Hosting Foreign Exchange Students
 

Has anybody done it? We're thinking of taking 2, maybe 2 Japanese girls.

When I was in high school, my family hosted 2 exchange students (at separate times though). Both were from Germany and both stayed for 1 month. We had two completely different experiences.

The guy who stayed with us was friendly, smart, so happy to have this opportunity, etc. It was a very positive experience for him and for our family.

However, the girl who stayed with us was quite the opposite...she was rude and short-tempered and just all around extremely awkward and judgmental. Even though it was a challenging experience at the time, I think we all learned SO much from it. I don't know how much this post will help but I'd be happy to tell you more if you're interested :)

I've had a Japanese girl, 2 Spanish boys and a boy from Australia. My parents hosted a girl from Czech Repub.

It's a great experience for your family but go into it with no expectations of a forever pen pal type relationship. The Japanese girl spoke very little English- I have no idea if she was having a good time or not! The Spanish boys had a hard time with American family life: making your own bed was really odd to them as they were used to servants in the home. The Australian was a kick in the pants. He loved shopping here and watching cartoons on the Disney channel. None of them really liked Mexican food...my kids just could not understand that at all!

It's so hard to choose a student! I was looking at Japan, a Latino country, or Scandinavia but my husband was all about Japan since it was the only country listed from which we've adopted children. There's one interesting-sounding Korean girl whom we might go with...what I'd like to find would be kids who want to join some of the high school activities or teams here and really dive into the American experience.

We've known 2 families who unexpectedly took students whose host families were being awful to them. The agencies wouldn't even talk about what had happened to the kids--anyway, the new families and the students did end up having a wonderful time!

We hosted an exchange student from Finland my senior year of high school. It was a mostly good experience, but very difficult for me to adjust to having someone my age in the house again. (I'm the youngest and my older sisters had been out of the house for 7 and 4 years). We weren't BFF, like I had envisioned, and that led to a lot of jealousy and hurt feelings because she was the cool foreign exchange student and I was just same, boring old me. BUT, we did get along fairly well and had good moments and memories.

It took her a bit to get adjusted - difference in culture, drinking age, etc... but she did fairly well after a few months. She had an allowance from her family for spending money, would call home 1-2 times/month and wrote letters and emails to friends and family back in Finland. We all sat down not long after she arrived and put down some basic guidelines and expectations so we were all on the same page WRT expenses and what she was going to contribute to our family life and vice versa.

We kept somewhat in touch for a year or so after she went back to Finland. My parents spent some time with her one summer while visiting Europe and we recently just got back in touch on Facebook.

Carnation, are you in close proximity to any universities? I don't know how this would work in the states, but here in the UK, lots of internationals have "contact families", where they don't necessarily live with them (most don't), but the families have them over for sunday dinner or take them on holiday or take them shopping or to an attraction. They act as "ambassadors" of Scotland basically, helping them get set up with GP's, dentists, their embassy, etc. If a local school has such a set up, perhaps that could be a nice trial run or an alternative to hosting in home?

Look very closely at the agency that is placing them with you. When I was in high school (ok, very long ago), American Field Service was the best and Youth For Understanding was next.
There were many organizations that were not very well run and one of my friends took in a student from Finland from one of them. It was a nightmare. The student drank a lot and told her host-mother that she wasn't going home at the end of the year because she was going to marry her host-brother. If I could remember the name of the agency, I would tell you.
Talk to others that have hosted students from the organization in which you are dealing

When my siblings and I were in high school, my family did the foreign exchange student thing. THE AGENCY IS CRUCIAL, even moreso than the student herself/himself. The first time was with a French student, and the agency didn't really organize things very well so both my family and the girl were really left hanging. It wasn't a bad experience, but things were awkward, and some financial issues were not attended to. Definitely didn't get as much out of it as we could have, unfortunately. The second time was with a German student, different agency. Much better, even though the boy was crazy. There were organized activities for all the German exchange students in the area to do together with the American students, and everything was well communicated with the families. My brother then went to stay with the German boy and his family the following year as a part of the same program and loved it. (One thing to note, however - my sister was uncomfortable with the crazy German boy, who was only a year apart from her in age, staying in the house. This probably wouldn't have been an issue had he not been psychotic, but it's still something to consider if you have children of certain ages/genders.)

