France
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Hi Volunteers, greetings! First of all, hopefully you are keeping healthy and safe while reading this post. This is not an easy time for everyone. But as long as we are healthy, anything is possible. Here is our little intro:
We are a family with two young boys and two teenagers age 9 to 16. They have lost their father, my ex-partner of 16 years not too long ago. I am looking for someone who is trustworthy, open-minded, and enthusiastic with our boys, who CAN cook, and do housework so I can organise our lives. We moved from Narbonne (Western side of France) where we lived 5 years there. I would like this person to have enough interests and interactions in our lives and have the understanding that things won't always be easy managing 4 boys (But not to say that we are not fun-loving family:)).
We are a bilingual multicultural (English, French) family and hope to speak more Chinese (my mother tongue), Japanese (anime effect!), Russian, Spanish and German and many more. Culture or Language exchange is very encouraged with us. Even though we are bilingual, the boys communicate in English between themselves. So please don't expect 100% french immersion here.
The children are going to local schools. (Summer Vacation July - August and holidays schedules will be different)
On school days, you will need to walk the youngest one who is 9 to school and back. Each of the boys has very unique personalities, but they are quite fun when they get together. We are a big family so we need someone who has cooking experiences and enjoys being in the kitchen. We eat 95% plant-based foods still transitioning into vegan. So please take this into considerations.
Our house is very well situated for visiting beautiful adjacent cities (Geneva-30 minutes, Annecy-40 minutes). There are so many nice hiking trails and beautiful places to visit during your free time. In the winter, there are 2 ski hills 20 minutes away from us. If you are a skier or a snowboarder, this is the right place for you! (During the quarantine period, there are different rules for leaving the house and traveling of course.)
If you are interested in helping us out, please send us a request including a link of your favorite song (a piece of music)!
Looking forward to hearing from you or even better, meeting you in person:-)
(No smokers please!)
Warmest Regards to all of you!
Gardening
Babysitting and creative play
Creating/ Cooking family meals
General Maintenance
Help around the house
Animal Care
Language practice
Teaching
We have traveled and lived in many different countries before. We can adapt to the language you would like to improve to communicate with you. We are very open people so you could feel at ease with us easily. (The boys are all very inquisitive and lively but need guidance in their lives. I hope you will participate in helping them seeing different cultures and outlook on life. And last but not least to witness the positive changes in them during your stay.)
The children are fluent in French, English and speak a little Chinese. I'm trying to get their Chinese back. Between all four of them, they are learning Russian, Spanish, German, Italian and Chinese. They would love to learn about other cultures and languages too! We have gotten a piano as a Christmas present but lessons are very expansive so they are just playing with it on their own. They would very much like someone who can play the piano or other instruments to show them how it's done correctly. (But this is not a must) Also, one of the boys would like to learn how to build a computer on his own, if you have this skill, we'd love to have you sharing your expertise. Summertime, the whole village is our playground, swimming (the pool is not open due to Covid-19 this year, skateboarding, rollerblading, hiking, tennis, basketball, soccer to name a few.
In the winter, they enjoy snowboarding and skiing so if you could accompany them to these activities, it's definitely a plus! We do train and workouts regularly at home. They love anime and video games of course. So if you have knowledge of this, they'd be happy to have some exchange of ideas (but currently there is no video game allowed at home). They are also very creative. If you are good with hands-on projects, writing stories, making music with the computer, origami or any kind of special talent that you have they would enjoy learning from you. They enjoy having someone to play and interact with them very much. I've started teaching kids how to cook on their own a few years ago but we definitely welcome someone who can improve our cooking/baking skills and broaden our vegetarian menu:)
English: Fluent
Spanish: Fluent
French: Fluent
Chinese (Mandarin): Fluent
Japanese: Intermediate
Russian: Intermediate
German: Beginner
Italian: Beginner
Korean: Beginner
We live in a spacious three-story village house. There is a room designated for you (sometimes shared with another workawayer if there are two) You will have wifi to stay connected.
We are located less than 30Kms from Geneva, 35-40 minutes from Lake Leman (There are many beautiful towns along the lake like Thonon-les-bains, Evian-les-bains, Excenevez, Yvoire. We are lucky enough to be surrounded by the endless amount of trails to hike in the summertime and plenty of reasonably-priced ski hills in the winter. If you love nature, this is definitely a paradise for you. Of course, there is Geneva right next door and Italy being 2.5 hours away also. We encourage you to take your off-days to explore what the beautiful region has to offer. I hope that you will have a chance to visit this part of France one day.
À bientôt j'espère.
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Two
5 hours a day, 5 days a week
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Accuracy of profile:
(5.0)
Cultural exchange:
(4.9)
Communication:
(5.0)
