It was a wonderful experience to spend three months as a Demi Pair.
I was a kindergarden teacher in Japan so I love children and I was interested in the way to bringing up children in Australia.
My tasks were half-housework and half-looking after children. My host kids are 5-year-girl and 3-year-boy so host parents wanted me supervising them. The housework was simple and my host mother gave me the weekly schedule what should I do so I’ve never felt burden. And looking after children was really fun but I felt difficulty as well.
I think the kids in Australia have abundance of emotional expression especially my host kids are little so they had many sibling battle and cry or be cross easily. I tried to solve the problem between them each time. I thought I was good at handling kids but when I tried to speak English,I couldn’t even say half of what I wanted to say.
Therefore I got my host mother help many times and I learned how to lead solution it little by little. I was perplexed about difference of way to raising up and lifestyle between Japan and Australia at the beginning but I got used to it soon. And I think the most important thing for Demi Pair is communication with host family! It was hard for me to understand everything they say and tell them what I want to tell. But they tried to speak slowly and use easy words for me. And also I was happy when they tried thrie best to listen or understand my poor English.
I think making positive efforts to talk with host family is the quickest way to improve English but I was shy and didn’t talk a lot so I regret it. If I had not hesitated to talk, I would have been able to get along with them better and my English might have improved more. However I could learn lots of words and expressions from their daily conversation,even when I played with host kids. I think this environment was really good for studying English! I really appreciate what they’ve done for me, espesially my host mother was always cared about me,nice to me and whenever I have trouble,she gave me her advice and helped me. I was relieved to lead a full life because of them. I can’t thank them enough! If someone can’t figure out what sort of accomodation you ought to be choose for the beginning of your Australian life,I definitely recommend Demi Pair!
Ayano S from Japan 8weeks General English Course & Demi pair