We're thinking YFU...what it was, I got a forward from the Japanese consulate here asking if anyone would be willing to host these YFU Japanese students. Several are really into sports and/or music and it does seem that an involved student would be happier.

This rep said, "Maybe your high schoolers would like to help you choose their favorites!" *No way!* Can you hear it now? The 2 boys: "Hey Mom, we want these 2 girls, they look hot." The 2 girls: "Nooooo! We want these 2 hottie Uruguayan soccer guys!"

Phoenix, we have hosted international students from the colleges where I've taught for quite awhile. It's been great but we have all this room in our house from 6 daughters going off to college in 6 years so that's why we started thinking about hosting.

Ahh gotcha ;).

In that case, from an international student standpoint: Thank you for being a brave soul and opening your home. It can be really lonely in another country! :)

I've never hosted a foreign exchange student, but I remember my sophomore yr in high school a family in my small town hosted a guy from Scotland. He was so sweet, smart & funny. And I'm not going to lie, he was pretty cute too!!!

And out of all the girls, he asked ME to prom! hehehe

We still keep in touch... but that's about all I have to contribute to this topic... lol

We've only done it for a month in the summer--twice. Once a few years ago we had a 17 year old French girl and she was great. We got her when I saw an ad in the paper that host families were needed for French students. I think the organization was LEC.

Two years ago we had two French brothers whose uncle had stayed in our neighborhood when he was a teenager. The families kept in touch for 25 years and we got them in a roundabout way. They were the same ages as our two boys and they got along okay. I'd say they were definitely harder.

We have four kids and both times we got kids who were from bigger families (the girl was the youngest of 4 and the boys were the oldest two of four). I'd say just make sure you don't get an only child with your "busy" household or it may be a little too much! I know we looked for someone from a larger family and a little older (better English skills)--there were a lot of 15 year old only children and I think they wouldn't have liked the craziness of our house.

This summer the middle two French boys are coming to visit for 2-3 weeks.

The only thing that I don't like about it is that I feel like I can't let loose and be a biotch in front of them. But I have a couple friends who've told me that when they had exchange students when they were in HS, their moms got over that after a couple of months.;)

My high school had an exchange program with a high school in Japan. Since there were always more Japanese students who wanted to come to the US than kids at my high school who took Japanese (and had the ability to house someone) they opened up the 'hosting' to anyone my senior year. We had this ADORABLE girl (Sayoko) come stay with us for 2 weeks. She was really a lot of fun (despite the fact that she thought her English wasn't great she really tried hard to communicate and learn--and her English was better than she thought it was). My friend Lisa hosted another girl too and we got to go sight-seeing with them while they were here. I kept in touch with a few of the exchange students for about 2-3 years after they came to stay, but we've all sadly lost touch now (it was 10 years ago now that they came to stay!)

I think it always depends on the student themselves. We had family friends who hosted a boy from Spain for a year and he was also very interested in learning 'American' life and trying to learn lots from his experience here.

I say go for it--just find out as much as you can about the possible student you'd be hosting. If it sounds like they're really involved students who have a willingness to learn here it should be cool. If it seems like they're in it to 'party', stay away.

We signed up! We'll be having 2 girls--1 Japanese and 1 Korean! Both love volleyball and music so we hope they'll hit it off. Maybe they'll want to be on the volleyball team or in the school band. Both have been at boarding school so being an exchange student might not be too hard for them!

I foresee that this year, we won't have half the football team at our house 24/7. We'll have all of them.

Sounds like fun!

I think you're making a great choice by hosting two students from two different countries. I hosted two students a few years ago. One girl was from Croatia and the other girl was from Brazil. I thought it worked out fabulously because they were the same age and became involved in a variety of extracurricular activities together. The total bonus was that they were both "forced" to work on their English to speak with each other. I think their English skills improved so much due to that. Near the end of the year together they started teaching each other their native languages. It was a GREAT experience.

My high school had an exchange with specific high schools in France and Spain. About 30 kids would go to each country for a month in the beginning of 3rd quarter and then return. 2 weeks later, their hosts and hostesses would come to our Boston suburb. My sibs and I all did this.

Usually they placed same-gender but the year my sister participated, there were more American girls as compared to French girls. Our family ended up with Philippe. He was a very polite boy from what I recall. I was in college so I barely met him

We heard from both of them this week! They're full of questions, of course, and I'm trying to think of all kinds of random things to tell them. Any ideas about what they need to know beforehand?

