Program Reviews

My experience as an au pair in Shanghai was awesome! I'm about to complete my 6 months program and I will extend for 4 more. My host family is the best I could've wish for. They helped me settle in and they made me part of the family! I have a great relationship with my host kids and we always do something fun together.
The mandarin classes were really cool with an awesome teacher. I came here that I didn't know anything of the language and I have improved a lot through hard work.
Lo pair staff is also very friendly and they always answered all my questions very quickly.
I would totally recommend this experience, it's a great opportunity to explore a country and a culture that's so different from what we are used to and it allows you to grow a lot as a person.

I've been an Au Pair in Shanghai with Lo Pair for soon six month, I live a wonderful experience here. This is mainly due to the fact that my host family give me a lot of free time which enable me to meet a lot of friends and became fluent in Chinese ( I had a beginner level when I arrive and I can now speak normally). I think that the most important is that those six months really gave me an other vision of the world. The family part is important but it's thanks to my friends that I get to see what was the normal life of a young people here.

Spending 6 month in China was such a great experience. LoPair did a great job and the support was always good. Living in such a big city was a great experience and I’ll never forget that. Teaching a Chinese child is very interesting because you’ll always see the improvement after that time. Beside that I always enjoyed the Chinese lessons and I think that it was useful for me to learn such a different and interesting language. I’m very thankful for everything I’ve experienced and would always recommend the program. Thank you!

Of you want to learn about Chinese culture and language than this is your program! LoPair provides good families and a very good support to make this a great experience. You will learn about Chinese traditions, language, food, music, values and beliefs. In terms of helping with communication or cultural differences LoPair is always there to help!! Also they arrange cultural events every month which makes it very easy to connect with other people in China and at the same time you are learning more about Chinese culture. In addition you will have Chinese Language lessons to learn how to speak Chinese and learn about the Chinese characters so you will be able to gain Chinese language skills. Choose LoPair to make the most out of your time abroad.

Arriving in China from a western country is a big culture shock. LoPair are great in helping you in the first few days. You go though orientation and make firm friends with aupairs! I was unlucky with my first host family and had to leave for another (who were great!). My advice is choose wisely and be picky! Also keep up a constant contact before you fly out.
Once settled, I loved my time there! It's very interesting, living in a chinise home and eating their food and living their life firsthand! LoPair work hard to create a community and I made some great friends out there. We explored the city together and had chinise and cultural classes, this is a huge bonus and stops you feeling isolated. We could share our experiences and bond over how different life was. Overall, I'd recommend thoroughly!

I would say that my personal experience with this program in China was mainly just okay. Living with one host family for 6 weeks can get a little difficult sometimes. My host family had two daughters and the youngest daughter was definitely not easy to live with due to her behavior a lot of the times, which made it hard for me to enjoy being an au pair for the family. Additionally, due to how much time you are required to spend in the home and tutor English (and sometimes for children that are more on the defiant side), it can affect your enthusiasm and how much effort you put into tutoring really quickly. At least that was the case for me. Although, my host parents were very easy going and did not put too much pressure on me to rapidly improve their children's English which made my time in their home a little more bearable. They also covered all of my meals, room and board, etc. whenever I was with them (including when they took me along on their family trips) so I am really appreciative of that. I wasn't able to explore China as much as I had hoped but I'm still thankful for all that I did get to see and do. Overall, my experience with this program was okay although I wouldn't do it again. However, anyone interested in going to China can definitely give this program a try because everyone's experience is different.

Note: the lopair staff are extremely responsive and great at assisting you if you have any questions or concerns. Kerry is really helpful with giving you advice on English tutoring and our group's local coordinator Yvonne always tried her best to help you if you encountered any struggles with the family or anything.

My host family are amazing I made sure to take my time to pick them. I asked a lot of questions and asked what they like any movie or books to see what type of personality they have and about their family like grandparents. I very close with mine and I asked what they did in their free time. I had said no to other host family because personally we not the right fit not that they were not good but we are all different and some people great along great and sometimes it's not so smooth. So I picked my host family based on how I felt talking to them and after and it felt right. I would say never go to fast take your time to get to know them make the right choice. When you do you have a bond that with last years after I was 6 months now I am extending 3 more and plan to meet up again with my host family I truly love them. I not only had a wonderful time with them but also my lo pair works they are amazing people and I love them as much specially my hangzhou coordinator she has always put us first and cared with all her heart. I am grateful for the time and yes there have been some hard things but the world is big and different. as long as you can take the time to understand the difference between cultural. Then you will have a wonderful time with all the new friends and family you have here. Best of luck on your adventure.

I am about to finish my 8 months as an Aupair in Hangzhou and I have to say there were lots of ups and downs.
I had the luck to have an awesome hostfamily. My hostmom and I got along so so well and in the 8 months I spend here I can really say that she has become one of my best friends. Everybody in that family really cared for me as if I was a real family member. In the end it even felt like Grandma is my real Grandma and not just my Hostgrandma.
But of course being an Aupair isn't always rainbows and sunshine. Working with kids can always be really difficult and straining, especially because chinese kids are different. There were days that were amazing. My hostchild listened to me and we had a fun time. But there were also lots of times where sentences like „JieJie I don't want to play with you“ and „JieJie you are useless“ were on the menue.
You have to keep in mind that the chinese mentality is really different from what you are used to and the kids being spoiled and lots of pressure on their education is often normal.

In my time as an Aupair I grew alot. I've personally been through a hard time but it made me grow and I wouldn't want to take that back.
I made lots of new friends that grew important to me in a really short time and let alone the fact that I decided to extent my stay shows that I did enjoy my time here.
Now that I approach the end of my stay I have to say that I am indeed happy to go home but I am also happy that I decided to spend my time as an Aupair.
I am proud that I finished the program even though I don't think I would do it again. Being an Aupair once in your life is enough.

I'm also thankful for my Local Coordinator Yvonne because even if I didn't really have problems with my hostfamily Yvonne was always there to help. Also she was more like a friend to me than a person of authority which made talking to her about Problems a lot easier.

Au pairing in Shanghai was the best decision of my life. Not only has my Mandarin improved greatly, I had the opportunity to enjoy life and make friends in my (new) favourite city.

Living with a host family was an overall pleasant experience, they treated me very well and any issues that came up were handled maturely and through a comfortable discussion. It's very rewarding to see your host child's skills improve.

The Lopair team try their best to help you adjust to living in a new country. They are always on hand for help regarding teaching methods. The cultural activities provided are fun and educational.

One of the best things about the programme is the quality of teaching at Mandarin House. The classes are often small and the teachers are brilliant, you improve a lot in a short amount of time.

I'm currently completing the 6th month of my Au Pair in China, Shanghai.
I had a great time here. Of course there were good times as well as bad times. I was lucky I got a family where everyone could speak English. Means less misunderstandings because of different languages. But there were still a few things I had to get used to due to the cultural differences.
The highlight of the Au Pair were definitely the mandarin classes. I had a wonderful teacher who has a lot of patience. Of course the classes are challenging but my Chinese improved fast. The school is a great way to meet other people and get some social life going on even with a busy schedule.
My local coordinator, Yvonne, and the other lopair staffs always tried their best to help me when I had troubles. Yvonne is always very sweet.
My advice for people who consider doing an au pair:
Be 100% sure that this is what you want. You'll probably sacrifice a lot of your time for the family. Even if you like kids you need to understand that it means living with and being around kids most of the time. It's a difficult task and sometimes you also have to alter your own viewpoints on education/parenting to meet the standards of the host family (as for me, my host mom handles a lot of situations differently than I would've done if I had my own kids). You have to be mentally flexible