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By Kayla Allen
There are plenty of good reasons to stay with a family when traveling and I'll tell you what they are.
If you've decided to do a language immersion program the first thing you should embrace is the idea of immersing yourself in another culture. Homestays offer a really easy way of doing this. Usually the families have had long standing relationships with their school and even though they don't speak English they've had many students before you arriving to their homes not knowing their language. They're used to this process and won't be offended if you can't say everything you should to be a polite guest or to carry on a conversation. They know that this will come in time. Helpful hint: do try to use what little language skills you may have. It's always nice to try to communicate even if it sounds broken and nonsensical, they won't hold it against you.
Once you've got a little vocab and grammar under your belt though that's when living with a native speaking family really comes in handy. What could be more effective and efficient than living and eating with people who know and will ask you to use the language your whole trip is based around learning. It's like a 24-hour classroom. Hint: try to intentionally incorporate the vocabulary and grammar that you're learning in class into your conversations with your hosts, this will help reinforce what you're learning in school and hear what responses it elicits from your hosts as well. This will help to broaden your knowledge base of the language.
Along with it's other potential benefits, choosing a homestay is invariably the most inexpensive way to go; unless of course you have a second home in your chosen study location. If this is your good fortune why ball means, stay there, and kudos!
All of the above are reason enough to choose a homestay but it's hard to evaluate just how potentially meaningful living with native speaking family can be. There is something so amazing about traveling to another country and getting to know someone truly on their terms. You're learning their language, living in their home, eating their food and experiencing their culture and they are sharing it with you. Living with a family can put a whole new prospective on traveling abroad and add a positive element to your language program you just might not have expected.
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