Au Pair Paris

[abcdavid01]

Okay so my internship at Disney World Florida is ending soon. I'm headed back to college in August and should graduate in December. Next I want to head back to China to continue studying. I study Mandarin every day, but I want to get to a more advanced level. Problem is, if I just focus on studying then education costs money. My job options would be limited to English teaching and I'd like to devote my full time (8+ hours/day) to studying like I did last year. So I was talking to Tsar and ideas popped in my head. I did a quick google search and this came up:

http://www.aupairparis.com/

Working as an au pair in Paris. It starts in September, so maybe I go to China for a few months in early 2016, then sign up for this au pair program in the Fall. That way I at least wouldn't have to worry about draining money.

I don't know a lick of French, but I didn't know any Mandarin when I arrived in China last year either. Do any of you have ideas or experience with this sort of thing? I haven't done any research besides a quick google search.

[momopi]

About 28% to 29% of English words in use today are of French origin. It shouldn't be overly difficult.

[Jester]

French is hard to pronounce, like Russian. It has grammar, like Spanish. And it has irregular pronunciations, like English.

Also one of the world's most beautiful languages.

And utterly useless for business.

I know you weren't really asking about French. You were asking about experience with "Au Pair" stuff.

If you are soliciting opinions about the wisdom of your course of action, please say so. If not... I'll stop here.

[Ghost]

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[abcdavid01]

Well I want to be in a position where I'm not losing money. Education costs a lot, so I'd like to make it back by working, even if it means no net profit. So I'd make a down payment on things like airfare and education, then use money earned by working to cover that initial investment. The problem is trying to sign up for these two sorts of things separately, work and study. Also, making sure I can have maximum study time while still considering work needs. That link you posted looks pretty good Ghost. It says airfare reimbursement, so that's a big draw for me, depending on what it really means.

[Ghost]

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[abcdavid01]

Well I want to be in a position where I'm not losing money. Education costs a lot, so I'd like to make it back by working, even if it means no net profit. So I'd make a down payment on things like airfare and education, then use money earned by working to cover that initial investment. The problem is trying to sign up for these two sorts of things separately, work and study. Also, making sure I can have maximum study time while still considering work needs. That link you posted looks pretty good Ghost. It says airfare reimbursement, so that's a big draw for me, depending on what it really means.

Do you have a degree, TEFL, or anything else? You could look into part time teaching jobs in China, or summer camp jobs. A minority of full time jobs with part time schedules and good pay are out there, but that's rarer of course.

Two of my former coworkers worked for a year at the English school and then went to study in Southern China. They made enough money to live about a year in China without working.

I think there are a lot of potential options for you, you'll just have to figure out exactly what path you want to take.

I'm on track to graduate college in December. I already have enough money to live in China without working for a year. I just don't want to eat up all my savings. Eventually I'd like for my Chinese to be advanced enough to do work besides English teaching. I may look into just taking a semester to study Mandarin at a college in China right after I graduate. That'd be January and I can see if the family I stayed with last time would let me live with them for a while. I mean, last time I was in China I studied eight hours a day for two months and went from nothing to conversational. I've continued studying every day since coming back to America, so if I take a whole college semester to just study Mandarin I'll hopefully be at a good place.

[abcdavid01]

French is hard to pronounce, like Russian. It has grammar, like Spanish. And it has irregular pronunciations, like English.

Also one of the world's most beautiful languages.

And utterly useless for business.

I know you weren't really asking about French. You were asking about experience with "Au Pair" stuff.

If you are soliciting opinions about the wisdom of your course of action, please say so. If not... I'll stop here.

I welcome all advice.

[abcdavid01]

Why go to Paris? You can do a home-stay in China and have plenty of time to study Mandarin.

http://www.homestaychina.org/

But it depends on how big of an issue money is. This particular home-stay doesn't offer much money, but plenty of side benefits. You would make better money as an au pair, but the location wouldn't be ideal.

Also, English teaching doesn't have to be a 40 hour week. But you don't have a degree yet, right? So that would limit things.

Thanks Ghost! I don't post on here very often anymore, but I feel like I owe this community a lot.

I applied to this homestaychina program and they just accepted me. I'll graduate college in December and then head to Kunming in January for six months.

I've also started learning French. Once I'm a few months into my job at Kunming, I'll start applying for au pair jobs in Paris. So basically I'm trying to do both. Eventually I want to settle down though - live in one place for a long time and start seriously dating. Pretty happy with my life right now though.

I have to thank Tsar for the idea to be an au pair in Paris. I've always been something of a Francophone (although Britpop's my music of choice). I just hope Tsar can get his life in order.

Some other ideas in the back of my head are Malaysia/Singapore and Central Asia. French is easy and I'll keep studying Chinese, so maybe I'll try my hand at Russian eventually. We'll see.

Something I've learned working at Disney World this past year is that I hate work and like studying. Maybe I'll be a professor when I grow up, haha. To think that I was this sad, lonely depressed teenager when I first found this forum...things are just up, up, up! Thanks to all in the community here.