Daiana, From Argentina, Au Pair in the U.S.

By working as an au pair in the U.S., Bridge IDELTOnline™ graduate Daiana Amerio, from Argentina, has embraced the opportunity to immerse herself in an English-speaking environment while gaining insights that would enrich her teaching career. She gives a glimpse into her daily life as an au pair and shares how her experiences abroad, combined with the innovative teaching approaches she learned from her TEFL/TESOL course, will shape her approach to education back home.

Hi Daiana! Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

I’m from Argentina. Currently, I live in Silver Spring, Maryland, as part of an au pair program. I decided to be an au pair here because I’m studying to be an English teacher in Argentina – I’ve completed more or less 80% of my degree.

Back home, I’ve also taught English to three to five-year-old kinder students at a private school, but I still have to do my teaching practice. I’ve also taught middle school and high school students. So, I thought this experience could help me learn more culturally and achieve my goal.

How did you choose Maryland and your host family for your au pair program?

In the beginning, when I was looking for family, I wanted to go to California because you have a big channel. But when I started to look for families, I had very important questions I wanted to ask them to understand how they live, how they are, how the kids are, how they deal with different situations, even if they have a specific diet because all of those would be part of your daily life. So, for me, it was important for the family to have more or less the same values as mine.

Learn more about becoming an au pair in the USA.

How’s your au pair experience been so far?

I live with a family of four – two girls aged 10 and 11 and their parents. They make me part of the family all the time, but at the same time, they give me my space. They invite me to do everything, but they also respect if I want to do something else with my friends or if I just want to stay in my bedroom.

The girls are also excellent. Of course, they have some moments because they are kids, but they are hugging you all the time. It’s really nice.

What’s your typical day as an au pair?

In general, I start at 7:30 AM. I have to make lunchboxes for school. On some days, I do the laundry. After that, we have breakfast together. In my case, my host dad is the one who makes breakfast because they like to share that moment with the family. During the school year, I pick the girls up at the bus stop. We do homework after that. Depending on the weather, we sometimes go outside or play with their cousins. After all that, we have dinner between 6 and 7 pm.

If it is not a school day or in summer, the girls go to summer camp. If they’re not in summer camp, I work from 9 am to 5 pm. I may prepare lunch at home or go to a park for a picnic. We also have a list of things they want to do, so it’s easier. But at this age, their interests change constantly, so you need to ask them what they want to do every day.

What do you do in your free time?

In general, my weekends are free. Your free time also depends on how you work. For me, I get 10 vacation days. But if you work on weekends, you get 14 days. For example, I went to Europe for a vacation last month for 10 days. On weekends, I usually do mini trips within the U.S. For example, I’m going to San Diego next week.

What do you like best about working as an au pair?

I like learning about the culture because it’s pretty different. For example, in Argentina, we have dinner really late, or around 10 p.m. Here, we have dinner early, so it’s different.

I also like sharing my culture with them and making them try typical food from Argentina, like alfajores and dulce de leche. As the family likes eating out, we also go to different places to try food from around the world.

What were your au pair agency’s requirements when you started your program?

First, you need to be between 18 and 26 years old. Apart from that, you need to have at least 200 hours of experience taking care of kids. It could be working as a nanny. For example. In my case, it was my teaching experience. In addition, you need to have a driver’s license and at least a conversational level of English.
You also need to complete six credits. The agency may also consider the number of hours. One credit is equivalent to 12 hours, so if the course doesn’t show the number of credits, they can’t recognize the number of hours you’ve worked in the course.  You can choose any course you like, but you also need to check that the credits are okay with the agency you are working with. In my agency, you can take online courses but if want to earn the six credits, they should only come from one course. But maybe they will accept two or three different courses, like two online ones and one at a community college.
Another important thing is you can stay for one year and extend with the same family for another year. You can stay for six, nine, or 12 months, and if you want to extend your stay a second year, you need to have your credits earned.

Get a full list of requirements to be an au pair and learn how to navigate au pair classes.

Why did you choose to take a TEFL/TESOL certification course for your J-1 visa credit?

As I’m studying to be an English teacher, I wanted something that was related to that and could help me have more knowledge about the subject. I thought it was useful to have something different because I’m already learning how to teach in Argentina to Spanish speakers but it’s not the same to teach in different countries. When you’re teaching someone who speaks the same language as you, you can always use your first language, but when you are teaching someone who has a different first language, you need to use different resources, techniques, or methods to communicate well.

Looking back, what inspired you to become an English teacher?

