Advice for Hosts
Host families are an integral part of the life of the students who stay with them. They provide more than just room and board; they become friends and guides in a new culture. A successful experience is rewarding for both students and families.
Getting started
As might be expected, there is often a period of adjustment, and in the beginning students need a lot of information and support from their host families. For many it is their first time away from home and the first time they make all of their own decisions. Most of them do not speak much English and often find our ways confusing. Often, too, they are too shy to ask for clarification.
They will not be able to absorb everything the first day and, experience has taught us, in many cases they will not be able to understand everything you say. You may find that you need to explain things more than once.
At English-language school, the students often joke about “cultural differences” but these do exist and, unfortunately, even get in the way occasionally. What you may take as indifference, coolness, slowness, thoughtlessness or rudeness in the students may only be a mutual misunderstanding of signals. Hopefully problems and frustrations will be rare and students will feel welcome.
What your student needs to know
Getting around
How to get around on public transportation, including the route between home and school. Most students also like to buy one-month bus passes and need to know where to find them.
Your address and phone number
In the first few days students often forget or misplace this information (sometimes your name as well).
Household habits
Make sure your student is familiar with:
- Your family routine: meal times, times you need bathrooms or hot water, quiet times (to go to sleep early or sleep in), telephone rules, ways they can help around the house, laundry and so on.
- How and when to use your appliances: oven, microwave, dishwasher, washer and dryer, and small appliances.
- How to use the television. This is very important for their English. Far from wasting their time, TV can be a very useful form of homework.
- Anything that is off-limits, such as special equipment or food for special occasions.
- Guidelines for long-distance phone calls. Have your student buy a telephone card for making long-distance calls.
- Rules for using the computer.
What you need to provide
A private bedroom
Each student must have his or her own private bedroom, furnished with a bed, dresser, closet, desk and chair, and be provided with linen and towels. Rooms must also have a window and a source of heat. Sharing a bedroom is permitted only by prior arrangement.
Bedrooms for short-term tours
An exception to the private bedroom policy is for tours, when two students travelling with a group are placed together for short stays, usually of ten days or less, and may share a bedroom (separate beds required). The other exception is couples who have requested a shared room.
Meal options
Vancouver Family Homestays offers two meal options: Full Board (breakfast, lunch and dinner) and Half Board (breakfast and dinner).
We let you know which meal option your student has chosen when we make the placement with you. Sometimes students do not know which plan has been chosen for them, and some decide to change their option after arriving.
Laundry
Students must have access to the laundry facilities in your home.
A key to your home
Students must be given their own key to your home. If you have an alarm, make sure your student understands how to operate it (nodding of the head may not be the same as understanding) and what to do if the alarm is triggered accidentally.
When your student arrives
Welcome to Vancouver
A member of your family must be at home (or arrangements made for someone to greet your student) when your student arrives. We will let you know the student’s arrival information as far ahead of time as possible.
Airport arrivals
Most students arrive by flying in to Vancouver International Airport.
Airport pickup, if the student requests it, is made by our driver, Christian Krauth. Christian can be reached at (604) 644-8789 on the arrival day if you run into difficulties.
If you will be greeting your student at the airport, we will send you the flight information as far ahead of time as possible. Time permitting, you will also receive a sign by mail with the student’s name to display in the arrivals lounge.
Tour arrivals
For tours, you will need to pick your students up at a central meeting point, usually a community centre (Riley Park in Vancouver and Delbrook on the North Shore are the ones we most commonly use).
Keeping your profile up to date
Students and their agents expect accurate, up-to-date profiles of host families. This can be a challenge as children grow up and move out, pets are acquired or pass on, new careers start and other changes happen over time. Please let us know about significant changes in your household – as well as details like new cell phone numbers – so we can keep your record up to date.
Payment and placements
How will I receive payment?
Most students have paid for their homestay in advance and payment is disbursed by VFH. If your student attends language school, payment normally goes out at the end of the first week of class. Payment is for a four-week period, from Saturday to Sunday, with additional days paid at a daily rate. Tours are paid at daily rates that vary with the length of stay (higher for shorter stays). If you have a question about payment, please call us before raising the matter with your student.
