Seven years ago, we accepted our first homestay student. We originally decided to become homestay parents to put some additional funds into our mortgage, however we quickly discovered that like most things in life, the more you put in, the more you get back.

Fish has been here since the birth of our 3rd child, she still comes to over to play with the children or babysit them.  We ask her to house sit our new home, the cat and the students at present when we go on holiday.  We taught her how to drive, welcome her boyfriend into our family and the children call him “ Chips”.  She has stayed with my husbands’ family in Europe.  Her parents have come to Australia and invited us out for dinner and met up the last 3 years for a Boxing Day leftovers afternoons.

Having an internstional student has certainly changed our perception of Japanese culture and it will be difficult to say goodbye when her stay ends. We have had no problem in overcoming any barriers during her homestay.

Our family have been hosting for AHN for many years and have found hosting to be one of the most rewarding gifts that just keeps on giving! Homestay is not just an opportunity to share our home and the Gold Coast, but hosting students provides a unique opportunity to learn about their country, their people and culture.

Hosting can be a very enjoying experience, and communication is the key to success. We have been able to assist with varied emotional experiences helping our girls adapt to life in Australia.

You need to be prepared to ‘go the extra yard’ to help. When they arrive they need to buy a travel card for public transport, open a bank account and buy a phone card to call their parents. You need to know where to buy these.

Such a great experience being a homestay host. Learning different cultures and different languages and making new friends. We regularly keep in touch with many of our students who have stayed over the last 4 years.

Sho was an excellent student. Actually almost all your students are top notch respectful people. We miss their presence in the house.

The most rewarding thing about becoming a homestay host is getting respected and numerous fiends all over the world and they treat you like their second mum.

Steven has become such an integral part of our family, we all love him to bits. He easily settled in with us, and we all enjoy our “family dinners”.

I have a great relationship with all my homestays. I still keep in touch with them through Facebook, Instagram, Wechat and meals out with the students.

We have done homestay for 9 1/2 years and had some awesome experiences and shared amazing memories with our students.

I believe by staying in Homestay instead of just room, gives them a more homely comfortable feel that there is someone around to help – even answer a question, if they need it.

Our student enjoy the more friendly, secure lifestyle of staying in homestay compared to small confined units.

I could feel my hosts commitment to help students in their transition to living in Australia. I felt very comfortable and although I still had some limitations with my English, the experience living with them helped me a lot. My host parents supported me not only financially, but also boosting my English and making my transition easier. I consider them as my family.

Living with them allowed me to make friends with other students too, from different cultural backgrounds. It was nice to experience and learn from them and from my host family. I also had the chance of sharing to them my culture.

We have been blessed to have Yuri as our homestay guest since August 2017. Yuri has become part of our extended family and it will be sad to her return home when her stay ends in June/July 2018. Her parents traveled to Australia from Japan at Xmas to celebrate the festive season with her and joined our whole family for Xmas lunch and loved every minute.

We have laughed with them and talked with them at length enjoying our during and after dinner conversations. We have celebrated birthdays. I am pleased that my cooking has been acceptable to people with very different diets to us. We have learnt much about the cultures of Vietnam, Russia, China and Hong Kong and keep a large map marking their home towns. We have learnt to tolerate cultural differences at the dinner table but one thing I still have not been able to master is the use of chopsticks.

We enjoyed our Homestay Hosting and had amazing connections with our students. We were their Australian Mum & Dad. We have welcomed their friends celebrated birthdays and Christmas. Our First Homestay were 2 Rohingyan for 6 weeks. One of the Rohingyan’s still rings after 7 years. Thank you AHN for the opportunity to participate in they’re developing young lives and seeing their dreams begin to materialise.

Our students loved our safe, family life and enjoyed the personal attention they received. We involved our family and it was always a treat to experience the new culture. It was important to us that the students experience the Australian way of life.

We have thoroughly enjoyed our homestay experience. We have learnt a lot from our students. We have made some lifelong friends and have acquired some ‘daughters’ since we became homestay parents.

While I had a great time living in my homestay accommodation, I believe a homestay arrangement would be best suited to students who are either quite young, or those who would like to live in an accommodation that was more family oriented and structured. I am grateful for AHN to have placed me with such a lovely family; I will never forget my experience with my homestay family.

I was hesitant about taking a student from Saudi Arabia, but I will never prejudge any student again. He was polite, spoke great English, respectful and so helpful. I keep in touch with him, his wife and his two children and he calls me his Oz mum. I was even the first person to find out that he passed the first component of his PHD. I currently have a student from Saudi Arabia although some 15 years younger he is also wonderful.

For me, living in a host family is a very happy experience in this year. I will never forget Brad and Claire, I I hope I can keep in touch with them, like friends, like family.