Category: Japanese Au Pair

When you have an interview with a prospective au pair, you may have already prepared some questions. I would like to suggest several questions you may want to ask when you talk with Japanese au pairs.

1: In addition to asking the au pair’s childcare experiences, ask if she/he has siblings.
I do agree the longer their childcare hours are, the better. But you may also want to find out au pairs have siblings and she/he has been getting used to taking care of her/his brothers and sisters. Living in a bigger family and experienced watching their siblings are practical experiences. If they have several siblings, they normally good listeners, and they are getting used to do some house rolls.

In Japan, many families have only 1 child or maybe two nowadays. But somehow people who want to be au pairs tend to be raised in big families. Since they grew up in a big family, they naturally like kids and good at being with children. Therefore, they think becoming an pair is very attractive.

2: Ask if she/he likes traveling alone.
You may be surprised to hear, but it is common that Japanese nationals live with their parents’ houses even after they graduated from universities or started working as professionals. I, too, went to my university from my parents’s house. I left there when I had a career, but it was physically impossible for me to commute.
You can still see if the au pair you are talking with is independent or not by asking if she/he likes to travel alone. I see many au pairs living with their parents, but love to travel by themselves within Japan or overseas. People who love to travel by themselves do not hesitate asking questions, tend to go out and find friends, and tend to adjust themselves quicker. If they love to travel overseas by themselves, they normally have minimum skills or survival English skills and therefore, they improve English faster.

3: Being silent also means something.
Japanese people tend to think carefully before saying something. We have learned the beauty of silence when we were child. I think it is influenced by ZEN culture. I learned over the years by living in North America, people here normally do not like silence. People in North America tend to think if somebody does not say anything, that means the person is bad or does not have any idea. In Japanese culture, silence has meaning. Silence means people are thinking carefully, organizing their ideas before speaking.

I tell my au pairs that try not to make excessive silence (maybe more than few seconds) when they speak with prospective host families. Yet, you may face a situation that you will have to be bit patient before Japanese au pairs speaking up. Please tolerate few seconds and they will answer.

Japanese au pairs may shy in the beginning. But they are all passionate about becoming au pairs. Let’s have interviews with Japanese au pairs!

I had a great time meeting with prospective au pairs in Tokyo. They learned a lot about the au pair program in the US, and asked questions to previous au pairs.
I also conducted interviews to people who have already started applications.

Each year, I feel that the US au pair program is getting popularity among Japanese people.

Through my 6-week stay in Japan, I have talked with many prospective Japanese au pairs. Once I get back to the U.S. I will have to review their documents and my communication report about them. So, I will be extremely busy.

By the way, please check our currently available Japanese au pairs. I will work hard to have more Japanese au pairs complete their applications, too!

Tomorrow, I will go back to the U.S.

I have been visiting Japan for two weeks already! Oops, before, I know, it will be time for me to return back to the U.S.
But I have been talking face to face or over the phone, SKYPE with many prospective au pairs. It is good to know that the au pair program in the US is getting popularity among Japanese people now.

Why Japanese people think the au pair program in the US is attractive?
Because they think au pair can give them an opportunity to live in the U.S. for at least 1 year with least amount of money compare to other ways of coming to the U.S.
Of course, people who are interested in the au pair program like associating with children and some of them have already been working as childcare professionals.

So, how do they found out about the au pair program? I try to ask this question to each single person I had communicated with.
They said they found out about the au pair program in the U.S. by surfing the net and coincidentally the word ” Au Pair” popped up on their computer screen. Without the power of internet, they would not know anything about the program.

Unlike Europe or North America, the word Au Pair is not familiar with Japanese nationals. So, the Japanese nationals do not directly type the word au pair through search engines, instead, they put related words such as home stay, or working holiday in the U.S. (even though US doesn’t have working holiday program), then they somehow found out about au pair.

Many of them who sent inquiries to our office just found out about the US Au Pair program. So, I hope within few years the word au pair will be more popular. I will do my best to promote the au pair program in the U.S.

You may have a question about how Japanese people drive.  I will have to explain how we obtain driver’s license in Japan.  It is very different from the US system.

First we all have to go to a school to learn driving skills and traffic regulations.  Some people go to the driving school for few months before they try for pre-exam at the school.  Or some people decide to go to few week long intensive schooling with boarding included.

In any case, Japanese people will have to complete driving training and taking lectures, then try for pre-exam.  Sometimes, people will have to challenge several times before they pass.  Then finally people with passing grade from the driving school allow to go to a driver’s license center for license exam.

Compare to American roads, Japanese roads are narrow and people are everywhere.  They need to be very careful.  Plus Japanese driving school teach strictly about how to park.  Even if Japanese people just obtained a car license, it still means they went through intensive training on driving.

Only they need to do is getting used to driving in the U.S.   I do feel that driving in the U.S. is easier than driving in Japan.

So, please do not judge on when they obtained driving license, instead, please ask how often they are driving.

 

 

Throughout the year, we have Japanese nationals trying to match with a host family in the United States. Starting from maybe April to June is the busiest season for matching with host families. So, this is the month, many communications between au pairs and host families are taking place.

Today, let me introduce one of my Japanese au pairs who are currently available to match.
Rina is 26 years old female au pair from Tokyo. She has over 1000 hours of childcare experience including taking care of infants.

She is very active and as a fact, she used to live in Canada for almost 1 year upon completing high school and studied English. Because she experienced study abroad when she was younger, she is very independent and mature. Rina also has professional experiences upon returning back to Japan.

What makes Rina unique is that Rina has studied nutrition and obtained a certificate for food and life adviser. Not only she likes cooking, but she also can think about what is healthy for your children.

My staff met with her in Tokyo in March, 2016. According to my staff, Rina is cheerful, kind and active. We hope Rina will find a great host family soon.

If you are interested in reviewing Rina’s profile, please contact us. You may also access to InterExchange Au Pair USA’s web site and sign-up as a host family.
You don’t need to pay anything until you are officially matched with a host family. So, please sign-up and explore Japanese au pairs.