Hosting an Exchange Student

We have some friends that did it a few years ago - they hosted a female student from Spain that was the same age as their teenaged daughters, so she just went along to school with their girls.

We have another family friend who did, and they got a student that was older than their kids. That seemed a little hectic (from an outsider's perspective) because they had a kid in elementary, a kid in junior high and a kid at high school - the mom always seemed a little harried about getting kids places. The host family (our friends) have gone and visited them both in Europe and they're thinking about hosting again.

We had an ESL student 2x. First and second times were disasters. First student (Megumi) wouldn't eat anything but ground beef and bacon and rice. She was difficult to feed. She kept saying to us "You are so rich! You are so rich!" and we are "WTF?" Then she went through 4 big bottles of shampoo in a month. What was she doing with it? She had had a host family before us and liked them better than us. She called them every couple of days wanting to go back there. Then she broke out in hives from stress. We were glad to see her go.

Next was Katsue. She just used our address as a place to placate her parents. She used my carpet as a garbage can for her eyeliner and lipstick. I had beautiful carpet but she got pink, black and green all over it. She stayed for 4 months and while that was fun to have her we were glad when she moved away.

We have decided we are not suited to being host parents.

Our university offers a different option that has been wonderful. The students live on campus and we are their host family. That means we pick them up from the airport when they arrive in the country, take them shopping about once per week, introduce them to American family life, attend events on campus with them, etc. It's like the best of both worlds. They spend holidays with us and we celebrate birthdays with them. It's been such a positive experience for our family. The tears shed at the airport each of the three times they have left have been brutal. We've had three lovely girls from South Korea. They are kind, extremely thankful and very well-mannered. We keep in touch with all three of them.

My mother has hosted an foreign exchange student from China for 2 years. He came to her in 11th grade and after the first year they both decided they got along well so he came back and finished his senior year. He just left in August and we all have gotten very attached so its hard when he left.

In my mothers case the student attends a private school so my mother is responsible for transportation to and from school, nightly dinner and meals on the weekends. I would guess breakfast too but he always ate at school. Any extra activities he had to pay for on his own. She had to provide a private room with internet access. My mother received money every month for taking him in to cover expenses through the foreign exchange program. You must commit to a year. The student also received a certain amount of money monthly to cover any activities.

The biggest problems we encountered was the foreign exchange students from China tend to be very immature. They also feel like you should cater towards them (since your being paid). They make a big deal about everything ! My moms exchange student sprained his ankle and he wore a boot for 3 months. They also want to play sports since they don't have time to play in their own country. My moms student lied a lot too over the most miniscule things. I just chalk that up to being a teenager.

You receive an handbook that has rules in it. The student cannot choose NOT to do an activity if your family was doing it. They also encouraged you to give them chores.