will host them on his site.

I did send a PM with info.

 

[kkillert0fu]

To answer the recruiting question. I'll answer it this way...regardless of what the legion needs at any time is not important...you need to recruit yourself, first.
Second..I've seen nearly all of you on this board still flapping away how you will go and still are hear asking away...third...while you all did that I got in on my third time. Does any of this register to the wannabes?. Just get to the door and then go through it.

Thanks for the response.

 

[loustic]

How is accommodation these days? How many guys can expect to share room with and how many share toilet?

If you are selected, you will first have to go through the farm (after a short stay in Castel) and then you will go on in decent rooms. You will have to share your room with several comrades (the number of legionnaires in one same room can vary from regiment to regiment, but it is never very high). Your "private" universe will be reduced to one bed and one cupboard which has to be in perfect "legion" order. So it will not be the luxury of a 5 stars hotel with a single room for you alone, but it will certainly not provoke a new trauma !

There is one exception : when you come back from OPEX you might first have to stay in a luxurious hotel, outside France, where they will take care of you in order to avoid PTSD. Maybe my future job !

 

[loustic]

I know you had touched on this before, but can you say anything about the recruiting spike? Is it still in effect? And for how much longer? Does it even matter now, as in, is the Legion expecting to allow in more candidates than in the past for the foreseeable future? Or is it going to close up soon?

700 more new legionnaires this year (2017), again ! But it will be over in July ! So if you want more chances to be selected among the best ones, hurry and come.

 

[kkillert0fu]

Killer, maybe before the days of internet you would come from a privileged family if you knew Chinese or Finnish but not nowadays. I can remember the days when having a computer was considered a luxury (In my boyhood it was even a colour TV).

Here is a site that is completely Free and you can get any language you like on it, including the above mentionned and French. They will send you an email with a phrase every day and break down the sentance for you. You can do games, verbs, volcab etc. You pick the level that you want and can even have a progress test every month. All for free. I get my Thai sentance every day and from time to time go on the volabulary quiz to see how much I've forgotten.

LearnWithOliver.com

Try it out and if you think it's any good let the others know.

I figured that. I was just wondering if someone with not only the resources but also the wherewithal to learn another language is someone who the Legion might see as having opportunities and things going for them and is a potential desertion risk because of it as opposed to someone without those things going for them.

Thanks for the website suggestion. I've been looking for something like that, especially one where you can start literally from scratch and work your way up. I've tried Duolingo a few times, and that one seems to work as well and also starts you from scratch. In the few times I've used Duolingo I actually retained the little bit of introductory French vocabulary and structure it teaches in its first few lessons and this was only after using it for no more than 10-20 minutes each time. So I'll use both, even if it's just a little bit every day.

I don't care what they say about Rosetta Stone, you need at least a basic understanding of a language before beginning those courses. I've tried it with Spanish and Farsi, and it is not at all a beginner's course.

Anyways, I have a few things in motion right now. I'm just waiting to see what may or may not pan out. In any event, I need to be ready to jump at something on short notice, including trying out for the Legion. So I'm preparing myself on a few different fronts right now.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[kkillert0fu]

700 more new legionnaires this year (2017), again ! But it will be over in July ! So if you want more chances to be selected among the best ones, hurry and come.

Thank you. That's good information.

 

[kkillert0fu]

Hey 666,

I'm over the recruiting surge question, I know I need to just get over there. But if you don't mind, this one would be a big help, how long was the selection process for you from the time you entered the gates to the time you knew you had been selected?

 

[DCLXVI]

Sure man. 11 days in Paris. 10 days in Aubagne. 21 days exactly and then one week of being rouge. 31 entire days until my feet touched shit hole Castel. Yes, all your wildest dreams will not come true and you will have 4 months to decide if you will continue...when you go to the farm...you'll think even more SERIOUSLY if this really is for you.

 

[loustic]

Sure man. 11 days in Paris. 10 days in Aubagne. 21 days exactly and then one week of being rouge. 31 entire days until my feet touched shit hole Castel. Yes, all your wildest dreams will not come true and you will have 4 months to decide if you will continue...when you go to the farm...you'll think even more SERIOUSLY if this really is for you.

