Would like to know what it is like to be an au pair in the beautiful city Shanghai? Let's check out our au pair Emma's intriguing experience in China with Wanderlust Exchange :)
Hello everyone, I am Emma, I am 18 years old and I am an French Au pair here in Shanghai, I am going to talk with you about my experience. As an au pair I am gonna stay here for 6 months and there is just 2 months left. I will tell you some little advice and hope it could help you.
Q1:What makes you want to be an au pair?
Because my dad told me one of his friend’s daughter in Australia to be an au pair, I thought this is really a good way to travel, so I searched a lot. For example, what takes to be an au pair, how did you become an au pair, how to search for agencies or for families. And I know that to be an au pair is to be mature, very open-minded and love children, so I thought:” Wow, that’s me!”
Q2:Why do you choose China as your destination for being an au pair?
I love Asia and I always want to travel there and learn about the culture as well. I thought China is a really good country. Because first of all, the people here are becoming more and more open minded to foreigners like coming in China and exploring in China. I think also China is a country that I can search all the traditional culture that I want to know, even when you walk in the street, even you are in modern buildings, you can see the traditional things. I also think Chinese people have the deep connection , I always see it from family and how they treat each other, how they treat the elder, so I think China will probably be a best country to explore as being an au pair.
It is also a way to learn the Chinese which I really appreciate because I want to learn more languages, for example I have learned Korean for 2 years by myself. I thought Mandarin is something that you have to learn because it becomes more and more popularize in the world, and it becomes more and more important in business as well.
Q3:What makes you choose Wanderlust fulfill your au pair china program?
First of all I think Wanderlust choose au pairs and families with very high standards, and you would find the family which is really fit to you, and that knows what they want, when you should be working and when is your free time. During part of your conversation you will feel that they are not like an agency I could say.
Another one reason that I really like Wanderlust Exchange is how well experienced the agencies are. They are really nice just like friends which is what we want, because going to be au pairs are young generations like me, I am just 18 years old, you don’t wanna be with people who consider this like business business business... You will want people consider this like to be culture exchange and is a way to learn and discover new things, so I think Wanderlust Exchange is really fit for that!
Q4:To what extent do you thinks Wanderlust has been helpful through the whole process?
I would say that they gonna to help you all the way and that is really helpful. Especially when you are young and really don’t know what you do to be an au pair, they gonna help you to find the family,present the family to you with very detailed family profile, they would help you to interview the family and they will help you to fill the documents like the Visa and so on.
Q5:What is your impression of Shanghai City?
Personally, I want to go to Shanghai because that is one of mine preferred city when I have the plan to go to China, and Wanderlust is based in Shanghai. If you like this city, I think this is the best agency you can go through.
Q6:Have you been through culture differences and homesickness? How to overcome?
Not really, just prepare to be like very approach to the street, do not feel weird when someone suddenly says “hello” to you, because somebody just try to practice their oral English with foreigner.
Q7:Could you please describe your responsibilities in your host family？
The mainly responsibility is spending time with children, teaching them English and play with them, it is like all I like to do are brought together, and this is the perfect experience in my mind!
Q8:What’s the most difficult part in your au pair experience with the host family? How to solve them?
For me it is not a huge problem, but there are some mis-communications, and I think the agent helps you as they will clarify the situations for you, when you have problem or you think you are along in a foreign country, you can go to find them, I think it is what you really need.
Q9:Can you elaborate on the most unforgettable thing you have experienced as an au pair in China?
The most important one is to prepare a VPN!!! China has been blocked in some Internet, so as long as you prepare the VPN, there is nothing to be an problem!
It will happen sometimes that people would like to form conversation with me, I think this could be very weird, but just be open-minded for this.
That’s all my experience and I hope my advice can help you, and it is could be a very good experience if you could be an au pair and I hope you can go to Shanghai to be the au pair!!!
Click here to fill in the application form as the first step to be an au pair in China!
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