LoPair Education: Au Pair Cultural Exchange Program in China

I was an au pair in the USA for 2 years and I loved the experience so I decided to try it again in a different country, China was one of my options since I had always been interested in its culture and language so when I found Lopair I knew China was the right choice.
I arrived to Hangzhou and met my host family for the first time (without taking into account the online interviews ,ofc.), they picked me up at the airport and took me to my new home.
Lopair found a great family for me, they are funny and caring and made me feel part of their family as soon as I arrived, throughout my time with them I have met 奶奶， 外婆 and the rest of the family, having dinner with their relatives and friends is great because I can practice Chinese (my host family can speak English so we use English everyday) .
They have become part of my family now and I am so happy to have them!
My host kid is so smart, he challenges himself everyday so his English has improved a lot, I always ask him things about China and what Chinese kids do for fun, etc. He is always willing to help me clear my doubts.
Lopair has been with me since day one and I am thankful for that.

Hope this was helpful and that everyone interested in China just come because they won't regret it!

Thanks Lopair!

Honestly, I didn't expect much before I actually arrive in China. I do intersted in Chinese culture and I plan to join because I really want to experience the difference. However, I met a wonderful family, and Lopair really good at helping and supporting me during the time when COVID-19 breakout in China.

I was very worried and even panic when it started, the situation was pretty overwhelming. My host Mom was really nice to me and I also think of leaving the program earlier. When I asking questions and options how to leave, Lopair shows their great support and I also understand it's hard to get the flight during the time, I received a very clear explanation on the available options. But leaving my wonderful host family, I will feel so aweful and regreted. I got a lot helps and support from my host family and lopair, I don't feel good by leaving them at this hard time. So, I decided to stay after all.

And I'm glad that I stayed, becuase once the pandemic situation was under controled, my host family is able to take me out and we have short-trip to visit their hometown in Huzhou, a really wonderful place to visit, we climbed up the top of the mountain, visited some historical sites, learning history and ancient stories……

I thought my trip to China will be end up really bad when the COVID19 started, but it's not~ Totally out of my expectation~ I appreciate a lot and it's soooo nice to met my host family. I do suggest people who would like to join this progarm will need to prepared for being a teacher since Chinese family wants you to teach the kids to learn English.

The teaching sometime may needs you to generate some creative ideas to teach. You may also be prepared that you will need to learn Mandarin in China, Lopair offers Mandarin class and I'm able to catch up my poor Chinese, which now become one of the biggest gain during the program.

Luckily I had the support of my agency at home who also rebooked my flight so I could get home earlier when the virus in Beijing spread and contacted me and other german aupairs very quickly.

Others didn't get any help from Lopair, and tried to charge big amounts of money which no aupair can afford!

I won't explain in detail what problems other aupairs had.Another comment explains it well enough. Things went pretty bad for many of us, especially when the virus broke out.We were basicially left with no support.

Communication problems also occured on many occasions. Just be aware they will usually side with the host family and care for their problems first.After all they pay a lot of money.

China is a nice place to visit.I enjoyed being there and made some great memories.Try another company or program. You might be left with no proper care and have to pay too much money when things get bad since Lopair is only interested in making as much money as possible and not taking care.Have a nice day.

I embarked on this six-month placement in China with the aim of having a relatively 'productive' gap year, improving my Chinese language skills and forging connections which might prove useful in the future.

With regard to these aims, the experience was very valuable. My Chinese came on in leaps and bounds thanks to a mostly Chinese-speaking home environment and the best Chinese teaching I've ever received. I also had a really good relationship with my host family (with one caveat that will be outlined below), and will be sure to stay in contact with them for a long time to come. Despite the bulk of my placement overlapping with restrictions due to the pandemic, I was able to see lots of China, taste lots of its food and overall have many unique experiences. Highlights include cupping therapy (definitely an acquired taste!), tongue-numbing Sichuan hotpot and the spectacular scenery of Guilin.

