Justin is German, after 7 months as an Au Pair he decided to continue this experience but this time studying on the side! Read his testimony 😉
How long have you been in France for?
I’ve been an au pair in Paris in an English family last year and I searched for a way to stay in Paris. So I signed up for studies at universities and finally got accepted. So then I came back to Paris to start the studies. And now I’m an au pair too. So I’m doing both at the same time.
How long have you been an Au Pair for?
Since August and before, I’ve been in Paris for 7 months. So in total, you could say one and a half year, between one and a half and 2 years with a big gap where I’ve been in Germany during Covid.
Why did you want to be an Au Pair? What were your motivations?
There are two reasons we could say. The first one is that I just love children. Just obvious, if not you shouldn’t become an au pair. I’ve got quite a lot of children in my family, and I also did volunteering in a choir of children and stuff like that. So I’ve been quite into that.
And the second reason was that I searched for a way to go to another country that was after my high school diploma and now obviously during the studies it’s very difficult to find an apartment and stuff, so it was also a good opportunity, a very easy way to leave.
What are you doing as a student?
I’m studying English and cinema.
What did you find easy and difficult during this experience?
So during this particular experience it’s obviously quite difficult to combine the studies with au pairing. Also, it’s easy in this family because there are quite a lot of advantages concerning the time when I need to work etc… So that requires quite a lot of organization, a good organization. Which can be difficult sometimes.
And then what’s easy? Well, as I said I’m quite lucky with my family so I think I would have been much more difficult with other families, for example where you would need to start at 4 o’clock in the afternoon. To work for them, it’s quite difficult. So here I’m starting to take care of the children at 6 o’clock in the evening. So that allows me to have the whole afternoon for myself. So that’s quite easy and then also the tasks I have, here, been not difficult compared to the family where I’ve been before. Where I had to pick them up from school and then be with them for the whole afternoon and think about activities and all of that. And here I’m picking them up from school and then we have the same «routine» every evening. So it’s dinner, bath time, all of that… So I don’t need to invent many activities. So that definitely easy.
Where do you see yourself in 1 year?
That’s a good question. Well, also it’s quite easy to answer because I just started my study. So in one year I see myself still studying, living in Paris. Because I want to go in another country during the third year of my studies but that’s at the end and next year I’ll be studying in Paris living by myself. So I’m just searching for an apartment in Paris.
What do you like about France?
Everything about France. It’s starts with the culture, the language, the food. And I don’t know, it’s can’t really explain it. I got into that I started learning French 5 years ago, and we got to go to France during school exchanges and everything. And I can’t really explain to you what it made with me but something happened like how do you say I got in love with France, I don’t know.
And finally, do you have any advice for young people who would like to do what you did?
It’s definitely a good thing to do and allows you to I mean also an au pair here is not a waste of time like some people would say, but if you study at the same time it’s definitely a good use of your time. But you need to pay attention to some things, so just take a little have a look on the time schedule of your family. Probably choose a family, like in my case, where you start to work later. Probably look at the timetable of your studies. Just try to organize yourself in advance.
And try to have a look where the university is and where your family lives because you don’t want to end up with having a distance of a long distance where you need to go one hour by train. Just pay attention that everything works fine, just organize yourself and then yeah you’ll be good. And once you’re here you’ll see that it’s much easier than then you would think, probably because people say how can you do that : «study and being au pair at the same time» but it works. It definitely works.
Thank you very much Justin for this interview and enjoy your stay in Paris! 😊
👉 Read other au pair testimonials.
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