We spent yesterday travelling to San Francisco to pick up a Korean boy who will be staying with us for the next four months. He is 11 years old (양력으로). To me this seems very young to be away from home for that length of time, especially to be staying with relative strangers. However, as I understand it, this practice is fairly common in Korea. While we are not doing a business, the “home stay” market is quite large.

We had two home stay children a couple of years ago with limited success. What I mean by that is that the parents sent their children here to America with the hope that their children’s English speaking ability would improve and thus increase their educational opportunities in the future. Most of these programs, as far as I can tell, deal with groups of kids in a very structured program. Thes kids do not get a signifcant amount of real life free-speaking of English. The two students that we had spoke only in Korean to each other and really took advantage of the Korean spoken in my home as well. So, I don’t think that they had as much success as they could have.

The exprience was good though, and it helped expose my children to the Korean language more. (This kind of learning is a two-way street after all.) The boy staying with us now seems to have some good English skills and a willingness to talk and fit into our family. Both of these qualities should ensure that he has a successful stay here (and that we don’t suffer with an uncooperative child…).

What do you think, is 11 too young to spend tht much time away from home? How would you feel about sending your (hypothetical) child away like that? And, do these programs really work or do they just make the parents feel that way? I think everyone should experience another culture directly, I just don’t know if someone that young can appreciate it.