This paper explores how immersion and engagement with different cultures in the home environment impacts Korean children's intercultural learning. More specific attention is given to the experience of nine Korean children whose families have voluntarily served as homestay host families and hosted foreign guests for more than seven years. This…

This article places young people at the center of knowledge production in study abroad programs. We employ a combination of relational learning and nested community of practice to demonstrate the significant roles that local young people play in cultural exchange, despite the usual marginalization by their parents and other local figures of…

The Transatlantic Orientation Exchange/Multiplikatorenschulung im transatlan-tischen Austausch is a collaboration between volunteers and staff in both the US and German AFS organizations. The goal of the project is to increase the level of intercultural learning of German and US secondary education exchange participants and their host families.…

Twenty narrative interviews were conducted with German host parents between 2006 and 2007 about their experiences with a one-year stay of a guest student in their family. The study took place within the context of a student research project as part of the research-oriented MA course "Intercultural Communication-Intercultural Competence"…

Although the "homestay" has long been considered a key factor in the study abroad experience, it is one of the least examined components of foreign study. In an effort to explore this issue from various perspectives, this study targeted several programs in Spain and Mexico with interviews of host families, students, and housing directors. Each…

Advice for American families who host a foreign student is offered, with attention to culture shock, the first visit, stages of the student's adjustment, and mealtimes. It is suggested that both the host and foreign student can learn from the other. At first, the host family should speak slowly and clearly and be careful to avoid talking loud,…

Thirty teenage exchange students from Denmark and the United States were interviewed concerning the differences they perceived in the two cultures. Salient differences were cited in the domains of family rules, education and schools, use of alcohol, romantic relationships and sexuality, communication and friendships, ethnic differences and…