Foreign Exchange Student - Anyone Hosted One?

[grinningghost]

Looks like we'll be hosting an exchange student from Austria in a couple weeks. DD is excited beyond words and I'm pretty curious about how it's going to go. She'll only be here a week.

If you hosted, how did it go? Good, bad, ugly - all comments welcome.

 

[Servants of Evan]

Our family hosted an exchange student from Germany for 10 weeks a very long time ago. It went fine. We did the usual "tourist" stuff in the area, and only had an issue when we went to Niagara Falls. Whoops, forgot that a boarder crossing (which we never gave much thought to) would be problematic for someone from Europe.

Servants of Evan

 

[ziggystardust]

I stayed with a family in Nice for a month. They didn't speak a word of english and didn't really make an effort to show me the town. They did however have a party one weekend where they insisted on me drinking vodka straight repeatidly.

I have to say it was an amazing experience.

(what I thought was odd was that I took the daughter's bed and the 11 year old daughter had to sleep on the couch for the entire month)

 

[daughter_of_amid_chaos]

we hosted a german exchange student for about a week in high school and it was hell.
She was perfectly nice to my family but when they weren't around she was absolutely horrendous to me and my friends.
she actually walked up to one of my best friends and said you are such a *****.

 

[supercarrie]

We hosted a student from Greenland for 9 months. The first couple months were fine but then she became very homesick and thus very much anti-America, which created a lot of strain in the home. She is a pop singer in Greenland and had a lot of trouble adjusting to people not really thinking she was all that great in America. Everything we did for her never seemed to be good enough, and she was pretty rude to my friends who kept making an effort to include her in things. She ended up demanding a transfer out of our home and received it, and then told us once she moved to her new host family she missed what she had with us! Now she keeps in contact with my mom and I fairly frequently and the relationship has improved a lot, but my younger sister still has never forgiven her for what happened.

 

[j_rgonz]

Sorry to hear the bad experiences. My family hosted a girl from Japan for a year. When she left we were in such withdrawl that we took a girl from France for the summer. It was such an incrediable expeience, when I was old enough we signed up again, this time a true "exchange" we had a girl from Japan stay with us for 3 months (ended up taking a second since there was a problem with a host family) then I went to Japan and stayed with both of them. It was great! I'd reccomend doing the tourist thing as well as the everyday things that your family does. I still keep in touch with the first exchange student we had (our whole family went to Canada for her wedding) and some of her fondest memories were just being with our family, going for pizza, hanging out with my grandparents and cousins, etc. Good luck. I'm sure if you go through a reputable orginzataion such as AFS or YFU they will have meetings for you with lots of support!

 

[lewdyan1]

We have often hosted international students. It has usually been a positive experience. The last time, it was hard, as they were 17 and wanted to stay up late and go out with other kids they had met and I have young children, so it was just harder for me, but it was still a positive experience.

 

[Nutsy]

We hosted a Japanese student 6 years ago for 2 weeks and it was an awfully long 2 weeks. Couldn't wait to see the back of him.

Don't get a choice here as to what nationality they are, it's Japanese or Japanese which in my opinion stinks.

This boy was 16 and my eleest was only 11. They had to fill out a form to be allowed to come to Australia and one of the questions was.........do you smoke? He answered no, as he knew if he answered yes he would not be allowed to come. Well he did smoke and we had a go at him and I also wrote to the organistion about him......he also used to get my youngest son on the lounge chair try to pull his pants down and try to kiss him. So, so sick. One more thing that was in my letter to the host organisation.

I would have liked to try it again with a girl and a different nationality, but like I said above, we don't get a choice over here, it's Japanese or it's Japanese.

 

[Jeafl]

My sister spent a year in Mexico as a Rotary exchange student in high school and it was a wonderful experience. She also spent a year of college living with a family in Spain who were so wonderful that their entire family has become like an extension of ours. 20+ years later we are all very close.

We did host a high school boy from Sweden for 6 months when I was in high school. It was not a horrible experience nor a great one. He came from an extremely wealthy family and was used to having his own servant. It was quite a shock to him when he was expected to pitch in around the house. The lifestyles were way too different, and it ended up just being "ok". We have lost touch with him over the years.

I would have to say a successful experience definitely depends on who the kid is, and what kind of background they come from.

 

[Kimberly]

I've been an exchange student, and it really is a lot of fun. I went to Pfuellingen, Germany (outside of Stuttgart) for 3 weeks over the summer, and it was something I will never forget. They were very hospitable and made every attempt to show me as much of Germany as they could. It was funny too, even though I was very fluent in German at the time, the family insisted on trying their English on me, so I barely spoke any German!

I couldn't convince my parents to host a student from their school though. They both work and are just downright too busy to accomadate another family member for a week.

 

[cabmom]

We hosted a girl from Spain for 4 wks about 7 yrs ago. She was 17 and said she didn't smoke either, but did. She did not smoke in the house. She hated all of our food. She was a nice girl, however I was glad to see her go. We kept in touch til that Christmas and have never heard from her again. Would I do it again. YES!

I went to England 2x during 2 different summers. It was an awesome experience to live in different countries when I was younger!

I would recommend it!

Marilynn

 

[anewvance]

My family hosted a girl from Austrai when I was around 17 or so... she was here on a tennis camp program for the summer and she stayed around a month. But we didn't see a whole lot of her because the van would come and get her for the camp during the day and return her in the early evening. But she was very nice and we continue to receive and send Christmas cards from her every year.

 

[roberrl187]

We hosted a boy from China for an entire school year. Wonderful boy. He taught us his language and we taught him ours. He was a wonderful cook. We only had one problem.

He defected . Yep, ran away. Immigration caught him trying to board a plane to California at JFK airport. Kinda unnerving when the FBI comes to your house in the middle of the night.

 

[Crankyshank]

We had a Japanese girl stay with us for a month as part of a summer exchange. That was about 15yrs ago. We still keep in touch via email and I hope one day to be able to visit her

 

[Sonya]

We had 5 when I was growing up. All of them incredible experiences. 2 from Japan (one year each), one from Uruguay (6months), one from Finland (one year), and one from Ecuador (one week).
We still keep in touch, the girl from Finland and the boy from Japan were in my wedding. My mom has been to Japan about 4 times. The girl from Japan just had a baby and mom went to see her this summer. He is such a cutie!
It is very hard sometimes, most of the kids who come here are rich, they have to be to afford it, and that makes them a bit spoiled. Also people deal with homesickness in different ways and that can make them not fun to be around. You just have to be understanding. I have heard of severl bad experiences, but we didn't have one. You work it out like any family would.
I can't wait until my DS is in high school, we will certanly host a student!