We still don't know when they're coming and school starts in about 5 weeks.

They're here! The Korean from Germany came Thursday and the Japanese came yesterday because the Japanese students have to go to a 10-day camp in Wisconsin first. Volleyball tryouts start tomorrow!

The Korean girl was born and raised in Germany--her parents teach theology and Korean there-- so of course, she has a strong German accent and i'm starting to remember a lot from my 5 years of German. Both girls are huge Disney fans; we chose the right kids! The Japanese girl pointed to the Korean on the way home and said, "She say your #1 son rook rike Orrando Broom." LOL! We'll have to work with her on her 'l'.

Yay! Congrats. I hope the experience is a great one...keep us posted.

They've been here 3 months! We've had a great time with them and I can thoroughly recommend hosting to everyone. Last night they trick-or-treated (one wore a kimono, the other a cheer uniform) and scored a ton of candy. They just finished volleyball season, they went to the Homecoming Dance, and they've been enjoying the football season; we're now going into the playoffs. I think they like WalMart even better than they like the mall!

Next week they'll be interviewed for the school paper. They've already been interviewed for the yearbook and we found out that the Japanese student replied to "What has been hardest for you?" with, "Understanding the English of black students.":eek: Aiee! I hope it doesn't get into the yearbook.

LOL! That's not negative in my opinion. I don't understand the kids 95% of the time either, and I'm black. :(

Now, I know how my parents must have felt when I was a teen (in the 80s) whenever I said something was funky fresh, flyy, or def. Word! :D

I hope this continues to be a great experience for all of you. :)

This has continued to be a wonderful experience for us, and I hope for them too!

Both made varsity track (hard to do here) and one made the National Honor Society! They've definitely seen the gamut of American life; our daughter is about to deliver and they've been to some baby showers. My husband's aunt died after Christmas and they were with us for all that too. One daughter got married in the fall and they celebrated right along with us (several showers there too) and participated in the rehearsal when bridesmaids couldn't come until later. They loved going to football games and celebrating holidays; we're making their Easter baskets now!

My prediction about the house being filled with our sons' friends has come true. One had had 5 friends spending the night on Friday and our visiting daughters, who hadn't noticed all the cars out front, were startled when they all came tramping down the stairs the next day.

So we've signed up for 2 more next year: a Chilean and a Japanese!

They're gone--they had to leave on June 15th. :( It was hard and everyone cried.

The week before they left, we went to Disney--the Japanese is a hardcore Tokyo Disneyite--and we had a blast. You know how you kind of get used to everything at Disney being fake? Well, the last day we were standing next to a wall with a massive hairy bug on it and the Japanese was calmly standing next to it and I said, "Um, do you realize that bug is real?" and she screamed the place down. Anyway, they got picked to be in the backlot show at Disney Hollywood Studios and probably rode Splash Mountain 40 times. So much fun!

So they've facebooked us and we'll stay in touch! Maybe they'll come to college here. This week we got the papers on the next 2 and they'll come in about a month.

Our Chilean student has now left to start her senior year at home and we'll have our Japanese student for another month. Right now she's cooking with Spam again--apparently, Okinawans love that stuff! (ew) She went to the state quarterfinals in tennis and made the National Honor Society and went to 2 proms!

These 2 saw a wide range of American family life just like the last 2 did. They were here for our grandson's birth, our niece's wedding, and unfortunately, my brother-in-law's death. Like the last one, our Japanese student is astounded by the Southern drawls rolling out of the mouths of BlazerCheer and SweetTea (well, what do you expect, we adopted them from Japan as infants). LOL.

We've signed up again and hope to have another Japanese student in August. :)

What programs did everyone host from?
 

Okay, I have been a lurker around here for ages. This thread finally inspired me to post.

What programs did everyone host from?

I am anxious to hear. This is so exciting to see the Greek Community involved.

FYI: I am American. I was actually an Exchange Student way back in the days when they called Recruitment "Rush." I am thinking of posting my story. So, I will hold off giving all the details.