There was some delay for my group and we stayed slightly longer "rouge" before going to Castel. I would say 5 weeks for me, but that was exceptionally long and we knew we had been selected before the end of the 5th week.

 

[DCLXVI]

Yea man, I knew a section that was almost 7 weeks man.it was unreal. So.many were retarded cause some virus sickness was going around and they wanted all the guys they picked,but everyone was sick to death and the other evs ended up asking civil because of the hold up.
I think it was an OP...LOL..thin the heard. But my.mate is happy and in the 13th now. Btw everyone, if you are planning on joining and want another regiment besides the 13th...don't count on it. 13ths final company building is done and everyone is going to be sent there. Regardless of companies or section in castel. So if you want another, its not going to happen. This is the year to pack the 13th to capacity.

 

[Joseph Cosgrove]

Yea man, I knew a section that was almost 7 weeks man.it was unreal. So.many were retarded cause some virus sickness was going around and they wanted all the guys they picked,but everyone was sick to death and the other evs ended up asking civil because of the hold up.
I think it was an OP...LOL..thin the heard. But my.mate is happy and in the 13th now. Btw everyone, if you are planning on joining and want another regiment besides the 13th...don't count on it. 13ths final company building is done and everyone is going to be sent there. Regardless of companies or section in castel. So if you want another, its not going to happen. This is the year to pack the 13th to capacity.

That sounds like a good reason to give to the recruiters. Read up on the history of the 13, which is very rich, and then rightly tell the recruiters that you want to join them because of their glorius past and that they need reinforcements. Legion life does not begin and end with one regiment. You can go overseas later on and then when you return you can ask for another regiment. But let's take one hurdle at a time.

 

[Federico Schnider]

Yea man, I knew a section that was almost 7 weeks man.it was unreal. So.many were retarded cause some virus sickness was going around and they wanted all the guys they picked,but everyone was sick to death and the other evs ended up asking civil because of the hold up.
I think it was an OP...LOL..thin the heard. But my.mate is happy and in the 13th now. Btw everyone, if you are planning on joining and want another regiment besides the 13th...don't count on it. 13ths final company building is done and everyone is going to be sent there. Regardless of companies or section in castel. So if you want another, its not going to happen. This is the year to pack the 13th to capacity.

Then I guess that's where I'm gonna be.
Nice info, thanks!

 

[capgros]

700 more new legionnaires this year (2017), again ! But it will be over in July ! So if you want more chances to be selected among the best ones, hurry and come.

why is over in July?

 

[Federico Schnider]

why is over in July?

The 13DBLE is expanding, and this expansion will end in 2018 (according to wikipedia, just search 13DBLE FFL), I guess the gross of this regiment gets there before July this year though.

 

[kkillert0fu]

Sure man. 11 days in Paris. 10 days in Aubagne. 21 days exactly and then one week of being rouge. 31 entire days until my feet touched shit hole Castel. Yes, all your wildest dreams will not come true and you will have 4 months to decide if you will continue...when you go to the farm...you'll think even more SERIOUSLY if this really is for you.

Thanks man.

 

[loustic]

Yeah, but it's not that easy. For instance me or someone else who want to be quiet about little misdeeds in past, goes to the interview and gets question "Have you ever been arrested?" (I got some feeling that this question very likely comes). So, if I answer "no", I'm lying, if I answer "yes", more questions will come at me which will require me to lie or to tell the truth and probably get kicked out anyway. It's tricky thing.

No choice : you say "YES" but you might add why you were arrested, if it does not incriminate you. Otherwise, wait for the next question.

 

[Martin Scott]

So what's your point!? 40 yrs ago as a young legionnaire and caporal l had no choice but to stay by the base. it was only when i made caporal / chef when I was given more freedom and got some decent leave! that i made the most of! and got as far away as possible! any more questions sprog!!
Hardly surprising believe that you reptiles even have a teunte order for beach wear although some have been known to dress as Napoleon and get picked up wide eyed and legless by the PM lol. Yes Iam a sprog but change the Piano Bar for the beaches of Calvi No thanks mon brave,