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End of the Student Homestay Experience

The Homestay Kitchen: Cultural Connections with International Students who Study Abroad

Release Date: 12/09/2019

What Effects the Coronavirus COVID-19 Has On Homestay - EP 47 show art What Effects the Coronavirus COVID-19 Has On Homestay - EP 47

The Homestay Kitchen: Cultural Connections with International Students who Study Abroad

We were scheduled to come back in early March and then the pandemic struck. We are physically distancing and staying home, so the Homestay Kitchen had to re-work the podcasting schedule to fit a new routine. In the meantime, let's check-in with you. How are you doing? Erin is the multi-tasker extraordinaire working from home while maneuvering all five of her kids which includes two students. Mary is also navigating working from home while everyone is also home, so finding a new routine is challenging.

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End of the Student Homestay Experience show art End of the Student Homestay Experience

The Homestay Kitchen: Cultural Connections with International Students who Study Abroad

It's coming to the end of the year and some students may be leaving or some students may be heading home just for the winter break. Either way, when it's time to drag the luggage out and dust off that passport, we need to start thinking about our pre-departure rituals. What is it like when your student finally leaves? What strategies are you going to put into place when it comes to saying goodbye?

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Boundaries and Rules During Homestay Experiences show art Boundaries and Rules During Homestay Experiences

The Homestay Kitchen: Cultural Connections with International Students who Study Abroad

Boundaries. We've all got them or we should all have some in place. There are limits and rules to all sorts of things during a homestay experience. Boundaries around the house, food, laundry, safety issues, and even personal boundaries. What are they and how can we enforce them?

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Dealing with Homesickness show art Dealing with Homesickness

The Homestay Kitchen: Cultural Connections with International Students who Study Abroad

At one point or another, whether you as the host knows it or not, your student will get homesick. Sometimes it'll show through their emotions or difference in actions. Or sometimes, it only happens when they are hidden away in their rooms, when the lights are out trying to fall asleep. When do you intervene and what do you do to alleviate homesickness?

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Long Term Students vs. Short Term Students show art Long Term Students vs. Short Term Students

The Homestay Kitchen: Cultural Connections with International Students who Study Abroad

So what defines a short term student and a long term student? Mary defined a short term student as being anywhere less than 6 months, but after she said that (and even after we finished recording this episode), we were still debating what differentiated a long term student from a short term student. Any way you look at it, hosting short term students and long term students can be very different experiences. In this episode, Mary and Erin go toe to toe on the pros and cons of hosting long term students versu

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Experiences of Being a New Homestay Host from Jennifer Longworth show art Experiences of Being a New Homestay Host from Jennifer Longworth

The Homestay Kitchen: Cultural Connections with International Students who Study Abroad

In today's episode, Erin had work to do, so Mary got to chat with Jennifer Longworth from Lexington, Kentucky. A new host parent who's only hosted a total of 3 times for very short periods and all from Japan. We talk through what it's like to be a very new host and what were some of the most surprising aspects of hosting. And it wouldn't be right to talk to our fellow neighbours to the south without pointing out a couple of differences from our countries, like hockey for us and southern food for her.

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Food & Meals for Your Students show art Food & Meals for Your Students

The Homestay Kitchen: Cultural Connections with International Students who Study Abroad

How do you meal prep for your students? What do you incorporate into your meal plans for them? Food is a big factor when it comes to homestay experiences. Not only the culture of different foods to eat and explore, but also how we eat and when.

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Fearless Communication Skills and Owning Your Moxie with Heather Thompson show art Fearless Communication Skills and Owning Your Moxie with Heather Thompson

The Homestay Kitchen: Cultural Connections with International Students who Study Abroad

One of the major challenges of hosting international students is to navigate the language barrier. Communication is key to any relationship, so how do you have the confidence to speak your mind when your student doesn't speak your language? At times you need to be fearless and in today's episode we chat with Heather Thompson who shares this grit with a side of humour.

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10 Steps of Culture Shock show art 10 Steps of Culture Shock

The Homestay Kitchen: Cultural Connections with International Students who Study Abroad

Culture shock can come in many different forms, not just language for international students. From food, to hygiene, and even the way people dress. It's not about what each culture is doing right or wrong, but about how things are done and are acceptable in different countries. Culture shock can be entertaining and fascinating to new students at first, but then it could also lead to confusion, feeling anxious, overwhelmed, and disoriented, which could induce homesickness. So what is this cycle and what sign

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Cultural Expectations with Master Homestay Host Tatiana Robertson show art Cultural Expectations with Master Homestay Host Tatiana Robertson

The Homestay Kitchen: Cultural Connections with International Students who Study Abroad

When you decide to host international students in your home, it's not an easy decision, especially if this is your first time. And even if you have hosted before, sometimes you've got to weigh the pros and cons. There are so many details that could be overlooked and really, you don't know what you don't know. So we tapped into the knowledge of Tatiana Robertson, who has hosted short and long term students from all over the globe for over seven years.

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More Episodes

It's coming to the end of the year and some students may be leaving or some students may be heading home just for the winter break. Either way, when it's time to drag the luggage out and dust off that passport, we need to start thinking about our pre-departure rituals. What is it like when your student finally leaves? What strategies are you going to put into place when it comes to saying goodbye?

In this episode, we tackle the end of the student homestay experience. And since we are talking about goodbyes, the podcast is going to go on a little vacation too.

We, Erin and Mary, will be taking the rest of the year and early 2020 to be with family and celebrate all the winter holidays. In the meantime, take a listen to some of our past 40 plus episodes and catch up if you're new to our show. We'd also love to hear from you about any topic from our episodes or... if you have ideas for future episodes, please let us know! Leave us a voice note and email us at [email protected]. Enjoy the rest of the year and have a wicked 2020!

Key Points From This Episode:

  • #wearenotonabreak
  • Erin goes through the steps of how she says goodbye to her students.
    #wailandcryandrefusetogettheirsuitcasesout
  • When do you start to say goodbye?
    #weliveindenial
  • Erin opens up about her hardest goodbye.
  • We talk about the things students leave behind.
  • Mary shares her tradition of goodbye gifts.
    #mybagisfull
  • Connecting over good food. We chat about our special nights out with students.
  • In what way are Mary and Erin completely different?
  • When airport goodbyes could use some boundaries.
    #wrongtonewrongzone
  • Erin talks about the turmoil of saying goodbye to your student at the airport.
  • When your student’s luggage is overweight.
  • Mary says sweep!
  • How did Erin shock Mary?

Links:
Episode 45: Boundaries and Rules During Homestay Experiences
Google Translate
Air Canada

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