Letter to the host family – 7 important tips for a successful letter

One of the most important building blocks for your application as an Au-pair is the letter to the host family. In this text you can introduce yourself to your future guest parents and guest siblings, you can ask questions and tell about your expectations. This gives the first impression of you as a person. In order for your letter to be a success and to convince the guest parents, the following seven points should be considered in your text.

So that your future guest family knows who you are, it is good if introduce yourself. Tell where you come from, what you’ve learned so far, or what kind of school subjects you really like. Also introduce your family shortly. Besides, it is interesting for them to know what hobbies you have and what you are dealing with in your spare time. Do you play football in the club or do you regularly attend at piano lessons? All this will interest your host family.

Since the child care will be one of your main tasks as an Au-pair in Germany, your guest parents will be especially interested in your experiences with children. If you have already watched on your little siblings, that is great. An internship or an apprenticeship in the kindergarten, in the KiTa or in the school are very good references. If you have already earned a little money with babysitting, it is absolutely necessary for your to put this in your letter. In any case, you should describe exactly what you have already learned about childcare during these activities.

Certainly, you have good reasons why you would like to participate in the Au-pair program in Germany. In any case, you should also mention this in your letter to the guest family. Tell your future host family why you would like to go to Germany as an Au-pair and what interests you in the country and its culture. What expectations do you have about your stay as Au-pair? What are you particularly curious about in your new environment?

Of course, you are not the only person who applies as an Au-pair. But surely you are exactly the right person for a particular family. Write in your letter to the guest family, why exactly you are the right choice. Maybe you can help the son of the family with the school assignments because you have always been good in math or one of your guest siblings is just learning your mother tongue at school and you can be the perfect tutor. Ask your own family and friends for your good qualities and let them flow into the letter to the guest family.

It is especially important that you always write the letter to your host family by yourself. If you copy parts of the letter from the Internet, the guest parents will quickly notice this. In addition, your personality only comes into its own in a self-written letter. And that is important in this text because you want to spend some time with the family. It is important that you fit together well. This is best done with a very personal letter to the host family.

It is nice if you relate this to your future guest parents. Of course, you do not know yet, but it makes a nice impression if you are interested in them. After all, it is not just that you are sympathetic to them, but you should also stand by your host family positively. For example, you can say that you would like to make trips with the family together in the surroundings or to get to know your hobbies.

A nice photo gives the guest family a good first impression of you. With a friendly smile, you come across like a good friend. Make sure you do not take a picture of yourself in a bikini or a party for the Au-pair application. It is better to have pictures of you and your family. You can also take pictures of yourself during your internship in kindergarten or babysitting.

If you take these tips into consideration, you will surely write a fantastic letter to your future guest parents. It is not that bad if there are some errors because nobody expects that you German is perfect already. It is much more important that you make a nice impression and the guest family want, get to know you better. With a friendly letter, you will surely succeed!