By Erin Eastman Paulson & Mary Chan of Organized Sound Productions
The podcast currently has 51 episodes available.
Helllllloooooo! Long time no chat! We were scheduled to come back in early March and then the pandemic struck. Now we are all physically distancing and staying at home, so the Homestay Kitchen had to re-work our podcasting schedule to fit our new routine. In the meantime, we thought we'd check in with you. How are you doing? Erin is now the multi-tasker extraordinaire working from home while maneuvering all five of her kids which includes two students. Mary is also navigating working from home while everyone else is also home, so finding a new routine has been challenging. In this episode, Erin is home with our emergency microphone and we recorded this conversation over the internet to make sure we are still social distancing. We wanted to pass along how we are doing, what the homestay situation has been like for us and people we know and finally what to do if you do still have students with you in this ever-evolving situation. All our families are healthy and safe and we hope yours are too. Please let us know how you are and if you do have a student with you, how you are all holding up. You can email us at [email protected] or leave us a voice note over on Instagram. Stay strong and we hope this episode can be a bit of light for you during this unprecedented time in our lives.
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It's coming to the end of the year and some students may be leaving or some students may be heading home just for the winter break. Either way, when it's time to drag the luggage out and dust off that passport, we need to start thinking about our pre-departure rituals. What is it like when your student finally leaves? What strategies are you going to put into place when it comes to saying goodbye?
In this episode, we tackle the end of the student homestay experience. And since we are talking about goodbyes, the podcast is going to go on a little vacation too.
We, Erin and Mary, will be taking the rest of the year and early 2020 to be with family and celebrate all the winter holidays. In the meantime, take a listen to some of our past 40 plus episodes and catch up if you're new to our show. We'd also love to hear from you about any topic from our episodes or... if you have ideas for future episodes, please let us know! Leave us a voice note and email us at [email protected]. Enjoy the rest of the year and have a wicked 2020!
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Links: Episode 45: Boundaries and Rules During Homestay Experiences Google Translate Air Canada
Follow Us: Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/homestaykitchen/ Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/homestaykitchen/ Web – http://homestaykitchen.com/
Boundaries. We've all got them or we should all have some in place. There are limits and rules to all sorts of things during a homestay experience. Boundaries around the house, food, laundry, safety issues, and even personal boundaries. What are they and how can we enforce them?
In this episode, we share our own set of boundaries and how we communicate these rules to our students. What are your boundaries around the house? What challenges do you face when applying these rules? Let us know by emailing us at [email protected]. We'd love to share your feedback on an upcoming episode and answer your questions! In the meantime, listen in to hear what boundaries we've set up for our households.
Key Points From This Episode:
Links: Line App Episode 38: Masterhost Tatiana Robertson Episode 17: Your Student Arrival Guide with a Homework Assignment Episode 8: Building Your Network of People in the World with Veteran Host Parent Mel Kilpatrick
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At one point or another, whether you as the host knows it or not, your student will get homesick. Sometimes it'll show through their emotions or difference in actions. Or sometimes, it only happens when they are hidden away in their rooms, when the lights are out trying to fall asleep. When do you intervene and what do you do to alleviate homesickness?
In this episode, we go through some of the stories we've had dealing with homesickness. Situations where students feel a longing or connection to someone they are missing back home. In small doses, this is healthy and shows signs of attachments to loved ones; and this can happen to you too when you are homesick for your past students! In larger cases, this is when we need to lean in and even ask for help. So listen in on how homesickness affects those that study abroad and how we approach these situations that can also create a tighter bond between you and your student.
Key Points From This Episode:
Links: Erin's Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe Episode 38: Masterhost Tatiana Robertson
Follow Us: Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/homestaykitchen/ Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/homestaykitchen/ Web – http://homestaykitchen.com/
So what defines a short term student and a long term student? Mary defined a short term student as being anywhere less than 6 months, but after she said that (and even after we finished recording this episode), we were still debating what differentiated a long term student from a short term student. Any way you look at it, hosting short term students and long term students can be very different experiences. In this episode, Mary and Erin go toe to toe on the pros and cons of hosting long term students versus short term students.
