Tips to get the Most out of a Homestay Experience!

Global Immersions Homestay offers resources and advice to make sure that our international visitors and our hosts have the best experience they can together.  A tip we tell our visitors is that if you really want to immerse yourself in the culture, escape the tourist traps and find out what day to day life is really like, making friends with a local and connecting with your hosts are the best ways to do it!

We strive to place our international visitors in homestays that will provide them with opportunities to connect with locals and develop new friendships by matching our hosts based on common interests, hobbies, personal preferences and professions, to those of the visitors to our programs. 

However, our visitors have shared that trying to make friends with Americans can be intimidating due to language barriers, communication styles and cultural differences. Visitors have discussed how they would like to participate in conversations, but are apprehensive because they have difficulty understanding colloquialisms, jokes and slang used often by most Americans.  Some visitors find it hard to connect with Americans because they are unsure of U.S. cultural norms and what is appropriate to discuss in conversation.  

Here is some helpful advice for hosts from Global Immersions Homestay to help their international visitors integrate and hopefully make friends more easily!

1.       Involve your visitors in as many of your daily activities as possible.

2.       Remind your visitors that it is okay to speak up and ask what something means in conversation.  Your visitors will learn new expressions and be able to better communicate. 

3.       Tell your visitor to keep their friends and family at home informed, but encourage your visitor to reduce their time calling home and talk more with the people currently surrounding them.

4.       Ask your visitor about their hobbies or interests , chances are there is a club or organization in your area they can join to make new friends with similar interests! For visitors who are shy because of their language skills, playing a sport, an instrument or going dancing, are great ways to connect with people.

5.       Encourage your visitors to talk about life in their home country and not to be embarrassed, people will find the stories interesting and want to learn more!

6.       Lastly, encourage your visitors to try new things!  If someone asks him or her to meet up and do something they have never tried before, encourage them to just give it a try!

Global Immersions offers homestays for short-term and long term visits.  If you would be interested in hosting or have general questions about hosting, contact us at highschool@globalimmersions.com or check out www.globalimmersions.com.