Most of the time, a homestay involves a student from another country who is in need of a stable and safe home to complete their studies while going to school somewhere in your city. Often the homestay hosts are mature couples with young or grown children and have an additional room to spare.
It could be a university or high school student, or even a young worker that is the homestay, and depending on their needs, it could be a few months or years that they stay.
Remember these important considerations here when deciding whether to commit space in your home for a homestay student to live. The homestay may be young and naive but the host can be naive as well and may find the inherent costs in hosting don't always allow for the amount of additional income that they had planned on.
Considering Potential Problems
Be sure that you have a good line of communication. Because of the likely language barrier, this could be one of the biggest challenges you could be facing. Do not speak to them as you would a native language speaker, keep it simple and easy to understand by avoiding bigger words. At times, the student may not be able to communicate verbally almost at all, and if this happens, putting your words in writing is a good option, as accents make it tougher to understand a beginner.
There should be some rules that work to protect both student, and host. Set some rules in place during the interview process with the student and/or their guardian, so that everyone is on the same page. When communication is extremely difficult because of language issues, have an interpreter make sure both sides understand.
Determining the consequences is as equally vital as defining the rules. Is there zero tolerance for some behaviors such as coming home on drugs? If these are communicated to both the homestay and also their legal guardian and/or parent then, in the event they are broken, you are afforded more leverage to remove them from your residence.
Is Privacy a Major Concern?
Hosting a student can often mean that you will loose some level of privacy. You will need to accommodate for this as students will often want to practice their English they have just learned in school. Some of the activities you may have to compromise on are TV programs, family parties, having friends and dates coming over to your place. To make these situations go more smoothly, you could invite the student to participate.
Vacations are another area where you must take the student into consideration, it could cause a problem. Most homestays require you to prepare meals for the students and be available during meal times to have the student practice their English. You have a choice to invite the student to join you or work around it.
There are other factors to consider as well. Since you are investing a certain amount of time cooking, cleaning and conversing with the homestay, your time with your children may be reduced. Your homestay could be included in your regular family activity, this way, your time will me more wisely spent.
It could be a university or high school student, or even a young worker that is the homestay, and depending on their needs, it could be a few months or years that they stay.
Remember these important considerations here when deciding whether to commit space in your home for a homestay student to live. The homestay may be young and naive but the host can be naive as well and may find the inherent costs in hosting don't always allow for the amount of additional income that they had planned on.
Considering Potential Problems
Be sure that you have a good line of communication. Because of the likely language barrier, this could be one of the biggest challenges you could be facing. Do not speak to them as you would a native language speaker, keep it simple and easy to understand by avoiding bigger words. At times, the student may not be able to communicate verbally almost at all, and if this happens, putting your words in writing is a good option, as accents make it tougher to understand a beginner.
There should be some rules that work to protect both student, and host. Set some rules in place during the interview process with the student and/or their guardian, so that everyone is on the same page. When communication is extremely difficult because of language issues, have an interpreter make sure both sides understand.
Determining the consequences is as equally vital as defining the rules. Is there zero tolerance for some behaviors such as coming home on drugs? If these are communicated to both the homestay and also their legal guardian and/or parent then, in the event they are broken, you are afforded more leverage to remove them from your residence.
Is Privacy a Major Concern?
Hosting a student can often mean that you will loose some level of privacy. You will need to accommodate for this as students will often want to practice their English they have just learned in school. Some of the activities you may have to compromise on are TV programs, family parties, having friends and dates coming over to your place. To make these situations go more smoothly, you could invite the student to participate.
Vacations are another area where you must take the student into consideration, it could cause a problem. Most homestays require you to prepare meals for the students and be available during meal times to have the student practice their English. You have a choice to invite the student to join you or work around it.
There are other factors to consider as well. Since you are investing a certain amount of time cooking, cleaning and conversing with the homestay, your time with your children may be reduced. Your homestay could be included in your regular family activity, this way, your time will me more wisely spent.
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