The homestay experience enables students to stay with a native host family during their studies. This stay encourages them to utilize what they’ve learned in class and apply it in a supportive and understanding at-home environment.

In our opinion, the homestay experience is an important part of the immersion process and vastly accelerates the student’s ability to understand and communicate in their new language.

As children, many of us underwent a similar process with our own families along the way to acquiring our own native language.

Vocabulary and grammar are fundamental, but context and cultural assumptions are also important in understanding what is communicated (or not to be communicated) in a conversation. Homestay can provide this everyday context.

You don’t have to stay with a host family to participate in our programs, but it certainly helps!

Wherever possible, SFS seeks to match students with compatible host families. This is why it’s important to state your living preferences and to tell us about yourself as much as possible (e.g. vegetarian, allergic to cats, attitudes towards living with children and teens, smoking/non-smoking, hobbies and interests, etc.).

Many of our students have formed lifelong friendships with their host families and cite their stay as one of the best aspects of their experience!