What are the characteristics of Canadian homestay families?

Canadian homestay families have the following characteristics:

1. Safety

Regular homestay families are personally selected by school districts, school directors, etc. as boarders. Families must meet certain conditions. The extremely high requirements and strict selection make the host families and their members very safe for the students staying there. In addition, because children live and eat with host families in Canada, they will be very safe in terms of food, accommodation and environment, which is obviously different from renting a house.

2. The warmth of "home"

From a legal point of view, homestay means that international students live with local families in Canada. International students pay a certain fee to the host family, and the host family provides Some contracted services. However, from an emotional perspective, host families provide far more than the services stipulated in the contract. More often than not, they provide a warm and humane home in a foreign country where the children have no friends. Communicating three meals a day, shopping on weekends, being taken care of when sick, and participating in the daily life of the host family (such as birthday parties or visiting relatives and friends), etc., make the entire study abroad life no longer boring in the dormitory and classroom. . The inherent warmth and generosity of Canadians makes homestay life more humane.

3. Constraints from “family”

Most parents of young international students are often worried that their children lack self-control. Will they become bad students if they study in Canada during high school? In fact, , this kind of worry is unnecessary in most cases, not to mention that children will eventually leave their parents, even if they go to study abroad at the university level, they may still learn badly. As far as Canadian law on the control of prohibited items such as tobacco and alcohol is concerned, it is much more difficult for children to be exposed to such items that may lead to bad learning than in China. Finally, don’t forget that from a legal perspective, the parents of host families have the same supervision responsibilities as domestic parents, unlike the landlords we can think of in China who only collect rent and do nothing. Moreover, the owners of homestay families basically have children about the same age as the international students. They will supervise the children to complete their homework on time and communicate more with the family to improve their language skills.

4. Unique language environment

A good language environment gives homestay families unique advantages. In fact, we all know that Chinese students are still learning English from the first grade of primary school to college. However, when facing foreigners, some students can only say "How are you? Fine, thank you and you?". Why is this? The environment dictates. Chinese children only speak English for 45 minutes in class. They can do whatever they like after class. Just imagine how the children's language ability will improve in such an environment?

The host family will be different, usually before meals After dinner, all the people I came into contact with on weekends were local Canadians, and all the TV I watched at home was English-related, so you couldn’t avoid it. In addition, when living in a host family, parents (generally young international students will call the hosts of the host family) will ask them to talk and communicate as much as possible. At weekend gatherings of relatives and friends, young international students will also be invited to introduce their hometowns, hobbies, interests, etc. It can be said that in such an environment, the language skills of international students will improve by leaps and bounds, and they can be used as a local guide when their parents visit relatives next winter or summer vacation. The tour guide took his parents on a sightseeing tour.

5. Authentic local community culture

A widely circulated joke among international students is: "You can understand the course, but you can't understand the joke. You can hand in the homework, but you can't." Make friends.” This shows how difficult it is to integrate into a foreign culture. Under normal circumstances, passive international students simply give up on themselves, give up integration, and choose to mingle with international students from China to form their own system. Positive international students will take the initiative to integrate and do things they are interested in with local Canadian friends, such as playing football, singing, etc.

Living with a host family, as long as the international student is not a boring person, there are many opportunities to get to know the host family and the local community, such as conversations at the dinner table, communication while watching TV, and after school with the host children and their friends. The communication when playing together can allow you to fully contact the local culture, understand the local customs and habits, and then go in and mingle with the locals. In this way, you can understand jokes and make friends. Cultural adaptation is no longer a pressure but a help to move forward.