Living in the States as an Au Pair

 I chose this topic to write about because I consider it relevant and coherent with my Foreign Language Career. First of, all because when we study English not only do we learn how to use the language but also its context and culture. Second, because when we study English in Colombia (in my case) at the University we learn it in a general way and not its daily use, in a familiar environment for example. Most of the teachers try to contextualize it through authentic material such as magazines, interviews, news, news paper, etc, although this is very helpful is not enough. Third, because even when the professors have a good level it’s not the same as listening native speakers in real situations for example: when you go to a store, to a restaurant, to a bank, to the airport or to make phone calls, these are some of the situations in which I had to deal with while I lived in the States. Last, reason that encouraged me to write about this experience is that I haven't read any, as the teacher said, there have been a lot of students from the Escuela de Ciencias del Lenguaje that have traveled to the States as au pairs but none of them have written about their experiences.

This writing is addressed to my classmates, since they are studying the same, I believe it would be helpful to share my experience with them and it is also a way to encourage them to take the risk, if they have the chance, to go to an English-speaking country and be in a direct contact with the language, costumes and culture in order to realize the difference between learning English in Colombia and learning it and dealing with it in an English-speaking country.

In this text, I will also tell the readers my experience as an au pair, living in an American family house, interacting a lot of time with the host kids, dealing and listening to colloquial English, every single detail regarded to the house, the food, their celebrations, television, music, etc. I’m going to talk about my first impact with their native language, when I have to ask them for repetition and figuring out how to explain myself for them to understand me and then when I got used to it and was easier to express myself or to hold conversations with American friends and friends from other countries. I had the chance to talk with the friends’ parents of my host kids in the bus stop, at the kids parties, in the play dates, etc, some of them went like: ‘Oh, but your English is good!’. Well, anyways, when we talk to American people in Spanish, we also tend to think they speak well, even when they have a funny accent or pronunciation.  In order to accomplish the requirements of the program I signed up for English classes in a College and it was nice to take those classes with a native teacher and with foreign classmates from Finland, Poland,  Brazil, India, Haiti, Peru and Argentina and get to know a little bit about their cultures and accents.

I traveled through the company Cultural Care Au Pair, this company helps the candidates to arrange everything for the trip, they also look for a host family for you to talk to them and make an agreement. Au Pairs also have the chance to study there in order to accomplish with the school credits that the program requires.  During the whole application, candidates have interviews in English; first, an informal interview via telephone with someone of the program to test our level in English, then, when there is a host family interested in our profile, they make us a call in order to interview us and finally, in the embassy when we apply for the visa the consuls make questions in English. Those moments are full of nervousness and stress when we are not get used to it or when our proficiency is not that good.

Resources:

·    http://www.culturalcare.com.co/