What are some things you can do to advertise a host family to foreign exchange students?
My family is trying to host foreign exchange students from South Korea in our house. We have no income, so we have nothing else to do but this. We live in Howard County in Maryland, a #3 rated for its educational system. We want to spark some interest in those exchange students to come live and study here. We tried getting connections through a foreign exchange administering organization in South Korea, but they charge the students 5k and we get 600 per month. So we want to lower that by about 1k and receive the rest of the money; it is cheaper for the exchange student, and a plus for us. But we have absolutely NO way of selling ourselves. I was thinking website, but how can we verify our authenticity without looking suspicious as those computer ads? How can we make these people believe we are trustworthy people? PLEASE WHAT CAN WE DO? Note: We have already had one foreign exchange from South Korea, and he LOVED the experience. But connections that he gives us all say we are too expensive (because they are from a poorer region.) We do have ONE reference though; we just need to spread the word somehow. Ps. I see where you are coming from, but I would just like to state that that my siblings are the ones who are currently supporting our family in terms of income. The reason we can even stay in these parts of the neighborhood is because we can ONLY pay our morgage, electric, water, all living expenses. As for health insurance issues and such, this is all covered in the contract that we sign when they come to our house to homestay. There's even an associated dedicated to making money off of providing a house to stay in to get an education in America, so I'm sorry, but these foreign exchange students do not feel that what we do is terrible, nor do we. They require what is needed to succeed in America. They simply require a home to stay in in America, because their parents cannot afford to stay in America, but they need the good education that America provides them. I suppose it is not exactly a Foreign exchange program, more of a Rent for foreigners. Pss. The association is located in the Asian countries, so you would most likely not know about it; different rules apply, I suppose
Studying Abroad - 1 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
Your family has no income so you want to make money off the students you host. Do you not understand how completely terrible that sounds? If you are trying to host students who only want to come to the US to practice English and experience a new culture to make money, then your hearts are in entirely the wrong place. If your family has no money then you should not be hosting students--period. You should not be trying to arrange your own private hosting "service." I wouldn't be surprised if this was against the law for one (because you'll essentially be running a business without going through the proper channels), but also it is extremely dangerous for the kids involved. And I'm not saying that you are dangerous here. I'm not suggesting you might harm them purposefully in any way. What I am saying is a family with no stable income is not the right place for a host child. So you want to take this kid's family's $4,000 to use because you currently don't have an income to support yourselves. And you think $4,000 will be enough to cover not just rent and utilities and food (+ one extra mouth to feed) but also emergency expenses? How are you going to afford for the kid's health insurance? What if he gets sick and needs a doctor? What if he knocks a tooth out? What if he breaks an arm? Gets in an accident? Or even dies while he's in your care? Your family will be the ones held responsible and if you have no income I doubt you have the health insurance to cover anything. Even if you're on government-assisted health insurance, that's not going to cover the kid. Exchange programs do not exist because they like to make money. They exist to allow children a chance to experience something new. The money that goes to fund them is not just stuffed inside the wallet of the president. It's used to find further advertisement, administration costs, money to pay for the workers, and also to provide health insurance to the child so when accidents do happen, you will not be the ones held responsible.
