Most of the time, a homestay involves a student from another country who is in need of a stable and safe home to complete their studies while going to school somewhere in your city. Usually hosts of homestay students are a family with children, or another mature couple that has a spare room.

Depending on the age and what type of schooling or business the homestay student is taking, they may wish to stay for several months, or in some cases for several years.

Remember these important considerations here when deciding whether to commit space in your home for a homestay student to live. The homestay may be young and naive but the host can be naive as well and may find the inherent costs in hosting don't always allow for the amount of additional income that they had planned on.

Facing the Challenges

Be sure that you have a good line of communication. As the student in most cases will not understand English well, it can be quite a struggle to get though to them on certain issues. Do not speak to them as you would a native language speaker, keep it simple and easy to understand by avoiding bigger words. At times, the student may not be able to communicate verbally almost at all, and if this happens, putting your words in writing is a good option, as accents make it tougher to understand a beginner.

Hosts and students should have some protection from understood guidelines set out in this situation. Set some rules in place during the interview process with the student and/or their guardian, so that everyone is on the same page. Rules should be explained by an interpreter if the language barriers are more severe.

Determining the consequences is as equally vital as defining the rules. Is there zero tolerance for some behaviors such as coming home on drugs? When these rules are clearly stipulated and agreed upon by the homestay and if necessary, their guardian, then evicting them if necessary will be easier.

Is Privacy a Major Concern?

Hosting a student can often mean that you will loose some level of privacy. You will need to accommodate for this as students will often want to practice their English they have just learned in school. You may also need to compromise when you want guests or dates over or having a party, and even on what TV programs that you watch in the living room. To make these situations go more smoothly, you could invite the student to participate.

Vacations are another area where you must take the student into consideration, it could cause a problem. A lot of the time, the deal is that your family prepares meals for the homestay, and that means you are supposed to be there at dinnertime. Taking the homestay on your vacation could be an option, but there could be other solutions.

Other things are needed to be thought through also. Since you are investing a certain amount of time cooking, cleaning and conversing with the homestay, your time with your children may be reduced. You can counter this by including your children in your interactions with your homestay.