Wanderlust Cultural Homestay Tutoring (Au Pair in China) Program

Au Paring in China with Wanderlust has been an amazing experience. I have been supported by Wanderlust incredibly well, from my visa application, coordinating my travel plans, organising excellent Chinese lessons, and of course putting me in touch with an awesome host family!

Wanderlust have been consistently helpful and flexible, and have communicated expectations and requirement very clearly from the first interview, all the way through to helping me finish up with my stay in China.

My host family has been awesome — both of the parents are super nice, and all 4 grandparents have been generous and kind as well. My young charge 柒柒 is super cute, and very sweet. So huge props to Wanderlust for managing everyone’s expectations so perfectly, and putting together such an amazing experience.

I would highly recommend slotting a stay with wanderlust into your Gap Year, or any other craving to spend a chunk of time abroad!

I decided to go abroad as an Au Pair with Wanderlust after I graduated from undergrad last year. I found out about Wanderlust through API, which is an American study abroad company, who I had worked with before when I studied in Cuba for a semester. Being an Au Pair with Wanderlust appealed to me, because it was one of the more affordable programs working abroad, and because I wanted to get the experience of living with a host family.

Wanderlust has been supportive throughout my entire six months here. About two months in, I had to change host families due to some communication difficulties, and Wanderlust were very quickly able to get me moved in with another family. After almost four months with the second family, I can say that I have had a great experience living and working with this family. The two boys, ages 7 and 4, make me smile every single day, and I have a great time whenever I am with them. We often go to amusement parks, the zoo, musicals, and more on the weekends, and we even traveled to the Yellow Mountain and went hiking.

I have made many great friends with the other Au Pairs here in Shanghai, and I know that we will continue to keep in contact after my time here has ended. I have made many great, lasting memories exploring Shanghai, spending time with the other Au Pairs, and spending time with my host family. My sister was even able to visit me in China, and we went to Beijing together for a couple of days. Living in Shanghai has truly been an unforgettable experience, and I am grateful to Wanderlust for having facilitated this incredible experience.

I found WAC through "Star Exchange". A great advantage was that the agency was nearby. So I could talk to the agents personally. When I entered the plane I knew that in this "whole new world" will wait great challenges. The language barrier and the cultural difference made it sometimes hard. The agency helped me to solve the problems asap. Remarkable in this program was that you are a part of a Chinese family. So you get an authentic experience of the food, culture and lifestyle. This program was also an amazing opportunity to get to know people who also travelled and experienced a lot and to learn from them. It helped me to become open minded. I learned chinese on a basic level. It was an unique experience which I can definetely recommend!

Working with wanderlust as an au pair has been a great experience, and I have loved living in this city - Shanghai. I have learnt so many things about Chinese culture and I also think it has helped me to become a more patient and caring person.
I was placed with a family with two girls, aged 10 and 3. Although there was and extreme language barrier between the family and I, the family tried to make sure I was happy. We even went on a family holiday together to Sanya in Hainan Province.
The biggest challenges I faced during this program were trying to find a balance between work and personal time. I found it to be a bit lonely in the beginning but once you get to know the other au pairs it is ok. The cultural activities offered are good, but would be better if there were more to give the au pairs more social interactions.
Overall, a great experience and a good opportunity to learn about Chinese culture.

I’m just over two months into my three month stay in Chongqing. If you’re anything like I was before deciding to become an au pair, this is about the fifty-first website you’ve checked out in your research to find the program for you. Let’s be honest, integrating yourself in a totally new culture, especially one with a language different from your native tongue, is hard. But I can tell you that Wanderlust will help you every step of the way.

Ashley, Hazel, and Ginger have been a pleasure to work with, facilitating the interview process to find my host family, helping me with the (rather complex) visa application process, registering me for my biweekly Mandarin courses, showing me around the city my first week here, and providing a short orientation to help ease the transition into Chinese culture.

My host family has been nothing but kind to the bumbling foreigner that’s stayed with them for the past two months, and though teaching and taking care of a child is no easy feat, it really is wonderful to see her English improve every day.

So, to those of you who are ready to take the plunge and become an au pair in China, I say good luck and have fun! There’s really nothing else quite like it.

Going to China has always been something I wanted to do. Taking a gap year finally meant I was able to do this. Looking online for the right program so I could stay in China, I ended up with Wanderlust Exhange.
After arriving in my host family, the beginning was quite tough for me. However, the family has been very kind and gave me the time to get used to everything here. After a few days it went better and better.
Connecting with the hostchild was maybe the most challenging part of my experience. After a few weeks our relationship improved: the child was open to learn more English besides just playing with me.
Over the weekends I would join the family in their activities (having lunch outdoors, going to a park, visiting the grandparents, going to a park etc.) and during weekdays I'd have time to see more of the city and attend my Chinese classes.
Besides seeing more of the country and learning a little bit of the language, I also learned more about tutoring a child and finding ways to make learning more fun.
So I would say this program is a chance to experience the best of both worlds and I would recommend this program to anyone who's up for a (learning) adventure!

First I wanted to be in Shanghai but when I discover the host family who wanted to be with me it was a perfect match !

WAC helped me in all my steps to be able to come to China by answering my questions. more the welcome and the approaches to my arrival were warmest. I am happy to have been with this company during my 6 months in China and I thank them very much for finding me the perfect family in China.

followed in approaches for visa, hosted on arrival in Shanghai, filed at the hotel to leave the business and rest with documents the agency more a small card welcome, the next day visit the agency to focus on the progress and operation in China, followed a visit Shanghai and next day take the train to go to the city of destination Ningbo ! where to me I have been received by the mother very warm with a bunch of flower. even if I were stressed in the plane before arriving in China and despite some technical problems staff this experience with the agency and my family home will forever engraved in my memory and is for me the most beautiful it is !

Wow, I can't believe my two months in China as an AU Pair is already coming to an end!

What an experience, not an easy one by any means, but definitely a completely fulfilling one.

Wanderlust has made this journey a very smooth and simple one. From the airport pickup to the constant support no matter what the issue is (including numerous phone calls while I was in Hong Kong to renew my visa, they were with me every step of the way.

The family I have was matched with have been incredible, the 2 kids are great fun and we enjoy playing sports, games and doing homework everyday. The family have been amazing, they have really shown me around this great city and made me feel at home. In addition, we went on a 2 week holiday to Africa and saw amazing things together. It just goes to show if you put yourself in these kinds of situations anything can happen :)

As an Au pair in China, you shouldn't expect an easy ride, but you should expect a new cultural experience with new things to learn and see everyday . Dive right in and you will be able to make the most of it!

To those contemplating going to China as an Au Pair, I can highly recommend Wanderlust, they have made my journey here so great and I haven't once felt as though there was a problem I couldn't overcome, they have been such a great help to me!

Thanks everyone :)

Mike