I was asked to host a student abroad in a way that I couldn’t refuse.

Because the choice of becoming a host family did not originate from you, you may possibly think of the situation as a burden. This may cause you to miss the opportunities hosting a student abroad could bring you. You now need to find your own motivations for hosting the student that will allow you to enjoy and learn from this situation.

Hosting a student abroad will be a great opportunity for our whole family to learn English.

Remember that the student abroad is studying Japanese and wants to improve his/her Japanese during the homestay too. So you may have conflicting goals. Focusing too much on English as the main goal of the homestay may also cause you to miss other interesting and enjoyable aspects of being a host family.

We thought hosting a American/European exchange student would make our family really international.

A homestay is going to require more than just having the student reside at your house though. “Becoming international” really means wanting to create and sustain relationships with foreigners like the exchange students. It also means relating to others besides European/Americans. Do you feel you want to do this?A homestay is going to require more than just having the student reside at your house though. “Becoming international” really means wanting to create and sustain relationships with foreigners like the exchange students. It also means relating to others besides European/Americans. Do you feel you want to do this?

We thought that having an exchange student in the house would give our young children a chance for an intercultural experience.

Yes, but you shouldn’t think of the benefits as being spectacular and immediately visible (such as immediate fluency in English). The benefits to your children may be quite subtle, such as being able to relate to foreigners in everyday situations, and thinking that this is “ordinary”. Developing a relationship with the student, and helping the family host the student are also definite pluses for the children.

We wanted to have a chance to come in contact with American culture and English first-hand.

This is a worthwhile reason for becoming a host family. At the same time, while your daughter was the primary beneficiary of her homestay, you are the ones who can now get to know someone from another country directly. You can be beneficiaries, as well as “paying something back”.

Because our daughter was taken care of in a homestay abroad, we want to reciprocate.

Many families report that they gained valuable insights about language and culture through the process of everyday life with the homestay student. They also gained insights on their own language and culture as well. But focusing too exclusively on American culture and English may cause you to miss out on other cultural opportunities that are valuable as well.

We wanted to understand the younger generation, and thought getting to know a 20 year old from another country would be one way of doing this.

This attitude will probably lead you to very interesting experiences. Many host families report that they were able to get to know, not only their homestay student, but his/her friends as well. These relationships gave both sides windows into worlds that they had never known before, and which they could continue after the homestay was over.