How To Get The Best Of The Cultural Exchange With The Host Children

Tips to get the host children more interested and involved in their Au Pair's culture and language

One of EurAupair's missions is to improve understanding among people of different countries through cultural exchange.

However, sometimes the children might not initiate their interest in learning about where their Au Pair is from.

Here are a few tips you can do to incorporate some of the aspects from the Au Pair's culture and language into the children's everyday life!

Teach the children some basic greetings in the Au Pair's language.

For example, in the mornings, you can have the whole family say the morning greeting the way they say it in the Au Pair's home country.

Another thing to teach the kids is to have the children say "thank you" and "you're welcome" in the Au Pair's language whenever they are saying it to the Au Pair.

 This is an easy way to introduce a different culture to   the children.

  Cook foods that are authentic to the Au Pair's culture.   These are foods that she grew up eating.

 Make an effort to make a distinction between the   foods that in the US are labeled with a nationality (e.g  Italian, Chinese, Mexican) and the food that they   actually eat in their home country.

 Incorporate any of the Au Pair's holiday traditions into  your holidays.

 This way the children are able to see how others   celebrate the same holidays. Maybe these traditions will   become your family's new traditions!

 Celebrate the Au Pair's holidays, even if they are not   part  of your holidays.

 This will not only help the Au Pair overcome feelings of  homesickness but will provide the children a great   cultural experience.

Take a moment to list the similarities and the differences between US and the Au Pair's home country. Have the children ask questions and find answers to them.

You can compare anything really and this can be very educational to the children. Some examples are: population, weather, seasons, currency, food, holidays, sweets, animals, etc.  

 Most of all, make this a fun experience for the   children.

 Forcing anyone will not increase the interest of the   children to different cultures.

  Allow these things to happen naturally and try to make   it playful and fun!