As cliché as it may sound, studying abroad makes you a much worldlier person; someone who has seen and experienced the world. The initial adaptation phase may be daunting. You are bewildered, as you stepped into an unfamiliar environment, see unfamiliar faces and experience an entirely different set of cultures. One of your biggest fears will probably be having to stay out in a remote country, one that’s far away from Home, away from your loved ones and friends. No doubt, you will miss your family, and perhaps the delicious home-cooked food your mum whips up every evening.

However, the experiences you are going to gain will be invaluable and the intangible life skills you are going to pick up will be priceless. These lessons learnt will also make you more marketable to future employers when you seek for employment.

And now that you have decided to pack your bags, travel and study abroad, what next?

Well, you need a place to stay! While there may be many accommodation selections available, why not consider staying at a Homestay with a local family? One of the most rewarding experiences you gain is the ability to experience and immerse in the culture of the Country you are residing in. It allows you to experience an authentic culture that is second-to-none.

What is a Homestay?

A Homestay is a Home used either for the purpose of tourism (e.g Airbnb) or students when studying abroad. It allows tenants to rent rooms from local families.

One of the key reasons why people opt for a Homestay is because they wish to immerse themselves in the local culture and leverage this opportunity to improve their language skills.

While Homestay participants do provide a mean for the host family to earn an income, a Homestay is more than providing a roof over the head for the tenant. As a host family, you are also responsible for caring for the good being of the tenant and ensuring all essentials are provided for.

Students can arrange a homestay either with their school/ education institution and also through social connections and private agents in their country that will help link these students to the host families, usually for a nominal fee.

Homestay opportunities can range from a full board to basic room rental. Full board entitles students to a full breakfast and dinner daily. Sometimes, lunch is inclusive as well. Aside nutritious home-cooked food, laundry, and housekeeping services would be rendered as well.

As a foreign student participating in a Homestay, the student gets to participate in the many family activities, including dining out, short trips, family games, travelling, events, and more! There may be times visiting students may be expected to pay a subsidised portion of activity-related fees or expenses.

Host families perform the pivotal role of a parent, mentoring the students in their schoolwork, giving them advice and ensuring students are doing well in schools.

While in many homestays, host families play a pseudo-parental role, there are also students who may simply just wish to rent a room within a private home, with minimal supervision from the host.

Why enroll in the International student homestay program?

Well, in a nutshell, you want to enroll in an International student homestay program for the following reasons:

Costs

As you will be residing with a host family, homestay is typically an affordable option! Homestay is considered the cheapest accommodation option because full board generally includes meals, laundry facilities, and housekeeping services. As you are provided with a fixed number of meals a day, this actually saves you some grocery money, allowing you to splurge a little during the weekends on some fun/ visits to places of interests.

Culture

One of the best ways to experience a culture is to live it, and that’s one of the best opportunity you get to experience as a study abroad, foreign student. Staying with a local family allows you to submerse into the culture, life, and experience the authentic cultural living. In most instances, you spend dinner time in the evening with your host family and indulge your social time and daily life with them as well.

Living with a host family allows you to taste the local cuisines, and partake in local events and visitation to places that even tourists would be unaware of. In addition to this, host family can act as local tour guides as well and offer you tips on navigating your new environment.

Self Realisation

Apart from possessing a wealth of experience and cultures, you achieve independence from having to rely on nobody, but yourself. Attain social skills, self-confidence, time management and organization skills. These are traits you gradually develop over time.

Language

One of the best ways to pick up a new language is to hear it and to speak it. This is no better way than to submerse yourself in the Language. In a hostel or dormitory, you inevitably fall amongst people who speak your native language. But when you reside in a Homestay, you converse in the native language of your host country, which inevitably, improves your spoken and written language skills. Being equipped with good language skills will make living in a foreign country easier, navigate places easier and most importantly, explore the lovely country and make new friends!

Friends

Homestay programs are the best way to make new friends! Having resided in a remote, far away country, you want to make new friends and make living in the foreign country fun, meaningful and memorable. Homestay families provide a good support system as well for international students and good friendships are often developed between hosts and students over a course of a lifetime!

Gohing Home

This article is written by Gohing Home. We are a leading homestay provider in Singapore, providing homestay services for foreign students, conjoining guardianship and educational services to ensure students realise their fullest potential. Having been in the business for close to 10 years, we are dedicated to bringing out the best in our students and offering learning experiences that are rich, unique, fun and memorable.