Cecilia LiuInterviewed in 2018
Cecilia Liu got her degree in Chemistry and Education Technology before beginning working for Aupairia as the VP (Edu) and Chinese teacher. She loves the experience of cross cultural and language exchanges. She hopes to create this opportunity for more people and encourages international immersion experiences, such as au pairing abroad!
What led you from a degree in Chemistry and Education Technology to working with Aupairia?
I decided to study Chemistry because it is the subject interested me mostly when I was in high school. Which makes me laugh, because that might be the worst way to choose what you want to study in the University.
I started to be interested in psychology and the human learning process while I was in university, so I decided to study psychology. But for many complex reasons, I started to work in Educational technology for my master degree. This was the subject which is nearest to psychology and education I could apply at that time.
I joined Aupairia when the company just started. I had a long talk with Tina, the founder of Aupairia, about the au pair program and the status of this program in China. We shared our thoughts on education, mainly about how we can help kids to better themselves and what the best we can try to help kids to learn a second language is.
We found that we have similar thoughts on these education questions and the au pair program really interested me. Besides the language learning and babysitting in this program, there’s more that people can benefit from—getting to know the different cultures and ways of thinking in the world, and helping people improve their pattern in relationships, etc.
Finally, I decided to work with Aupairia. Our hopes are that all that we talked about that day can be made a reality from our efforts. We aim to give the kids and young people involved in the au pair program, or other intercultural programs, the opportunity to find their best self these experiences.
Describe a typical day at work for you with Aupairia.
My work in Aupairia can be separated into 3 parts:
1. Looking after the running projects and supporting the coordination between different processes of the au pair programs. I sometimes work as a backup, or plan B, in the au pair program process.
2. Providing support and training to the au pairs in the program including the program orientation course: Mandarin classes and case-based support/consulting about the educational questions/problems.
3. Providing support and consulting on educational parts of the program for the host families to help them have a better exchange with the au pairs in promoting the kids’ language development.
What is your favorite part of your job?
We can meet new people and begin to understand different ways of thinking from around the world. These exchanges are not always easy, or even pleasant, but it broadens your mind and makes you become more and more tolerant and open-minded.
You can easily feel the cultural exchange throughout this program. You can see people improve themselves—they become more and more open-minded, and considerate and flexible. Some of the au pairs become more confident and willing to follow their dreams while continuing to work hard.
And most of the kids gain more English skills in this short time, and some even improve in their daily life behavior and social skills. Even more, sometimes the host parents tell us the program makes their family life more organized and they learn a lot from this new kind of social interaction.
As a staff with Aupairia, I have come across a lot of situation and issues I have not expected in the last 3 years. Aupairia was a new company and the au pair program a brand new way to experience another culture in China. Almost everyday I learned new things when we began this program, and we are now still learning more everyday.
If I have to say which is my favorite part of my job, maybe I can summarize the above as—my job here at Aupairia is a work changing people, the staff, the au pairs, the host families—everyone can explore and find a better self from it.
What challenges do you face when teaching foreign languages?
I taught Chinese and English before, and I still teach Chinese right now. The biggest challenge in teaching foreign languages is when a student doesn’t have a strong motivation to learn the language and they hate the language they are learning, which happens to some English teachers in China everyday.
Why do you think learning a foreign language is important?
You can gain a better understanding of others and your mind will be more flexible. Language is sometimes the key to accessing another culture, another group of people, and another world.
Also, you can be more competitive in job hunting if you are in your 20s or 30s—which may be the most obvious, but not even the most valuable, positive effect of learning a second language. The most valuable benefits are sometimes not the most apparent.
Do you have any advice to share with people learning another language?
If you want to learn a new language, know what you should set proper goals—short term and long term. I always ask my students about their goals when/before we have the first class. I think what you want to learn and how you want to learn a language is sometimes more important than gaining language knowledge at the beginning. And keep checking and adjusting the goals throughout the process is also important.
If you want to learn a language well, there are some things that might benefits your learning—teaching your mother tongue as a second language and exploring and comparing the features of your mother tongue and the new language you are learning.
This teaching experience will help you see the problems that you face when learning a new language from another angle. Learning the features of both languages can help you to be conscious of the transfer of the language knowledge and skills, and the tiny differences and similarities between them.
How is learning another language challenging for an individual?
Learning a new language needs a lot of time and patience, no matter if the learner is a child or an adult. Some people may be really talented, but the process of learning still needs a lot of practice.
Another challenge in language learning may be to finding a suitable way of learning the language—it’s different language to language, person to person. Finding a suitable way of learning a new language takes time, so we have to try different methods and be patient.
What makes Aupairia special and why should au pairs choose Aupairia?
We are professional and more educational development focused, which is what the Chinese market requires. Our aspiration is also unique to us—we hope this program can bring value to our au pairs and host families, and we are always trying our best to make the program valuable for the participants life right now, as well as for their life in the future.
We have gotten some feedback from our au pairs saying that they improved their Mandarin skills and gained more interest in learning Chinese. Some also told us that they became more confident and independent, and are willing to explore more about the world in the future. Others learned a lot about China and how Chinese people think about the life, education, work, and other fields in our life. As a young team, we are willing to listen to the feedback from all of our participants in order to improve our program and working performance.
Now we are collaborating with some universities and public institutions, such as BFSU—which is one of the best university in SLA field in China—and the Beijing Jiaolou library. We hope these collaborations can help our au pairs experience China and Chinese life from different angles, and really learn something about China and Chinese people.
Why is it important for people to travel and experience new cultures?
Traveling and experiencing new cultures can broaden our mind and change the way we interact with people.We can begin to understand different lifestyles when we are traveling and experiencing new cultures. We learn the languages of the people we meet and local cultures. These experiences help us know the world in a more diversified way.
We may realize the differences between new ways of living and thinking from our own, but the more we understand that different doesn’t mean wrong, our views on ways of life will continue to expand and be more inclusive. This process will help us to think about our way of life, communication, getting along and even cooperating with other people. These experiences can change the way we think and make us more wise and considerate.
What hopes do you have for the future of Aupairia?
I hope we can make the au pair program in China into an even more valuable experience for our au pairs—although we provide a lot of opportunities for our au pairs, we think there should be other ways to support young people in finding a more proactive, personalized, and meaningful experience through this program. We want this experience to be embedded in their long term personal and career development—we think can help the au pairs find more value in their own program and experiences, as well as having a great time in a brand new culture.
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