Anyone ever hosted a Foreign Exchange Student?

[Shagley]

I have been thinking about maybe hosting a Foreign Exchange Student and I was just curious if anyone has done this before and what your experience was like.

Thanks.

 

[betsyboop]

We currently have 3 exchange students living in our home!

Seriously, though, most foreign exchange students are really good kids.
This is our 3rd year hosting. Most of the kids are very good students in their home countries, and are very eager to please. They're usually afraid to be sent home, so they don't tend to get into trouble very often!

It has been a very, very good experience for our daughters, ages 10 and 16. They've learned a lot about other countries, and that basically kids are kids no matter where they're from.

It's really fun to expose the kids to things they've never done before! For instance, our 1st student was a boy from Hong Kong who had never seen snow. The look on his face when we took him to Colorado for a ski trip was priceless! He loved skiing, and wants to come back & do it again this coming winter!

Let me know if you have any specific questions & I'll try to help you out!

 

[jody]

I have not done it but I think it would be a great experience. I don't have a spare bedroom. I think it would be nice if the student didn't have to share with one of our kids.

My kids go to a small high school (under 400 students). Last year we had four foreign exchange students. A girl from Japan, a girl from Ghana, a girl from Brazil and a boy from South Korea. They all seemed to be involved in lots of activities at school. It is a great learning experience for our kids as well as the exchange students.

I think it would be fun to travel around the U.S. a little too if I was a host. I know the girl from Brazil got to go to WDW last fall.

 

[taximomfor4]

I have hosted, and I have been a foreign exchange student. I went to France my senior yr of high school. We have hosted a girl from Germany and a boy from Spain. Oh, and I am an area coordinator for an Exchange Program. I have helped a girl go to Australia, one to Germany. And interview potential host families, help place students with them, and facilitate school applications for the students. It is definitely work, but VERY rewarding. My kids learn a lot about getting along.Actually, I have learned a lot. My German student and I have just begun discussing some issues that made her stay turn a bit stressful...but we definitely are very fond of each other.


If you decide to do it, and have any questions or would like advice, I am always willing to talk about my experiences and ideas.

Beth

 

[#1 Pocahontas]

I have never done it in my house when I was the mother but my mother hosted a number of students starting my junior year of high school through out my college years. So I have lived with many but never was responsible for them. (that probably makes a difference on my views of it )

We have had 3 from Japan, 1 from Switzerland, 1 from Belgium, and 1 more but for the life of me I can't recall the countries name.

Mostly it was great experiences with them. We did have to send 2 bad experiences with girls. One girl just refused to learn or do anything. I think her parents forced her into the program. We would find hate notes left around the house, very weird!! The other bad experience girl went through 4 homes here before the program sent her home. Other than those two experiences the rest were great. The kids are so grateful and eager to learn. They totally immerse themselves into your family. For me it was like having an actual sibling, not just having a guest. It is exciting to learn about their cultures and watch them learn about ours. When my children are older I would love to host students.

A lot of Exchange programs have summer options. If your not sure if you want to commit an entire year you could try a summer first. Thats what my family did. We hosted Japanese students through 4H for 2 summers before we signed up for an entire year.

 

[Bird-Mom]

We hosted several when I was in high school. We had a boy from Colombia, a boy from Germany, and a girl from Spain. The boys were great and lots of fun. The girl was a different story. She was from a very wealthy family, and did not like the lifestyle of a middle class American family. She would call her family and lie about all the work we made her do (not). She told her family that my fiance (at the time) was hitting on her, which was absolutely not true. She was really miserable for that year. I am sure her attitude is amongst the minority of exchange students. My cousin hosted a girl from Costa Rica who was awesome! We loved her so much and wanted her to spend the next year at our house.

 

[pyrxtc]

We hosted a boy from Vietnam and it was horrible. He would stay at schol without letting us know and school was a good 40 minutes away and we had an infant, he would get off the bus atrt the library and not tell us he wasn't coming home. He would shut himself in his room and not want to do anything with the family. He was rude to my kids. After not knowing where he was on many occasions and not finding out for hours we couldn't take it any more. He was almost sent home but we found a teacher at his schol that would take him. I wouldn't reccomend taking a male from a country where they are reated like superior to females. We may try again when our kids are in high school but my DH says never again!!

 

[SueM in MN]

We had High school students for 4 years; all girls and we chose students who were High School Seniors.
Our first was from Belgium. She had gone to a boarding school since 6th grade and really didn't know how to live in a family. She had some hard times getting used to that, but the year turned out good and we still keep in touch with her.
Our next was from France. She was very different from our family - very athletic, where DDs and I are more quiet and readers.
The third was from Albania. She was kind of a drama queen. She ended up staying the US after High School because of a bad political situation in her country. She actually lived with us for 3 years of college.
The 4th was the most interesting. She was from Thailand and was a very sweet girl. Unfortunately, she spoke very little English. Her best friend was fleunt in English and the girls thought if "Mai" could get to the US, English would just sort of "come" to her. Mai's friend helped her by writing all the forms and applications that had to be written out. We found out later that Mai's mom apparenty bribed the English teacher and the interviewers to give recommendations. We ended up keeping her for the whole school year and she did end up with fair English.
Our last student was a Russian who was high school student at the same time as our Albanian student. They were good friends and the Russian was looking for a place to stay while she went to college in the US. She ended up staying in the US, finished college and got married to an American man a year ago. We are very close, my DD and my oldest DD have visited her parents in Russia and they have come to visit us.

 

[JMSMommy]

My Mom and Dad hosted a girl from Austria my Junior year of high school. Barbara has come back to our family many times to visit, her family has stayed with us...and now she is like my "other sister" who happened to be born in Austria. She REALLY fit in well with our family, and luckily she was a good sport about learning "colloquiallisms" and could laugh at her own mistakes (because quite frankly we were rolling sometimes at her mistakes...like calling the afghan my grandmother had made her "African" and that she was going to bed with her "African" all straight faced....or that my sis taught her "butt ugly" and not knowing what it meant she used it appropriately with the English teacher at school.)

We would love to host an exchange student sometime in the future, but we'll see.