By on January 8th, 2016

3 Challenges International Students Face – And How Host Families Can Help

If you’re preparing to open your home to an international student, you’re likely looking forward to learning about their home country and maybe even picking up some of their language. While hosting students can be a lot of fun and very educational, international students definitely face some very unique challenges that can make things difficult. Fortunately, a good host family can help with just about all of these.

Homesickness

For a lot of these students, this will be the first time they’ve traveled away from home for more than a few days, and it may be the first time they’ve ever left their country. This is exciting, but it’s also kind of frightening. And it can lead to some serious feelings of homesickness.

What can you do to help? Start by letting them know that you’re excited to have them as a temporary part of the family for their stay. Include them in activities, and ask them if there’s anything they’d like to do in their free time that you can do together. You can also help by asking about their favorite meal from home and preparing it together for a little comfort food to help ease the transition.

Stereotypes

Next, international students deal with a lot of stereotypes when they come to the US. From seemingly innocuous issues like people thinking that all Asian people are good at math to more problematic ones like irrational fears of Muslim people, these stereotypes can be problematic for students trying to adjust to life in the US. Help them out by welcoming them into a warm home where no one treats them like they’re somehow different because they come from another country.

Feeling Disconnected

Finally, aside from homesickness, international students can sometimes feel disconnected due to language barriers and not having others around who are familiar with their culture. Most exchange and ESL programs will have group activities and times when students can relax and hang out with other international students. Encourage your student to attend these, and make sure that you include them in activities with your family, too, and you’ll do a lot to fight that feeling of disconnectedness.

These kinds of challenges are usually surprisingly easy to handle if you’re observant and sympathetic. If you’re having trouble helping your student, you can also always get support from USH, too.