Have you hosted both? What's your take on this battle? Let us know why you choose longer or shorter stay students. Email us at [email protected] or drop us a comment on Instagram!
Key Points From This Episode:
Links: Episode 39: featuring Erin in a suitcase Episode 11: featuring the doggy beds
Follow Us: Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/homestaykitchen/ Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/homestaykitchen/ Web – http://homestaykitchen.com/
In today's episode, Erin had work to do, so Mary got to chat with Jennifer Longworth from Lexington, Kentucky. A new host parent who's only hosted a total of 3 times for very short periods and all from Japan. We talk through what it's like to be a very new host and what were some of the most surprising aspects of hosting. And it wouldn't be right to talk to our fellow neighbours to the south without pointing out a couple of differences from our countries, like hockey for us and southern food for her.
Our family has worked with the Lexington Sister Cities program to host a high school student and adult delegate from Japan. We also hosted a college student from Japan through another program. We’ve hosted a total of 3 times. Each visit was a week or less. My daughter takes Japanese at school and has been able to visit Japan twice! It’s only been over the past few years that we’ve been involved.
Key Points From This Episode:
Links: Lexington Sister Cities Shinhidaka, Hokkaido Japanese American Society of Kentucky Cracker Barrel Restaurant Google Translate
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How do you meal prep for your students? What do you incorporate into your meal plans for them? Food is a big factor when it comes to homestay experiences. Not only the culture of different foods to eat and explore, but also how we eat and when.
In today's episode, we talk about navigating all the meals of the day including snacks and dessert. We also touch on preventing food waste and figuring out what your students like or don't like to eat. Hopefully, this episode won't make you hungry, but if it does, you can make that hummus recipe Mary loves and snack on that; just like we did while we recorded this episode. You can find the link in our show notes. Let us know if you try it!
Key Points From This Episode:
Links: Mary’s hummus recipe Episode 27: Homestay Family Mindset with Jodi Johl
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One of the major challenges of hosting international students is to navigate the language barrier. Communication is key to any relationship, so how do you have the confidence to speak your mind when your student doesn't speak your language? At times you need to be fearless and in today's episode we chat with Heather Thompson who shares this grit with a side of humour.
Heather and her family of four has hosted 13 students over 5 years. She discusses her experience as an international student when she was young, being a host to students, and even being hosted by a former student in Belgium. Hear what she and her family learned while hosting and how these experiences created a lot of laughter in their lives.
Key Points From This Episode:
Links: Chicoutimi, Quebec Goldstream Park Salmon Run Google Maps Google Translate Furikake
Follow Us: Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/homestaykitchen/ Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/homestaykitchen/ Web – http://homestaykitchen.com/
Culture shock can come in many different forms, not just language for international students. From food, to hygiene, and even the way people dress. It's not about what each culture is doing right or wrong, but about how things are done and are acceptable in different countries. Culture shock can be entertaining and fascinating to new students at first, but then it could also lead to confusion, feeling anxious, overwhelmed, and disoriented, which could induce homesickness. So what is this cycle and what signs are we looking for?
In today's episode, we go through the 10 steps of culture shock and how it's all part of being a homestay host to international students studying abroad.
Key Points From This Episode:
Links: Our conversation with Jennifer Wilson from the Canada Homestay Network
Follow Us: Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/homestaykitchen/ Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/homestaykitchen/ Web – http://homestaykitchen.com/
When you decide to host international students in your home, it's not an easy decision, especially if this is your first time. And even if you have hosted before, sometimes you've got to weigh the pros and cons. There are so many details that could be overlooked and really, you don't know what you don't know. So we tapped into the knowledge of Tatiana Robertson, who has hosted short and long term students from all over the globe for over seven years.
In today's episode, we chat with Tatiana, whom Erin crowned the Master Host Mom, not once, but twice in our conversation. Hear her tips on what to do when your student first arrives at your home. She dives deep into responsibilities and obligations as a host and how cultural expectations play a major role in the success of your homestay experience. We hope you enjoy this conversation as much as we did.
Key Points From This Episode:
Links: Oak Bay Recreation Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tea.robber/
Follow Us: Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/homestaykitchen/ Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/homestaykitchen/ Web – http://homestaykitchen.com/
The podcast currently has 51 episodes available.