Possible Improvements in Becoming More Fitting Hosts for Students from Foreign Cultures
I propose to my host family that they should grow in the virtue of patient tolerance, benevolent understanding, and tactful sincerity. When a student from foreign culture desires to leave his home country and travel far and wide to totally new places to continue his education, sometimes he might choose to acquire the
services of a home-stay family. For most of the time you would be very lucky and find an excellent host, who would take good care of you, show you around in the city and introduce you to their cultural habits with patience, understanding and genuine sincerity.
I guess I was just not so lucky. Throughout my 3 weeks stay with my last host-family, I look back now and still remember the unjust that had been brought upon me during which. From my spider-infested room to the never-once-cleaned toilet for 3 consecutive weeks, which was shared between me and my roommate each and everyday; from the numerous complains of me sleeping too late at eleven at night as oppose to eight like they do, to the stubbornness of my hostess where she insisted that she and only she could cook and that the kitchen is off-limits for us, while her cooking are sometimes highly unaccustomed to me and bordering inedible.
Now that I have been asked to leave earlier this week, by far the busiest week since the start of this quarter, and had finally moved out with much hassle and difficulty, I would like to make a few modest suggestions to Mr. and Mrs. Smith personally, my last Host and Hostess that they might find useful on how to improve on their hosting skills for future references, and I have grouped them into 3 main points:
To have the house rules and regulations written in black and white, and not to change them depending on their mood. So the guest would be able to know how to act accordingly.
To compromise a work-sleep schedule before the student even moved in. This is an important agreement since the now-vacant room is right above the master bedroom, to which I doubt there are any full-time students who would be asleep at 8 o’clock every night, or simply becomes immobile after that time.
To have more patience for the students especially when they are from other cultures, and for that they might not be as familiar with the daily routines as the students themselves would like to be.
Last but not least, to try to pay more attention to general hygiene, whether preparing food or simply the hygiene of the environment around the household
Of course one might yell at the top of her lungs: “If you want to live under my roof, you better obey my rules and there is not exception for that,” and kicking her oven door shut to strengthen her point. I would agree with that completely. Of course if you are a guest and is living in someone else’s home, it is only reasonable for you to obey any rules the host deems necessary.
However, it is not the same thing if you failed to mention your way of doing things during the first interviews with your potential home-stay guests, while saying you would consider yourself as an “open-minded person” and “respects every student’s individuality” neighboring deception, fraud.
Therefore, I propose to the Smiths that they should re-consider if their home is fit for taking in students when you expect them you pay you and anticipate nothing in return, also to observe the suggestions I made, just in case there is actually an ounce of truth genuineness in them.