Neither myself nor my parents have hosted exchange students, however I was a Rotary exchange student to Germany the year after I graduated high school (yeah, a year that doesn't count for anything made the desire to actually attend some classes that more appealing! lol). I was also involved in the District and club side of the Rotary exchange program. I had a good experience overseas - two host families which were very interesting. My first family I was their first exchange student and they also only had sons (the oldest being on exchange to the US). The second had two daughters (the youngest on exchange to Australia and the oldest had been on exchange to the US) and would be considered hosting veterans.

Happy this thread got a bump! We have a very large, but very close, extended family and we try to vacation together at least once a year. A lot of us made it to Arizona in the beginning of April and my aunt and uncle brought their exchange student from South Africa. My uncle is the President of his Rotary Club and they hosted her through Rotary. She was so awesome and I feel fortunate for having been able to spend the week with her.

Yessss!!! We just got approved for the third year and will be hosting 2 girls, 1 from Japan and 1 from the Philippines. :) My husband said that the coaches are fired up because one's in swimming and soccer and that the band director is excited because the other has played the flute and trumpet for awhile. They should come in a couple of weeks!

Y'all try hosting, it's been super!

I'm actually thinking about it, as youngest son starts HS this fall and the two older sons will be both be in college. Youngest is taking Latin though, and it seems most of our Foreign Exchange students are language based (French and Spanish).

Is there a certain group you go through, or should I just re-read this entire thread? Neither DH or I are in Rotary so I guess that's not an option?

We've used Youth for Understanding and we've been very happy! Go to yfu.org and check it out and I'll pm you the number of our coordinator. The kids have been well prepared and truly a joy.

Our coordinator said that many high schools are turning them down this year because of economics and at this time of year, I'm sure that the exchange organizations are getting frantic.

From a friend's experience about 3 years ago...be wary of kids that have a keen interest in partying. One of my friends had an exchange student that couldn't seem to remember that the drinking age here is 21 and it caused some serious problems. A family down the street hosted a student that same year that was very well behaved and very focused on improving their English (I don't remember where they were from, just that they spoke Spanish). I think they used YfU. I don't know about the first family. Be careful and be prepared for all eventualities!

Yayyay! Our Japanese student, coincidentally from the area we adopted our daughters from, arrives tonight! Our Filipina student, coincidentally from the area we adopted our daughter from, arrives in 2 weeks!

I´ve been an exchange student and our family hosted two exchange students aswell. We went with AFS, because it´s non-profit (like YFU) and prepares both students and host-familys very carefully.
Hosting an exchange student can enrichen your life so much, it can open a whole new world both for your family (and kids!) and the student.

If you´d like more information on AFS:

www.afs.org

I would love to host an exchange student when I'm older!!
The exchange students at my high school were highly embraced by the students & overall wonderful people.
My friends and I got very close to a few German exchange students that year. The German students seemed to be the ones who were most involved around school & in sports as well as a Swedish girl.

Our homestays got canceled on my exchange program in high school unfortunately, so I missed out on that

Follow up on something I posted a while back: think we're going to look at possibly hosting an exchange student either next year or the following one. This year is going to be adjustment year (one more into college, the youngest into HS) so we'll see how we all survive that!

So I just read every single post in this thread; it sounds so exciting!
When I'm older & married & have my own kids, I want to be a foster mother... But I think I'll also try hosting foreign exchange students too! :) Can't wait!

Our Japanese exchange student has gotten me hooked on furikake (this seafood rice seasoning). :) The Filipina one goes to these Filipina dinners in town and comes back with the leftovers--I adore pancit!

So last year we had a student come in 4th in the state in tennis and this year, one went to state in swimming! Would you believe that the high school coaches are saying, "Heeeyyy, you guys need to host again and pick us another good one!"

Fourth year of hosting! We will be hosting a girl from:

Australia!!!!

What fun! One of the guys on K's tennis team was an exchange student from Australia. He had a blast at the high school this past year and is already missed.

Miss Australia arrived 2 days ago! We showed her around the high school today and she was mortified (we warned her!) because all these people wanted to hear her speak. Now one of our crazy daughters (the Phi Mu) is going around with her and pretending to be Australian too, which is hysterical because she sounds more like Dick Van Dyke and his awful Cockney accent--also, she's Japanese. LOL!

Y'all, if an Australian ever offers you Vegemite, don't take it! I took some years ago from an Australian roommate and reacted much like one daughter's boyfriend did; he ran to the sink and was holding his open mouth under the faucet. Yeccchh! But take the TimTams, they're awesome!