Iida Karhula lived in Panama with a family that spoke little English.
Iida Karhula’s au pair family has two children and 15 animals. Jori Heikkinen
Ylivieskalainen Iida Karhula, 19, started the spring with one experience richer. Last autumn, Iida left for Panama as an au pair with three other Finnish women. The Yle Au Pairs in Panama series starts at the end of May.
In the series, Iida moves to the Montoya-Henriquez family with a Colombian background, who have little knowledge of English. Where the rest of the au pair lived near the center, Iida’s family home was far from the core. At its worst, Iida traveled to the city center for two hours per direction.
Mother of an au pair family Catalina and father Andrés Felipe run a detergent company from home. In addition, the family includes a 9-year-old Emilia7 years old Andrés10 cats, 5 dogs and a housekeeper Virginia.
– For a moment I thought I had become an au pair of animals, Iida laughs in an interview with Iltalehti.
The language barrier brought its challenges, but Iida explains how she coped with her job.
– We went through the routine once with the mother of the family. I repeated it every morning with the kids. The girl (Emilia) learned a lot of English during my trip, Iida says.
Iida had occasional conversations with the family’s mother, Catalina.
Iida remembers that the language barrier grew even more when the children’s grandmother and aunt came for a longer visit.
– They didn’t speak a word of English. However, they tried to speak Spanish to me. When I didn’t understand, they repeated the same sentence more clearly and more slowly. I still didn’t understand anything, Iida recalls.
All episodes of the new season of the au pairs series will be released at Yle Areena on Wednesday 25 May. Yle TV2 has two episodes on the tube Wed – Sat 25–28 May. from 9 p.m. See all program information on Telku.