Governess to Germany? It is worth considering

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

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Nabokov, "Lolita"

Probably, many people are familiar with the French word "au-pair", in our opinion just "governess" or "nanny". If we translate the word literally, then it means "in a pair", that is, it means that the nanny and the mistress of the house, who hired her, jointly take care of both the house and the children. Many young girls from Eastern Europe who want to get to Western Europe in order to learn foreign languages there, see the world and show themselves, have already been au-pairs. Such international educational programs for the purpose of learning foreign languages are designed mainly for a year. During this time of constant presence in the environment of native speakers, you can master a foreign language very well, especially since the program provides for compulsory attendance of courses 2-3 times a week.

The prospect is great - to live a year abroad, learn a foreign language, travel across boundless Europe: Paris, Rome, Venice, Vienna, Zurich … Being in Germany, traveling is not difficult. It's great to discover new countries, cities, learn new foreign languages, make interesting acquaintances. And you will have to work a little, only five or six hours a day. Maybe a little more, but no more than 35 hours a week. So it is stipulated in the contract, as well as at least one day off per week, free time on holidays and four weeks' vacation after 12 months of working in the family. The work is not difficult. Just think, take a walk with a stroller in a beautiful park, pick up children from kindergarten or take them to a circle, make breakfast and pick up toys in the nursery. For this, they also give money (about 200 euros) for pocket expenses, and pay for health insurance, and provide housing (a separate room), and feed, and if you are lucky, they can also have a travel card for all types of transport, and German language courses (even not in an expensive prestigious school) pay. I worked the allotted five hours with an obedient German child (more often, of course, with two or three children, and not so obedient), and before you is a whole world that calls and beckons. Cafes, discos, swimming pools, museums, galleries, shops, all kinds of trips. In a word, life, as it turns out, consists of pleasures!

This is how tempting these international au-pair programs look, which invite young girls and boys from 18 to 25 years old to work as governesses (or just nannies) in wealthy German families. But life experience makes you think: if everything looks so good, then something will definitely be wrong, somewhere a catch awaits. And in practice it turns out, which, as you know, is always at odds with theory, this catch awaits everywhere. A beautiful and boundless world with its possibilities is most often limited only to weekends, and even only to Sunday. On weekdays, to the five planned hours with children and light housework, three more hours of completely unplanned general cleaning, washing, ironing are added, and in the evenings too often repeated babysitting, which are also specified in the program, but not four, but twice in Week. In a word, there are less and less pleasures, and more and more work. At the same time, oddly enough, for some reason no one is going to increase pocket money.

Life in a strange family, in a foreign country, in a foreign language. What is all this for? Integration into a new society, into a new life? The idea is good, but it doesn’t pull for integration, and even more for emigration.

It is not often that those who send the invitation resemble the lovely family from the books "Mary Poppins". In Europe, overflowing with legal and illegal immigrants, it is not difficult to find any worker, especially for unskilled work. It is enough to publish an ad in the local newspaper, and the next day there will be a dozen calls from people willing to come for the whole day or at convenient hours for a low fee. They wouldn’t need food, a separate room, or insurance. What makes a family call a person from a distant country, go to additional costs? There must be underwater reefs here. Nasty, pathological, often mentally not quite normal children or overly demanding and stingy parents. It happens both together. Most often, the work in this family is so hard and unpleasant that none of the local residents stay here for a long time. Calling a foreigner unfamiliar with Western life is a good way to keep an employee as long as possible. And without payment, promising "jam for tomorrow", as the queen suggested to Alice through the looking glass. The local worker, if he doesn't get paid for one month, is likely to leave. It is difficult for a foreigner to go back, he will believe the promises - and what else is left for him? It usually takes six months for him to adapt and dare to protest. This is exactly the time it takes to master a foreign speech.

No matter how wonderful the German family turns out to be, no matter how mentally they feel about the sweet poor girl from the "Ostblok" (our post-allied CIS countries), the relationship rarely goes beyond the "master-servant" relationship instead of the planned relationship, like a family member, older sister or girlfriend of children. Complete dependence, obedience and servility - this is what you have to pay for the opening prospects.

If we endure this year, which in any case will be very interesting, even if not quite easy; use the time wisely, and make every effort to achieve what you want, then you can achieve success and goals far from your homeland. In principle, many have the same goal - to stay in Germany for permanent residence, but everyone has different means of achieving it. You can go to a university (education in public universities in Germany is free) and extend your stay in the promised land for another five years (and if you then do scientific work, then much longer). At the same time, get a good higher education with a European diploma. You can find a job (sometimes you can even make a career) or marry a resident of the European Union. The first and last options (university and marriage) are the most realistic, since it is very difficult to find a well-paid job without a permanent residence permit in Germany. Even if you have received a higher education in your home country (and more than one), you have work experience, and you know more than one foreign language. All this was there, in a past life. Here a new life begins, completely different, which means that the rules of the game are completely different.

To try this new life and yourself as an au-pair, besides your desire and aspiration, you need the following: a passport, a medical certificate for traveling abroad, confirming your good physical and mental health, an au-pair visa, which will give you permission to leave and work only in this capacity.

Nobody else and nowhere else officially will you be able to earn extra money while in Germany as an au-pair. This should be taken into account when leaving and take a sufficient amount of money with you "just in case". This program is not earning money, but study, although it does not belong to the category of au-pair students, as well as to the category of working people, so you will not have to pay taxes on the pocket money owed to you. And this money is a purely symbolic payment. Something, of course, you can afford, but given the huge number of tempting prospects opening up before you, entertainment, travel and shopping, 200 euros a month in a big city in Germany is sorely lacking.

