Actually I cannot believe, that I'm living in China for already 10 months now and sadly... I just have 1 month left in Ningbo with my amazing host family! Time can pass by very, very fast when you feel welcomed and comfortable. I really enjoy my Chinese life and can't imagine how it will be back in Germany, during my stay with a Chinese family and living in a Chinese city, learning more and more about culture and people and trying to improve my Chinese skills I must say, my attitude about different lifestyles and dealing with unfamiliar people changed a lot.  I became more open and improved my self confidence! 

I'm really, really thankful to my host family for letting me become a part of their family and showing me how it is to live the Chinese way of life.

For me living in Ningbo became very convenient, although the city isn't that big as usual Chinese cities are I'm still making some small adventures and exploring new places with my friends.Finding Chinese friends was also one of the best experiences I've made during my stay in China. Chinese people are most of the time very friendly and gentle and they're caring a lot about their friends to make sure they feel comfortable and happy. My Chinese friends showed me many fantastic places in and around Ningbo and KTV will always be a great memory for me, I'm pretty sure that after my Au pair time we will keep in touch and I will definitely go on with learning Chinese!

To become an Au Pair in China was one of the best experiences I've made so far, it is always good to travel to unknown places and meeting new people, trying different food and learning a foreign language.

The key for spending an unforgettable time in China was for me having much communication with my host family and learning how to deal with different attitudes and lifestyles and accepting them.

"Sarah is a pretty optimistic and patient au pair. Under her 9 months accompaning and caring, my lovely daughter really enjoyed English learning in such a perfect environment！ Now my kid has been already able to read some English edition books and can write some in English as well. I think that indeed owe to Sarah's efforts and hard working.

Sarah is quite interested in Chinese culture and she's just working on applying for Chinese university to get a further study in China. And all of us hope she will successfully get an offer from Chinese university! And the most important is that we wish she can gain the rewards for Au Pair of The 2nd Quarter!"

Becoming an au pair in China was the best decision ever!When I applied last summer for becoming an au pair in China, I only had a vague idea of what it exacltly means to be an au pair here. I was grabbed by wanderlust and I’ve always loved children, so this program seemed ideal for me. And now I can say, that it’s way more than that. But before I get more into raptures, I should try to give you an impression of how my daily live here looks like.

I’m living in a chinese family with two children – a sugar-sweet 6-year old girl, Coco, and an alert 9-year old boy, Benjamin. Beside the parents, the mothers parents live with us together. We live in a flat in the centre of Shenzhen, so that it’s easy to get to any place.A typical day looks like this for me:

I wake up my little boy and before he has to leave our house for going to school, we read english books for half an hour. As soon as the children both are at school, I usually do sport, read books, chat with friends or learn Chinese. At lunchtime Benjamin comes home, so we can eat together. Sometimes I additionally prepare a little salad or something else ‚western‘, in the beginning he ogled it critically, but now he tries it more often.After lunch it’s time for English again – I support him to built sentences with new forms of grammar he had learned, he learns new vocabulary in short role playings, etc. (he loves the vocabulary ‚box‘ that I had ‚built‘ :D ). In the early afternoon I have time to meet friends or my chinese teacher (the best one I ever had! <3 ) or I explore the city.

I’m here now since 3 month – halftime. And the last 3 month really changed my life and my perspective about live. I don’t only live in a ‚host‘ family – this family became a part of my family. I’m  not only a teacher for my sweet children here, but their big sister, an adventure-storyteller, a playfellow and someone they entrust little secrets and ideas to, I try to help them explore and open their minds. I already have tears in
my eyes, when I think about the fact, that in 3 month I have to leave my chinese family and especially my two lovely little siblings here. But I know that, no matter what, I can visit them anytime and that I will always be their big german sister.

The time here broadens the mind from every one of us – we grow with every new experience and new friendships, we gain independence, we learn a total new way of intercultural competence and find a new perspective of the world.I learn and love the chinese culture and language. And I didn’t expect before I came here, that I would also improve my English – now it’s absolute normal form me to think and dream in English.And here in China I’ve found myself a bit more. I can recommend this experience to everyone who loves children and wants to open their mind and gain new experiences in a way you can’t even imagine. I share this experience of how my personality and perspective grows with my new family and friends from all over the world that I‘ve found here in China. And I’m so grateful fort he opportunity to be here right now in exactly this family.w experiences in a way you can’t even imagine. I share this experience of how my personality and perspective grows with my new family and friends from all over the world that I‘ve found here in China. And I’m so grateful fort he opportunity to be here right now in exactly this family.

Rike really loves studying. As long as she has free time she just read books there. And she keeps on exercise everyday. In addition, she's self-disciplined and has good manners that I really appreciate she can be the role model for my kids. Every morning Rike wakes kids up and accompany them reading English. Gradually the kids love reading. Every Tuesday and Thursday Rike takes kids to take part in the tennis class. My kids can not do the push-ups before but now with Rike's help they can do more than 40! Saturday is our family's happy time : we go hiking, watch movies, have picnics together. Rike cares the kids very well particularly when the kids riding bicycles.

All our family members love Rike who bring us lots of fun and happiness. The most important is that she tell us what kind of life is healthy and teach the kids to form good habits. Thank you! Rike!

Thanks for the nomination from my host family! Living with them has been one of the greatest experiences in my life so far and I enjoy every day I spend with them! Right from the beginning when I arrived in Taiyuan they've always been very caring and also very interested in my view on things. I feel like my host family and I build up a real family relationship founded on mutualtrust and respect.  In our free time my family and I do a lot of family activities,such as cooking or going out spending time at parks,we always have plenty of fun together.  But it's not only those activities I enjoy to take part in, it's also the daily life, playing or learning with my girl, small conversations with my Chinese grandmother and joking around with each other is wonderful too! All in all I think that my host family is the perfect family to make an au pair's stay in China as great as it can be. They are very open, friendly and caring and made my whole life so much better, even in that relatively short period of time I've been spending with them yet.

Lisa is a girl who is pretty sunny and active. And she is very gentle that our kid says she's like a sheep.Her coming brings us a lot of fun. We can communicate with each other in Chinese and English, and we also cook dishes and bread together. Lisa's Chinese is great! She knows lots of Chinese and Chinese culture, so we get along well in daily life. What's the most important thing is that Lisa is very responsable. She's regardless of personal interest and does not care too much about her free time. She just focus on how to prepare for English teaching for kid and leaning Chinese during free time. Only in 3 months our kid gets progress in English as well as her Chinese. In a word, Lisa is very considerate and try to solve problems by herself. We really hope she could be the winner! Go !Lisa!

“I'm really lucky to be able to take care of such lovely kids. We have so much fun together, playing, singing songs, going to the park and cooking. It's fascinating to see how much the children pick up of what you are saying or doing with them. Vibrant cities,friendly people, good food and magnificent landscape,these are countless great things about China. Of course there are many differences that can sometimes be difficult for foreigners. But once you accept the fact that certain things just are dealt with differently, you can really share experiencing and exploring! Do your best because all you give will come back to you in one way or the other!”

The host mom Mrs. Yang says “Louise is a pretty nice girl and responsible au pair! She is quite skilled in taking care of  child. She gets along well with the children. The older child sometimes has a bad temper but Louise is very patient. She is also very punctual that makes us feel good. She is a sunny girl and easygoing! Our family like her very much!