We’ve found that setting the house rules is the key in creating a good home stay environment. Here are some of the rules we try to establish as soon as the student arrives - if you’re going to do this, certainly you should come up with your own.
Laundry - How to use the machine, detergent, dryer and how often do you allow it to be used. If you’re hosting exchange students from Japan for example, they have the tendency to want to do laundry nearly every day - even if they’re just washing a pair of shorts and a t-shirt! We have to tell them to combine 3 or 4 days of clothes before running the machine. Showers - It’s good to put a time limit on the shower. Many Japanese homestay students can make a picnic out of bath time if you let them. Setting a time limit will keep peace in your home and make sure you don’t run out of hot water. Most Japanese homes use heat exchangers instead of a conventional water heater (with a big water tank), this means that they don’t know that you can run out of hot water. Showers/Bathrooms part 2 - Don’t assume your Japanese exchange student knows that the shower curtain is meant to keep the water INSIDE the bathtub. Japanese baths (furo) are VERY different from American style bathrooms and many don’t know that our bathroom floors are not meant to get wet. We’ve had a couple of flooding incidents. Locking the door - Teach them how to lock the door. Sounds really basic but we’ve found that this is always a problem. For Japanese exchange students you should understand that most door knobs in Japan don’t have locks in them; they are used to a knob plus deadbolt type of situation. So the concept of a lock built into a door knob is just different for them. Food policies - Our rule for food is simple, if you see it you can eat it. But as a host family, we do set parameters for eating in the bedrooms. We recently hosted a teenage girl who gave new meaning to the word “slob.” This rule will now become a little stricter now. Dinner time - Tell your homestay when to expect to eat dinner. We say be home by 7pm if you want to eat with us, or you can eat by yourself later. Because we have a small child, our time is ruled by his schedule and we won’t wait for the student to show up before eating. Chores - Nobody gets a free ride in our house as we are not running a hotel. As such we tell our homestay that we expect them to clean their rooms and bathroom, to do their own laundry, and to help with the dishes. Having the student help with dinner or dishes is also a good time to talk and spend time with the student. Japanese girls are usually pretty good about this, but the boys… Going out policies - If our exchange student is a minor (under 18), we don’t allow them to go out at night without an adult. For us, most of our students are adults, so we want them to go out and explore. Our only rule here is that they call us to let us know if they will be home for dinner, and what time do they expect to be home. Family outings - All of our exchange students are invited to all family outings. It’s up to them if they want to come our not, but we set a condition that they are included. Phone calls - After a few bad experiences, we block international calling from our home phone. We tell our homestay students to buy phone cards if they want to call home. Internet - We provide broadband Internet in our homestay rooms but we do monitor usage (remember, I’m kind of a computer guy too) by checking our router logs. By reviewing my router logs, I don’t invade their privacy, but I can tell how they are using my Internet connection. I warn them to not use peer-to-peer networks or I’ll shut them off. by-NetSato - Homestay, Japan, Hawaii, Parenting & Computers www.netsato.com/2006/02/28/host-family-house-rules-for-homestays/+New+Front+Cover+3x3in.jpg)
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