Challenge yourself

Coming from the rather quiet Germany I prepared myself for an adventure including, incredible crowds, skyscrapers, weird food, different mentalities and a ridiculous language. I definitely was not disappointed, China is different in nearly every aspect of life which makes a (little) culture shock inevitable. Besides travelling and all the nice parts of being in a foreign country there are also some challenging parts, on which I want to focus in my review.

First of all I want to clarify that this program is neither about you nor does LoPair have presents to give away. They are not a welfare organization but a business organization with their focus on the host families (who pay insane amounts of money to have us as their private teacher/family member). If you decide to come to China as an Au Pair you decide to work in China for more than 35hours a week and absolute minimum wage. It is not travelling in China and having loads of free time as a lot of Au Pairs like to hope when they first come here. I've seen a lot of Au Pairs leaving China after just a few days/weeks because they misinterpreted the program description. Second I want to stress that dealing with high expectations not only for your host child to learn the foreign language but also regarding you as a person can be extremely intimidating. Most Chinese families still think of foreigners as being hardworking academics who manage their time in the most efficient way, whereas in reality, and I think I can speak for all of us, we also like to watch Netflix, laugh at memes, spend nights out and procrastinate in terms of studying and work. Be prepared to feel the foreign implied urge to outgrow yourself.
Furthermore you as an Au Pair are not living an independent life, which can be quite annoying if you in your personal development are already an independent person. You as an Au Pair are living for another family, meaning your sleep schedule, freetime and vacation plans, studying schedule etc. but also wether they see you as a family member or employee depends on your family's plans and moods which change from day to day. Flexibility and adaptability are key. If your hostchild only sleeps 15 hours on a whole weekend because it's going through a phase then don't expect to sleep more than that (of course the next nights he/she will sleep more again, but still). In a lot of families you are indeed not only a language teacher but more of an educator who spends more time with the children and has therefore more influence on the children's behavioural education than the parents themselves. In the time that you are their Au Pair you are responsible for their children's development which on it's own is a very big challenge. In addition, you not only have to be a good teacher you also have to ensure that the children are interested in you as a person and want to be around you (want to be influenced by you).
Besides all that you also want to make sure to take care of yourself by studying Chinese (which you should see as freetime not as a duty), meeting friends and exploring your area. This is where your host family comes into play, if they grant you regular off days, understand the program guidelines and respect your needs and interests your freetime will make up for what you have to go through every week (was luckily the case for me). If not seek help at LoPair. Since you work for the family, let LoPair work for you and your needs, don't work for both parties and try to make out everything on your own or you want to leave China quicker than your host child can say ”不要“ (a stubborn way to express their resentment).

As a conclusion I want to tell you about how all Au Pairs (including me) always complain about how exhausting, suppressing and toxic being an Au Pair in China is and that I don't think that that's a lie or an over exaggeration.
But I also think that exactly these challenges and unsolvable seeming problems that you will face are the fact why you WILL outgrow yourself, why you will develop a stronger personality and why you will gain key qualifications that you wouldn't have gained in your average 9-5 job or uni.
We don't grow when we are comfortable, but when we have to leave our comfort zone.
Don't come as an Au Pair if you want to travel, but come as an Au Pair if you want to face new challenges, because that's what being an Au Pair in China is, a challenge.

Special thanks to my Mandarin teacher Scarlette and my local coordinator Yvonne without who I wouldn't have been able to complete the 6 months.

*mic drop*