Jeanette
One of my Korean students, her name "Jeanette", kept asking me what time she can take her shower. She asked at least 3 or 4 times. Each time I would answer her "anytime". She would sometimes ask, "what if I come home late?" I again said "anytime, it's OK." Finally after some more questioning, I learned that she kept asking what time she can take her shower, because she thought I turn off the hot water at a certain time every night. She was quite happy that the hot water is not turned off by me every night. She told me that in her home after a certain time there is no hot water.

Mikiko
Mikiko is a student from Japan. She asked me many times when she can take her shower. I told her “anytime”. I did not understand why she kept asking me when she can take her shower, each time I answered, “anytime”. Finally after a couple more days of asking when she can take her shower, I learned that she was trying to ask “when is the best time to take her shower”. She was trying to figure out the best time, as to not interfere with our family’s need for hot water, and other students. Mikiko was very considerate and persistent in her query, but she failed to ask the “best” time. But fortunately we figured out her intended question, and thanked her for her consideration. We finally told her when the best time was, instead of anytime.

Sometimes, due to the cultural and language difference, a simple thing as taking a shower anytime may pose to be a stress for a guest in your home. Now I tell my students the best time and anytime.

Soari
The responsiblities of a homestay mom is quite challenging sometimes. I treat my students as adults and give them their independence, but sometimes I feel really like their "mom", and put myself in their mother’s shoes and ask myself, if she was “my” daughter, what would I want for my daughter living away from home.

For example, one of my Japanese students "Saori", told me one evening she met a boy and that she would be moving out to live with him and 2 of his male friends. She had only met this boy for a couple of weeks, she herself had only been in Canada for about 1 month. I did not like this idea of a single girl living with 3 boys. So I did the mother thing, and hoped that she would listen to me. I sat her down and strongly advised her it was not a good idea to move in with this boy and his friends. I asked her to consider if her own mother would allow her to do this. I did not know if she would listen to me but I told her I had to give her my opinion even though she did not ask for my opinion. With some hesitation, she did listened to me, she did not move out to live with these boys. She eventually stayed with me for one year. She was very glad and appreciated my opinion and kept thanking me. As it turns out, the boy broke up with her after one month, and does not even reply to her emails. Saori was sad for awhile, but she soon met other friends and enjoyed the rest of her stay in Canada.

During the time that Saori stayed with us, her father visited us from Japan for one weekend. Although he did not speak English and we did not speak Japanese, with Saori’s help in translation we had a good visit. After Saori’s dad returned back to Japan, he mailed a Japanese musical CD to Saori to give to us. Funny thing happened, Saori kept the CD and was too embarrassed to give it to us because she thought we would not like the type of music her father had picked for us. Finally after her father kept asking Saori if she had given us the CD she finally gave it to us after receiving it for 2 weeks. As she was giving us the CD, she was apologizing for it, saying “I’m sorry but my father said I must give this to you.” As it turns out we loved the music that her father picked for us. We had a good laugh.

Eriko
During our years of hosting students, we have had a couple sad instances where students lost their bags/wallets. We always remind students to please do not keep house key together in same bag which contain information of homestay address. And of course, do not carry lots of cash and your passport with you. Unfortunately students do not always remember and we have had to change locks on our house; very expensive task.

Eriko is from Japan and she stayed with us for 8 weeks. She had the unfortunate experience of someone stealing her bag. Her wallet, including her passport, and other personal belongings all gone in a moment. She came home in tears. Fortunately for Eriko, a good Samaritan found her bag and found her homestay phone number and returned her belongings. After a “bad” Canadian experience, she was happy to be the recipient of a “good” deed, which restored her trust in Canadians.