If not for the virus situation, that would definitely be my last word on the programme. However, the fact that our host children weren't attending school meant that myself and most other au pairs were working double the hours stated in our contracts, and I felt that the agency could have stressed more to the families that this was unfair. However, I'm sure that Lopair would have happily facilitated a change of family had I requested one, and the fact that I didn't reflects just how well I got on with my family in all other respects.The fact that I stayed in China, far from family in the middle of a pandemic and working longer hours than anticipated also attests to how great the programme was for my Chinese. I was willing to make some sacrifices in order to reap the benefits of a truly amazing environment for language-learning.

Another nice bonus was making some life-long friendships while out there. I would definitely recommend the programme, though obviously it depends what your goals are at the outset.

When I arrived in China I was really happy but worried. How will the first days going?

But actually it was good. More than good. The other Aupairs (the german ones mostly) are my friends until now. Everyone was so nice and we had the greatest days at the orientation at Lopair.

The people from Lopair are so great. I love them all. Maybe someday I want to work for this kind of company. It seems great to me.
After we all went to our Host families I finally realize I was the only Aupair in Hangzhou. It was hard to know the other Aupairs who already where in Hangzhou for months because they’re already built groups and it’s difficult to fit in and get into it.

So my first weeks I’ve stayed with my family. Aiden and Alayne are my siblings. We’re not siblings by blood but I feel the connection between us. I love them. Really. My host parents are the most lovable parents that you can get. I‘m really lucky that I found a place that I can call home. I can’t never thank them enough to be such a kind and loving family.
I never had problems with my family, I heard from some of the other Aupairs that they changed families but I‘m really thankful that I‘ve been here.

The most I‘m thankful for is Yvonne and Jane. This two girls made me feel happy and helped me alot these days.

It started of well but after the first month me and almost every single other aupair had severe communication problems as they never did anything but send a WeChat message to the families if anything occurred always in their defence as the family pays 20,000¥ per month (£2000) and we only get paid 1,500¥ (£150) per month so if you sign up you are completely expendable to them.

I won't mention any of the other aupairs problems but in my situation my host family decided to move to a different part of China due to an ill family member endgame me 12 hours notice for me to decide if I wanted to come or not. If I left Lopair told me I wouldn't receive my language classes so I decided to switch families. When I told Lopair my decision they took a while to respond but they told didn't have a family for me and that I would have to wait for a new one.

What they failed to mention in their website is that they provide no accommodation or aid while I'm waiting for a new family. THEY LEFT ME HOMELESS IN BEIJING FOR OVER A WEEK! Due to our extremely low pay rate I had no money for an airbnb but I luckily met some people who said I could sleep in their apartment for a few nights. if that hadn't happened then I would've been sleeping on the streets.

If that wasn't enough they also charged me 300¥ because I left 3/4 through the month so I didn't complete that month of work which took away all of the money I had for food.

And of course THE WORST PART. I left at the and of January while the Corona virus was really bad. Because of this reason my host family didn't want to continue having me teach the children incase I gave them the virus so I contacted Lopair to get a new family, they said that they weren't accepting new families because of the virus and told me I HAD to fly home. I understood that so I asked when my flight left and they said that they wouldn't book my flight unless I paid them 3000¥ because they weren't accepting flights PLUS a number of different charges which weren't listed in our contract!!!

They did this to almost every single aupair and since it was 2 months of our salary none of us could afford it! A lot of my German friends got evacuated by their government and because the charges amounted to thousands of Yuan I begged my parents to buy me a flight home and I could pay them back for it when I start work again at home. Some of my friends from South America were stranded in China after I left trying to scrape together the money to get home.

This company does not provide any support to aupairs whatsoever and will only try to extort you for even more money. I would encourage you to look at other companies as a lot of them take excellent care of you but don't go with LoPair for your own safety, thank you

My expirience has been great as an au pair in China . It has thought me a lot and made me grow as a person.
the culture and everything is so different. The people and the manners too. You can deffenetly learn a lot.
To my surprise after six months in China, I dont want to go home yet.
If you are thinking about being an au pair in your gap year, I would say China is a different and exiting opportunity to choose. Besides the long, old culture you will also gain knowledge into the Chinese language.

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.