Winter Homestay Program

A unique homestay program

To fully experience Chinese culture, there’s no better way than to live with a local family and engage with their everyday life. This winter, we’ve teamed up with Lopair, the leading au pair company in China, to offer an unique opportunity to learn more about Chinese culture and practice your Chinese language skills.

In return for free flights, accommodation and language classes, homestay tutors will be expected to help the child of their host family study English during evenings and weekends. You will have free time during the day (while they are at school) to explore your local area or even visit nearby cities via China’s high tech train network.

Program Components

The Winter Homestay Program consists of:

• Free return flight tickets
• Free homestay accommodation
• Free meals most days (provided by host family)
• Free Chinese language classes (6 per week)
• Free induction tour of your city
• Free hang-outs, local trips and cultural classes organised by Lopair on days off

Locations

Lopair is based in the beautiful city of Hangzhou, and we anticipate that most participants in the winter homestay program will find homestay families here. They also have host families in other major cities across China, including Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen.

Dates and Durations

As most homestay tutors are current university students, Lopair will try to find you a host family that can fit around your Christmas vacation dates. The longer your availability the greater your chance of being offered a place on the program.

Tutors should be able to commit to minimum 4 week stay with their host family.

Cultural Experiences

A homestay program is the best way to experience Chinese culture firsthand. Your host family will be happy to teach you traditional games or share their favourite Chinese foods with you.

From time to time, Lopair also organises some cultural activities and meet-ups. These are a great way to find out more about the local culture and meet other homestay tutors in your city.

Tutoring

You would be expected to spend evenings and weekends teaching English to the child of your host family. This could be playing fun vocabulary games, reading through their textbooks with them, or helping them with their school homework. Throughout your stay, you should also try and speak as much English as possible to their child around the home – thus providing a more immersive English language environment.

You would also have opportunities to share your own culture with them, for example teaching them about various international festivals and customs.

Requirements

• Aged 18+
• Native English speaker
• Current student or recent graduate
• Education-related major preferred
• Previous au pair or tutoring experience preferred
• TEFL certificate preferred

Finances

• Your flight, accommodation and Chinese language classes will be fully funded by your host family
• You will be responsible for visa application costs (approx. £175 in the UK), DBS check, health check, personal travel/ expenditure, and travel insurance
• For native English speaking students applying through Travel Boost, Lopair is waiving the application fee
• Please note that for short-term programs there is no pocket money allowance

Application Details

Please complete the online application form. We will then be in touch with details of the next application stages.