Home Stay

Well I’m considering studying abroad and at that University i’m Looking at I either have the option of doing a home-stay or just living in the dorms. And I’ll be 19 when I leave.
I currently live away from family and in a dorm so I’m used to the "freedom" and "independence" of on your own, But, I think doing a home-stay will help you get more of the country customs and help you learn the language faster and better, and help you become more comfortable speaking and exploring/traveling the country and just being there in general. However what I think the bad thing is living with a family you have to follow their rules and such and you never know what type of family you could end up with and being new to country I want to experience as much( including the nightlife) as I could just like anyone else would. Then I don’t know if I’ll end up being more "family-oriented" like I’d rather get to hang around the family and do things with them since I will be a guest in their house it’s only natural to get know them and then it possibly could cause me to not get as many friends from school.
I think if I was to live in the dorm I’ll meet a lot of people my age faster because they’ll be like "Look an American! I want to use my english and get to know them". I’ll have my own freedom to do as I please (of course while following the country’s traditions and customs) and it might make the natives more comfortable to talk to me when they see me around a lot out of class and can stop by my dorm room pretty much anytime. Plus living on campus I’ll think I’ll be invited to more social events, concerts and places to go for college students/teens then if I lived with someone cause I don’t know if they’ll have a kid who’s also in college or have any kids at all so they most likely couldn’t show me the "best places to hang out" and then living with someone I’ll basically only be on campus for class.

So I’m kind of conflicted between the two can someone help?

I would strongly reccomend staying with a family simply because you really get to experience what it that culture is like. You are truly living it and therefore grasping the culture. You get the food, the routine and the interior of the home as well as being able to observe how the other members of the family act/behave. The only down side of staying with a family is if they are strange it may not be fun but usually families who take students into stay go through many checks to ensure that they are relatively normal and will be able to sufficiently look after you.

I wish you all the best in your studies abroad.

I am hoping to do a homestay in Tokyo japan next year but I want to know about someones experience because i haven’t done anything like this before. I am 16 so the host family will be putting me in a high school, if someone else has done this what was it like. Also will two weeks be long enough to get the full experience? And I am black British so I heard that I would be met with curiosity about my skin tone.

I actually did a homestay program in Naka-shi, Japan, last summer! It was one of the best trips I’d ever taken. I learned a lot about their culture, which is saying a lot because I actually am Japanese and was born there. As to what you’ll be expecting, it will depend on the family. They say Asian families are strict, but my homestay family was way more lenient and laid back than my family here. However, all ten of us that did the program all agreed that the families were extremely nice and considerate, and most of us were told to call the mother and father "Mom" and "Dad".

I think two weeks is good enough to get the experience as well as any foreigner could. We only got one week, but that was enough time to get used the family’s regular schedules and to get to know how their family worked. And seeing as all of us cried when we had to go back, it was definitely enough time to get to know and to start caring about each other.

As long as you’re in Tokyo, I don’t think you’ll get that many stares for your skin tone. After all, it is a city of tourist attractions. I actually saw about a dozen black men working in stores in Harajuku.

I’m from M’sia and would like to stay with a host family in Seoul, Korea for over a week or so. I’m also still not so sure about the process of hosts programs… which is the best website i could go to look for infos?

ASA is a wonderful program. I’m not sure if they have any programs available in Seoul but it’s worth a try! You can just google exchange programs and a bunch will come up. Most of them aren’t scams but you still have to be careful.