au pair/ˌəʊ ˈpeə/(互惠) 源自于法文“互助、互惠”的意思。au pair互惠生，最早起源英、法、德等国，是自发的青年活动：年轻外国人为学习某国语言和体验该国文化寄宿在一个东道主家庭(多为中产阶级)，同时为该家庭做一些看护孩童的工作为西方的一项流行风俗。今天我们就来听听这位澳大利亚的小姐姐聊聊她在西班牙做au pair的经历吧~
Right now I’m actually working as an au pair. You know what an au pair is?
Gwen
No.
So au pair is a French word. It’s usually a young woman, I mean, it can be a guy, but usually, a young woman who lives in a family's house and helps look after the children. So my setup, my job is really, I mean, I can barely call it a job, I don't do much. I don't have to do any housework or anything. I just pick up the little girl from school, she's nine years old, and spend some time with her in the afternoons doing anything, painting, talking, like kicking a ball around. Not much.
Usually, families who have au pairs are pretty wealthy, but this family is like upper middle class. I mean they only pay me €75 a week. So it's not that much. But I get free accommodation, free food.
Gwen
So you're living there all week long. You don't have any days off?
I have the weekends off. Yes. And right now, because the children are still at school, actually today is their last day of school, I’m free all during the day, and then I just, I usually have to be with them in the afternoons.
Gwen
So how long have you been an au pair in this family?
About… this is coming up to the end of my third week.
Gwen
Do you have a contract that how long you will be staying with this family?
I haven't signed an actual contract, some au pairs do, but I haven’t. But I will be here until the second week of August. Just over summer. It’s pretty much just a way for me to experiencing a new place and not spend that much money.
Gwen
In the family, do they speak English or do you speak Spanish?
They want me to speak in English all the time. So we speak in English. The dad speaks quite well, and the older daughter, she's thirteen, she speaks really well. The little one understands me, but doesn’t…she gets a bit nervous speaking and the mother doesn't speak that well, like, I speak better Spanish than she speaks English. But I have to speak in English, which is a shame because I’d like to practice my Spanish. But that's what I have to do.
Gwen
In the afternoon, you started by picking up the children from school and then you spend some time with them. Also help them do homework?
Yes, if they need help. And if it's something that I can help them with, I mean just English homework pretty much. I try to help them with maths, but I’m very very bad at maths. And then, I mean obviously, I’m not much of a help with Spanish. And here they speak Castilian (卡斯蒂里亚语). Have you heard of Castilian?
西班牙语本土方言众多，主要有5种：
1、卡斯蒂里亚语 2、加利西亚语3、巴斯克语4、加斯科尼语5、加泰罗尼亚语
通常意义上所指的西班牙语即卡斯蒂里亚语。它是西班牙及整个拉丁美洲各国(除巴西、海地)的官方语言。是联合国5种工作语言之一，是全世界除英语之外应用最广泛的语言。
Gwen
No.
Spain is a really interesting country. They've got sort of little countries within the big country. Well, I guess it's like China as well, you got different regions with different dialects and culture. Right?
Gwen
Yeah.
So it's the same here. They are speaking completely different languages on this island. So that's what the kids study at school.
Gwen
So they also study English at school?
Yes, but the level isn't too high. A lot of kids do extracurricular (课外的) English classes. So there's a lot of work for English teachers here. It’s quite good.
Gwen
So we can see that English is still quite important in Spain.
Yes, definitely.
Gwen
So when they're looking for au pairs, what kind of qualifications are they looking for? I mean, of course, you must be a native English speaker. And what's more?
Well, actually it depends on the family. So, my family just once, I mean, I’m their seventh au pair, they get an au pair every summer every year and they just want someone usually native speaker, but they have had like girls from Sweden or Iceland before, and they just want a girl to speak English with the kids.
But for other families they want someone to really help with the housework and managing the house and things like that. So I actually know a Vietnamese girl who’s an au pair and there are Mexican girls, Russian girls. So yeah, you don't have to be a native speaker and there’s no real qualifications that you need. I guess people…it looks good if you have a degree and you’re interested is enough.
Gwen
Where in particular do you find jobs like this?
Well, there's a website. Well, there are multiple websites actually but the website I found my family on was au pair world. So I think that's one of the biggest ones. You sort of just make your profile and families can find you on that.
Gwen
Do you find jobs around the world or just in particular countries.
All around the world. You can search for jobs in Europe and lots of different European countries. I mean, I think it's more popular in Europe. I know that it does exist in Australia, but it’s definitely not as big as here. I mean countries in America, South America.
Gwen
So you directly communicate with the family once you…
Yeah.
Gwen
Can you guarantee the safety issue? I mean you have to live in this family for quite a long time.
Yeah, I mean it's always… you're putting your trust in someone. But if you chat to them beforehand, have some video calls and…I don’t know maybe I’m a bit too trusting of people, but I haven't had any bad experiences.
I think the main concern with au paring is not necessarily safety, but more being taken advantage of like financially, economically, or being sort of emotionally…sort of treated poorly by the family or by the children. That was the main concern for me.
Gwen
Well, this reminds me of a movie. I don't know whether you have seen the movie. It's called Nanny（应该是Nanny Diaries）. It’s by Scarlett Johanson.
I haven’t. I love Scarlett Johanson, though.
Gwen
This movie is about the au pair job actually. You can see it sometime.
OK.
你想不想去做au pair？有机会的话，你想去哪个国家？
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