To obtain an au-pair visa, you must first find a family willing to invite you under this program. For help in finding a family, you should contact the agency, pay for its services (up to $ 100), fill out the questionnaire and wait for an answer. For the family to want to invite you, you must meet their requirements and desires.

Preference is given to girls who speak German well, have experience working with children, and even better pedagogical education, which must be confirmed by the relevant documents and letters of recommendation translated into German. In addition, in the photographs sent to the family, you should simply radiate an insane love for children. And the letter written to the family should indicate all your merits regarding how wonderful you are at cooking, cleaning, washing and doing any proposed work around the house.

A driver's license also does not hurt, but in Germany this is not a prerequisite, unlike the USA and Canada. An important requirement to participate in the program is that you are not married, have no children of your own, and be under 25 years of age. Having selected your profile, the family contacts the agency, which informs you that they are interested in you. You, in turn, consider their conditions, and after telephone conversations, if both parties are satisfied, you just need to sign a contract and pack your bags by buying a ticket (some families pay the fare themselves) to the city, which can become your second home.

However, keep in mind that the main thing is not to make a mistake in drawing up a contract and not to sign onerous terms. However, there are standard "au pair" contracts for a foreign student in every European country. While you are still at home, try to find out about them at the embassy or from an international lawyer. All details are specified in them. What do you have to do. What will be the payment. How many hours a day should you devote to your family and how many hours you need to spend on classes.

Food and accommodation should not be deducted from the payment. You should be fed in the same way as all family members. If you do not like the quantity and quality of food, you have the right to express dissatisfaction.

You must be provided with a separate room and all the normal living conditions. You have the right to use a shower and a washing machine if there is one in the house.

You are not obliged to participate in additional work in the garden, repair, loading, washing the owners' cars, etc. You can either refuse the offer to do the work not specified in the contract or ask for an additional fee. Remember how in "Gone with the Wind" the black servants, yesterday the slaves in Scarlett O'Hara's house, refused to milk a cow, claiming that they were "domestic servants."

You are required to take out health insurance. Determine who will pay for travel and study, for issuing an invitation and visa.

You must be met at the airport or train station. Do not be satisfied with vague wording and vague promises, which can then be interpreted in a completely different way than you expected.

If, while working for a family, you suspect that a labor dispute may arise, take photocopies of legal documents relating to the work of the foreign student, foreigners in general, and the rights of a "domestic worker". Regulations on the work of foreigners can be obtained from the social services of university centers, the Tolstoy Foundation and the departments for foreigners at the Ministry of Labor. This will be a crushing argument, because the family probably does not have such an accurate idea of what you owe and what it owes.

If the contract is not fulfilled by the family, feel free to express your complaints. Most often they agree with them. There are many people in Europe who are cruel and greedy, but all retain the semblance of decency and legality. Remember that as long as you honestly carry out your duties, the law of the country where you are will be on your side.

Stock up on addresses of expatriate, religious organizations and foundations defending human rights, where you can also be provided with legal assistance. Signing a contract for the work of an au pair is an elementary case in the practice of law. All its nuances have been worked out for a long time. The Ministry of Labor in most countries has developed standards for such work (or rather, part-time work) for a foreign student. In France, this is no more than 20 hours a week with a mandatory payment at a rate of at least 35-40 French francs per hour (depending on the number of children in the family) with the provision of a room in an apartment and food to the student.

If a supermarket, school, or children's course is at least one bus stop away, you have the right to demand that monthly passes be bought for you. For this, you need to bring children from school every day, buy groceries, cook dinner for the whole family and do homework with the child, and clean the apartment once a week. Plus one night a week - "baby-sitting": an evening spent with the children while their parents are visiting. Anything else is considered overtime and must be paid for separately.

If the family violates the contract - it tries to mercilessly exploit you, is in no hurry to pay, and in disputes tries to take an attacking position, you can cancel the contract and sign a new one with someone else.

While you are studying, your visa is valid. Deportation threatens only those who violate the law - those who committed theft or a more serious crime, and in any case, even if you leave your family, you can not be afraid of this measure. True, there is an old, as the world, trick - to throw some thing into the bag of an employee and drive him out like a thief, and even without payment. In the event that a scandal about the loss has arisen in the family in which you work and which, however, you do not trust, run to your belongings and diligently search through them first.

Perhaps all these warnings are in vain, and you are simply invited by a family from the provinces with the noble goal of helping a young foreigner come to the West and get an education. They want their children to learn Russian, but they cannot find a Russian emigrant in their town. Such situations are common. Then they will share with you not only problems, but also apple pies at family holidays. If you are lucky with employers, then family life will be based on a system of mutual concessions that are convenient for both parties. For example, you mow the grass on the lawn, although you are not obliged to do this, but they take you with them on vacation to the Bahamas, invite your parents to visit, give gifts …

They have no right to demand that you complete a task related to hard physical labor, for example, to carry a large box of food for a party to the car from the supermarket. It's another matter if you voluntarily agree, knowing that you will be treated in the evening on an equal basis with the guests.

Having lived a new life for a year, usually few people want to go back. Even if it was hard. Better a year is hard than a whole life. And although the advertisements of these international programs are often not true, but this year, if used wisely, may be the only chance for your better life. So it's worth thinking about and … going. Where it is difficult and easy, where it is bad and good, where it is sad and fun, where you want to live so much and where it is so difficult to stay. And even if you want to go back, you will not lose anything by living this year in Germany, but only gain. This is a new foreign language, new friends, and a unique life experience that you will never get without leaving your hometown or country. And it is also worth going because there is only one life, and there are not so many chances in it, and they cannot be missed.