Can I host more than one student?
Our students come to Canada to learn English, so it is imperative that they speak only English at home. If you are going to host more than one student, they must speak different native languages. VFH guarantees to the schools and agents we work with that there will be no other students speaking the same native language in the homestay. If this proves otherwise, we have no choice but to move the student immediately.
Hosting students of opposite sexes may also be unacceptable to some students and their families. To avoid problems, please tell us about any other students you are or will be hosting, including any you accept after accepting a student from us.
What if a student extends their stay?
Students often decide to stay on longer than they originally planned. Please let us know if your student is staying on, so we know you aren’t available for another student.
What if a student wants to move out early?
We ask students who wish to move to give four weeks’ notice to their host families. Exceptions are made in the first week of school if a student is not happy in his or her homestay. Please note that the four-week notice rule is not legally enforceable, so we cannot guarantee that a student will give adequate notice.
Who will be staying in my home?
Students are usually of college age or older and come from many different countries around the world. They choose homestay rather than, say, an apartment, because they want to improve their English more quickly and learn about our culture while sharing their own.
Meals and daily life
What is expected for breakfast?
It may be served by you or offered on a help-yourself basis. In the latter case, make sure your student understands what is available, where it is kept, and how to prepare it. Cereal, toast, fruit, juice, milk, tea and coffee are typical weekday offerings.
What is expected in a packed lunch?
A sandwich (meat, fish or cheese), fruit, a drink and a snack. Some students need less. Microwaved leftovers make a change from sandwiches. Some families let their students make their own lunch; others prefer to have it ready.
What if we will be away overnight?
Make sure your student is comfortable and understands all the arrangements for meals, and has the contact phone numbers they need. Many host families like to invite their students along on weekend skiing or camping trips.
What does our student need us to provide?
Students have their own shampoo and toiletries, and will depend on you for towels, linen, toilet paper and other basics.
Can the student share a room?
Student bedrooms must be occupied by one person only (exceptions apply to short-term tours). The room should be warm, well lit, and comparable to the family’s own accommodation. It should have a window and be quiet so the student can study. Young children should understand it is off limits to them unless they are invited.
Feedback from students
Every month we deal with a few students who are not happy in their homestays and wish to move to another host family. We also pay close attention to the homestay assessments that students fill out before going home. Here are some messages we often hear, and what can be done.
“My host family doesn’t talk to me”
This is the single most frequent complaint we hear. We especially hear it from students with late classes (ending at 6:00 p.m.) who can’t get home in time for dinner with the family, and so end up eating alone on weeknights.
Solution: Set aside time to spend with your student every day. If they regularly can’t get home in time for dinner, sitting down and talking with them for a few minutes while they eat will help them feel more welcome.
“My room doesn’t have a window, closet, bed, dresser, desk, chair or heat”
When our staff visit your home, they check that each student bedroom has the things we require: window, closet, bed, dresser, desk, chair and a source of heat. If you later remove any of these, or use a room our staff haven’t approved, your student may have grounds to complain.
Solution: Make sure room furnishings follow our guidelines and that heaters or heat ducts work. Explain how your house is heated. Most importantly, don’t put a student in a room you wouldn’t live in yourself.
“There’s often nothing to make lunch with” or “They have the same thing every day”
These are two common refrains from students. “Sometimes I have to buy my own groceries” is another, and it is especially problematic for us.
Solution: Make sure you have supplies for the week’s lunches for Full Board students, and that prepared meals, refrigerated or frozen, are available if you will be out for dinner or away overnight. If students want particular foods or condiments from home that your family wouldn’t normally eat, suggest they buy them themselves and tell them where to find them – for example, T & T Supermarket for a variety of Asian foods and Fujiya for Japanese food.
Questions?
Email coordinators@vancouverhomestays.ca or call 1 (604) 733-3807.