Finding a Japanese au pair

Summer matching season is almost ending

My Japan visit is almost ending. It was so fast. BUT before returning back to the U.S., I will have an au pair seminar in Tokyo on July 16th.

I have already conducted a seminar in Osaka, and had a great time with prospective Japanese au pairs. I do look forward to seeing future au pairs again in Tokyo. We are scheduled to conduct interviews with au pairs who has started their applications.

We are going to push further to increase Japanese au pairs to arrive in the U.S. in 2016.

We met many au pairs, but each person is unique. Their qualifications are unique as well. Of course we always have pre-school or kindergarten teachers, but also we have university students with education major, or professionals with experience with special needs children. Many of them have experienced study abroad before, or like to travel around the world.

I look forward to meeting with more prospective au pairs. Summer matching season is almost ending, but hope we can help assist matching more excellent host families before the year 2016 ends.

We will do our best!

July 4th is an exciting day for Japanese au paris, too!

This is July 4th weekend in the US. This holiday is definitely a one of the very exciting events for Japanese au pairs as well.

As a foreign national, learning about another culture and history is important. The one of the core purposes of the J-1 VISA program is definitely teaching foreign nationals with American culture and have them like the country.

The United States’ Independence Day has many interesting activities such as music concerts, fireworks, and of course parties. There is also family events such as doing a BBQ party. There are many things for Japanese au pairs to learn through enjoying themselves.

I am looking forward to hearing from my au pairs who are already in the U.S. on what they did and how they felt about the holiday.

Thank you so much for giving them great opportunities to learning about the U.S. culture.

Have a wonderful July 4th weekend!

How do Japanese people find out about Au Pair program in the USA?

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.

I met with prospective Japanese au pairs in Osaka

I am currently in Japan, to be exact in Osaka. Immediately after I returned back to Japan, I did my first au pair seminar in Osaka city. It was very exciting to meet with young people who are interested in the U.S. au pair program.

This time, there are several nursery school teachers with few years of professional experiences. There is also a university student with several overseas experiences. I also had a person who has been doing baby sitting for long time. Each person is very unique and great personalities.

They asked me many questions and we had a great time.

I interviewed three people who have already committed to apply as an au pair, so I am hoping that I can submit their applications to InterExchange Au Pair USA soon.

I am scheduled to have another au pair seminar in Tokyo in July, and I am going to have several consultations with prospects. There will be more Japanese au pairs in the next few months. I will keep you posted!

Meeting with prospective Japanese au pairs

It’s June, and I am going to Japan soon. Japan is my native county and I have my parents, brother and sister, almost everybody is there. So, during the summer as soon as my child finish school, we will head to Japan. My daughter will spend four weeks studying at a Japanese elementary school, spending ONLY Japanese time with her friends. That is one of the most important reasons why we will go to Japan each year. Just to have my child experience real Japan. I truly understand why you are thinking about having a Japanese au pair, because Japanese au pairs can bring and show REAL Japan.

While I am in Japan, I organize several events for prospective au pairs in Osaka and Tokyo. I will explain on how to be an au pair, as well as trying to clarify many of their questions. Some of them already working on the au pair application and have been collecting required documents. Upon conducting face-to-face interviews with them. their applications will be ready for review. So, more new applications are coming!

I am excited that I am going back to Japan and meeting with prospective au pairs.

I will keep you posted!

Driving skills of Japanese au pairs

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.

Male Au Pair? Yes, we have

Many people think that Au Pairs are for females. It is not true. There are actually male au pairs, even though not many. Definitely, some families seek male au pairs.
According to InterExchange, 95 % of entire au pairs are females, but remaining 5% are male au pairs. I don’t know if you think the 5 percent population is many or few.

We have sent few male Japanese au pairs in the past. We feel that the host families who welcomed male au pairs were happy with their decision.

If children are all boys, definitely, host families may consider welcoming a male au pair.

Many of male candidates who seek to be an au pair are kind and gentle. Some of them have pre-school or elementary school license. Many of them like cooking and cleaning. Actually two of my male au pairs were chef. Maybe they cook much better than me.

I would like to introduce my male au pair, Ryu, 26 years old from Tokyo. He loves teaching music such as piano and guitar to children. And, he can cook.
He loves travelling and has good English communication skill. Ryu has experienced working as a baby sitter and he has niece that he has been taking care of since she was born.

If you are interested reviewing his full profile, you can sign-up as a host family through InterExchange Au Pair USA. Upon signing up without any financial obligation, you can start reviewing our available Japanese au pairs.

Please do not hesitate to contact us as well!!

Introducing excellent Japanese au pair: Rina

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.

Introduction

Welcome to our blog, finding a Japanese au pair! I decided to start this blog to write about Japanese au pairs, Japanese culture, and anything I thought I want to introduce to readers.

I think you already know what the au pair program in the USA is. If you don’t know, please go to the following web site to learn more about hosting an au pair. https://www.interexchange.org/become-a-host/au-pair-usa/

I have been assisting Japanese nationals to become au pairs in the U.S. since 2011 as an international cooperator, meaning we are responsible for informing the process of becoming an au pair in the U.S., interviewing the prospective candidates, helping their applications and VISA support for one of the au pair agencies in the US, InterExchange Au Pair USA. We have promoted the au pair program and recruited many Japanese nationals for InterExchange. I feel that the au pair program has been gaining popularity among Japanese people. Four years ago, not many Japanese people knew about Au Pair, but now, people asked me on how to become an au pair. That is a huge improvement.

I have been communicating with Japanese au pairs almost everyday,but, realized, I didn’t have a tool to appeal to host families about Japanese au pairs. That is the reason why I opened this blog. I will tell you about Japanese au pairs, Japanese people (sometimes my personal views) and Japanese culture etc.

Hope this blog will help you understand your Japanese au pair better, or start considering having a Japanese au pair.

Akiko Imairi Selmon, Au Pair Japanese Connection