Well, I always liked English. I went to a public school and it’s not common in Argentina to have English in public schools in kindergarten. However, I studied English from kindergarten to the last year of high school.

In the beginning, I wasn’t so sure about teaching. I thought I’d start with teaching and get a degree to be a translator. Then I started to learn a little bit more about theories, and how to teach, then have the experience of delivering classes to your classmates or explaining different topics – when you’re studying to teach a language, it’s not only to teach it.

You need to understand why you’re doing everything, why you’re teaching this this way and not the other one, or if you can, learn everything by heart. When you’re dealing with a language, some stuff should be learned by heart and you start to understand that while you’re studying.

How do you think your experience as an au pair will help you as an English teacher?

I think I used to have a different accent, so that is changing a lot. Also, I think I have more vocabulary and can understand the culture more. A big part of making lessons interesting is showing a little bit of the culture of English-speaking countries. So living here means getting some of that culture that you can put into your class in a different way.

Also, the culture of how kids learn here is different, so I’m also learning how they learn at school and how it’s different from Argentina. For example, kids here go to school from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. In Argentina, you go in the morning or in the afternoon.

Why did you choose to get TEFL/TESOL certified through Bridge?

I was looking for something that would help me earn credits and wanted something related to English teaching. Aside from searching on the web, I’ve also seen some people in social media groups for au pairs sharing different courses. They shared Bridge’s TEFL/TESOL courses and I called my au pair agency to check if I could take the courses.

I then decided to take the 150-Hour IDELTOnline™ as it’s more complete and requires higher English proficiency, as I thought it was more suitable for me. I also liked that the course includes getting feedback from your peers and instructor. The instructor also evaluates you every week, so you get immediate feedback. You can also have more time to check your work and redo it if you want.

Finally, I thought that the graduate-level credits I’ll earn from the Bridge IDELTOnline™ will be helpful if I want to continue my studies.

Is the Bridge IDELTOnline™ course right for you?

How did this course complement your studies to become an English teacher?

I really enjoyed the course and I think it’s helpful! And although I had already studied some of the concepts in the course, I saw them from different perspectives.

For example, I don’t enjoy making lesson plans although I know it’s a part of teaching. In the course, one of the tasks we had to do was designing lesson plans and correcting our classmates’ mistakes. So, it is different when you’re doing that because it’s easier to see what you’re not maybe seeing. Also, having your classmates give you feedback is helpful.

What were some of the methods or teaching strategies that you learned from the course?

For me, the most interesting ones were related to teaching English online. I’ve only experienced teaching one student online, and it’s different when you do that with a group. For example, maybe you need to use different resources for different age groups.

How were you able to balance your au pair tasks and IDELTOnline™ studies?

Well,  in my case,  I have a lot of free time because the kids are at school during the day. Of course that can change, but even though you don’t have much time, you can deal with that. Also, as an au pair, you cannot work more than 10 hours a day, so you can study in your free time.

It also depends on you. For example, you can choose to complete a task at the beginning of the week, do it at the last minute, or work on it a bit every day. I think it’s easier if you do a bit of everything every day.

I also travel a lot. So, for example, I went to Nashville in the middle of the year and Las Vegas for New Year, so I decided to do my tasks before my trip and didn’t have to worry about them.

What do you want to do next after completing your au pair program? 

My idea is to go back to Argentina and finish my degree and teaching practice. I will also probably work a bit at schools and teach my private students back home.

Aside from those, I’d also like to work in translation. Here in Argentina, being a translator is a bit related to law. For example, you have to certify some documents after translating them. My mom is a lawyer, so I know a bit about how it works. So, that could be a good option, although I like teaching more. I also like linguistics, especially neurolinguistics, so I’d probably take a Master’s degree related to Neurolinguistics.

What is your advice for au pairs who want to teach English? 

First, you need to like teaching, regardless of whether you are good at English or not. You need to explain and have a lot of patience. Maybe you’re excellent at English and enjoy using the language, but if you don’t have the skills or don’t like teaching, it would be difficult for you. So, it’s important that you like teaching and that you know that you are learning to teach English.

Finally, when you decide on the kind of course you can take to earn credits, try to choose something that you can learn from. Maybe you’re not planning to teach, but it could be helpful to have this knowledge. We are always teaching in life. Even if you have a kid, a sister, or a brother, you will teach them things so learning some methodologies or approaches can help you deal with that.

Interested in coming to the U.S. as an au pair? Learn more about Bridge Professional Certification courses for your au pair learning requirement.