If You Host a Foreign Exchange Student

To host a foreign exchange student is to give them an impression, usually the first and the best impression, of your home country. Foreign exchange students typically go to universities in other countries, so as to experience a culture different from their own. They want to understand the new country, its language, its customs, and its people. Yes, studies are important, but what they gain most is this assimilation of a foreign country. That being the case, the life at your home would be a very important part of their experience. If you want to host a foreign exchange student, you need to acknowledge this fact and the responsibility it entails.

When you decide to host a foreign exchange student, get all details about their home country and the place they come from. Use this information to make them feel at home. Coming to your country and your home would have been a drastic change for them. Ease them into this change. It would help if you adopted some of their daily routines. For e.g., if they have a favourite breakfast dish, which is easily available, have it ready for them at breakfast, instead of your usual fare. If they like to read newspaper in the morning, offer them a separate copy and so on.

If you host a foreign exchange student, it would also help to do something additional, such as getting a satellite package, which includes channels from their home country (only if you use satellite television yourself). Foreign students may feel homesick, and having access to channels in their native tongue will help them feel connected to their home. It will help them adjust to their new lifestyle more easily. These days, you can get satellite channels from almost any country, so this would not be too difficult for you.

Be ready to host a foreign exchange student only if you are ready to welcome them into your family. Give them time to settle down. Understand their nature and allow them to be alone or to come talk to you and the rest of your family, as they will. Do not exclude them. Do not push yourself on them either. Give them freedom, as well as welcome. Once in a while, you could even do special things for them, as you would for your family, such as cooking a favourite dish or speaking a few words to them in their native tongue; little things, yet special, to make them feel at home.

If you decide to host a foreign exchange student, make the experience a memorable and enjoyable time for both of you. An inclusive attitude is all it requires.

Tags: satellite, Student, foreign exchange student, home