How would you feel about hosting a foreign exchange student in your home?

Question

I am directing this question not only at Americans but at all nationalities who might read the question and have thoughts about the subject.

This year my family is hosting two students, one from Germany and one from Hong Kong, both girls. In the past we have hosted two boys from Germany, one boy from Korea, and one girl each from Germany and Hong Kong. This is our third full year to host, and we also hosted for a partial year.

Our son was a foreign exchange student in Germany for a year.

We have had exceptional kids to work with. The experiences have been incredible and we are connected to all of our past and present kids.

Would you consider hosting a child from a foreign land?

I'm not recruiting, although my wife is coordinating placements and trying to recruit families in our local area. (South Texas.)

I was just interested in seeing what sort of response I would get from the Yahoo! Answers community. I expected some people to respond as you have, and I also expected some to say "no way," and others to simply be curious about the programs.

From experience I can tell you that if you like young people and enjoy interacting with other cultures it is an experience difficult to match other than by doing a lot of traveling on your own.

Answer 1

I'm on my 13th! Our first just as an arrival family. I have four Danes, three Germans, two Swedes, two Swiss, one Finn and one Brasilian!
As you can tell, we love it. We've also had exceptional students to work with as well ... and we wouldn't trade any of them!
To top it all off, we spent our 25th anniversary on a three-week tour of Europe visiting many of them!
Hosting not only gives you a new son or daughter, but it gives you a whole new family as well!
The one thing that concerns me about your question however, is that it ALMOST seems like a recruitment of host families. I'm sure you really didn't mean it that way, but I certainly would NOT be looking for families for students on the Internet!
Congratulations on your international family!

Answer 2

It really will depend upon the program. I was an exchange student from the USA to Argentina when I was in high school. The student exchange program I used was the Rotary Club International (which is very well reputed and highly affordable, by the way). Basically, the Rotary Club charged little to no fees. My family hosted an exchange student, then later I got to go to Argentina to be an exchange student. The exchanges took place during summer vacations. In Argentina, summer vacation was December-February, so that's when we hosted the student. In the USA summer vacation was June-August, so that's when I went to Argentina. As far as knowing who we were, well, it's fairly easy. First of all, we e-mailed pictures, which is helpful. When I arrived in Argentina, even though I wasn't going to stay with the family of the same student who we'd hosted, she nevertheless came to the airport in Buenos Aires to greet me and help me get acquainted with my new family. Plus, the Rotary Club makes its exchange students all wear navy blue blazers with Rotary Club patches on them when we arrive at the airport, so our host families can find us better. Overall, it was a wonderful experience--both hosting an exchange student, and being one. I wish you the best with the experience.

Answer 3

Yes. My family's hosted 2 Japanese exchange students, 1 German exchange student and 2 German interns. I enjoy it although it can be annoying to pick and send the kids to school or when they make something for tea and not clean up!

I was also an exchange student abroad.

I have my own place now and would like to host an exchange student again but I doubt any of the organisations would let a single lady of 22 to host any;) Exchange students can also be expensive! Besides board and food, you have to take them out (which I enjoy) and where I'm from, we pay for everything and usually even give the kids an allowance (not because we HAVE to but because we want to.. it's like my parents give me an allowance so it would be unfair if they didn't give their temporarily adopted 'son' his allowance!).

Whoops, back to the question: I would definitely host an exchange student.

Answer 4

Yes, I'd definitely do it.
I have an overseas scholarship programme I run for primary aged Thai students. We rely on the kindness of western people to host our children. In my experience, families who are 'in it for the money' really turn out to be the worst families. Those looking to gain something other than profit out of the experience are always the better ones. It's often the way that the family wants their own child to meet children from other cultures, so therefore offer to host one of our children.
To me, you sound like someone who is involved for the benefit of those students you are hosting. That is a truly selfless attribute to you as a human, well done.

Answer 5

We are hosting right now. This is our 5th student and she is PERFECT! She's eager to learn about...everything. Right now she's watching American football and trying to learn the rules. She brought her camera and is making a scrapbook. She tries any food we cook, she's making friends in school, just everything is perfect! The other 4 we hosted in the past were utter nightmares so I still can't recommend hosting to people because the odds of getting another spoiled selfish brat who doesn't want to be here is just too high.

Answer 6

Yea I'd definitely consider doing that. It sounds fun, although I don't think living with me would be the "American experience" they were probably looking for. Home, School, Work, and Sleep....

And hey if the female exchange students are hott, it wouldn't hurt to have some eye candy around the house.

Answer 7

I would love to do that, but our house is only two bedrooms and they are both full of stuff. Kudos to you!