Job Discussion Forums

[thelmadatter]

A daughter of a fellow teacher is looking for a way to spend a year in an English-speaking country (US, Canada, Britain, other in that order). She is graduating high school this year. Her English is good - classes won't do her much more good. She doesn't have the money to attend college abroad. She is looking into au pair possibities but I was wondering if there is any other kind of opportunities she should be looking into?

She can pay her own transportation, she just needs living expenses and the experience.

[Justin Trullinger]

What's her passport say? (You don't mention her nationality.) Au pair in America seems to be a pretty good program, with high standards for the families that receive the participants, as well as guaranteed time off to study. (If she's not interested in English classes, some of them study other things. I know one young doctor who used the au pair program to do an observership in a hospital.)

On the other hand, if getting a visa on her own is a possibility, she could just go hang around a community college, wait tables, and take a few classes.

Regards,

Justin

[thelmadatter]

Thanks for responding Justin.

She is Mexican. She has been in the US before under a tourist visa. Can you get a student visa just to take a class or two? I thought that (in the US) she would have to be accepted into a degree program for that. Although I know that under a student visa she would have limited opportunity (usually only on campus) to work.

Ive been thinking that she might have an easier/better time of it in a country other than the US given the craziness nowadays.

We found an interesting Canadian au pair site that also mentioned looking for camp counselors. Might be an option to think about as well. I was just wondering if anyone knew of any other avenues to explore

[zaneth]

Students at my university in Russia seem to like this work and travel summer program. Being students in their home country seems to help the process and the organization's reputation helps in getting the visa. They work in summer camps part of the summer and then have part of the time free to either travel, or to find some job on their own (waiting tables or working at a gas station). They're able to do some travelling and usually save a little money.

I always try to encourage students to go to some other country, but the craziness of America seems to be part of the draw. Oh well.

[thelmadatter]

Please tell me the name zaneth! Enquiring minds want to know

[JZer]

She might also be able to get a job at a resort in the U.S. Of course those jobs can be pretty crappy. A lot of motels bring up staff from Central America for the summer. Of course I suspect that this might lead to some un fair working conditions.