Apology for being too lazy to update my blog, and after I go back to China it will stop as it is an exchange year blog, but please feel free to contact me if you have any advice about my articles or questions about exchange life, being exchange in Sweden, you are going to China for exchange and would love some tips. Here is my email: yiweiky@hotmail.com
Host family is like the first and biggest way that you know about your host country, it will influence your whole year, therefore, there are some tips from the year I spent on how to get along with your host family.
First of all, try to be a member of the family, be curious and share your experiences. Swedish families love to share their lives, blogs are even part of most Swedes' daily lives. You can always tell them what's going on in your school or what you have done with your friends, FIKA is kind of like afternoon tea and also typical Swedish, even at home they would have FIKA, then it's the perfect time to talk about, Swedish life is quite peaceful and slow, and Swedes want to share their stories, so always listen and ask, it will help you become popular.
Secondly, learn the language. For the students that speak European languages it wouldn't be a problem, especially if you are from Finland, Germany and America, and for the students from Asia, I know that we are shy to speak Swedish while we are not as good as the Europeans, but you must try, even at first just with your friends, and also, remember to speak Swedish to your host family, they would love to help you with Swedish, if you start speaking it you will find that your host family would be so proud of you. And as an exchange student, language is sometimes the first thing we can think about when it is exchange, right? Also, learning the language helps you to have more friends, Swedes prefer to speak their Swedish rather than English even though they are just so good at it.
The third is to help your host family with some housework. Sometimes your host family will give you 'order' about what to do, usually just wash the dishes, and in Sweden people use dish washer and washing machine, so all you need to do is put stuff into the machines, it is easy, so you can always help with something even your host family doesn't ask you to do, or ask them is there anything you can do for help.
The last one is to be grateful. It is really important, you are so lucky to be chosen by the family among so many people, they take care of you just like your own parents and siblings, you should always feel appreciate. Saying thank you is never old-fashioned.
In addition, here is the story between me and my host family, I have two host families, the first one was welcome family, their daughter just came back from exchange year and their son just finished job in Australia, so the family wish to have the moment to be together, yet they still took nearly two months to take care of me and showed me a lot about Sweden.
Then my second family, their second daughter is an exchange student to Japan, so they host me and want to learn some culture about Asia by the way, and they are really really so nice, they always took me to different places for events or meet new friends, and my host parents love to train, to be honest, before I came to Sweden, training is kind of on my most hated list, but under their influence I went to gym quite often until I broke my knee during the skiing trip.
In fact we got a whole week for the ski trip, however I had the accident the second day, so I ruined their trip and my host parents had to send me into a hospital and took care of me the whole time, during my time in the hospital my host mom always try to make me relax especially when I knew that I was about to have a surgery. To make me not feel lonely my host mom always asked me for the permission to go home when I transported to the hospital near home, and she stayed with me the whole time before, during and after the operation. When I could go home all my family members did a lot to help me, and they always told me to train my leg to make it recover as soon as possible.
My host family is so fantastic, but I didn't just enjoy the kindness from them, I share my school stories and everything I bought with friends, on the birthdays, Christmas and some festivals I prepared small gifts for them. Before I hurt myself, I once joked that I am in love with the dish washer and I don't mind to be the only one who take care of it, I can do it all the time. I am quite a lazy girl, but I helped some during the house cleaning, and one big thing, I am so interested in learning Swedish, though my Swedish speaking and listening are very poor, I am quite ok with my writing and reading, so I am always happy to show my writings to my family.
Having a host family is still not the same as in your own family, you will have a new experience, with culture difference, you will find some new rules in your new family, sometimes it changes a lot, so you need to balance your own habits and host family's habit. It won't be easy if you stay for ten months, however it will bring you a lot of benefits which only wait for you to explore them.
Host family is like the first and biggest way that you know about your host country, it will influence your whole year, therefore, there are some tips from the year I spent on how to get along with your host family.
First of all, try to be a member of the family, be curious and share your experiences. Swedish families love to share their lives, blogs are even part of most Swedes' daily lives. You can always tell them what's going on in your school or what you have done with your friends, FIKA is kind of like afternoon tea and also typical Swedish, even at home they would have FIKA, then it's the perfect time to talk about, Swedish life is quite peaceful and slow, and Swedes want to share their stories, so always listen and ask, it will help you become popular.
Secondly, learn the language. For the students that speak European languages it wouldn't be a problem, especially if you are from Finland, Germany and America, and for the students from Asia, I know that we are shy to speak Swedish while we are not as good as the Europeans, but you must try, even at first just with your friends, and also, remember to speak Swedish to your host family, they would love to help you with Swedish, if you start speaking it you will find that your host family would be so proud of you. And as an exchange student, language is sometimes the first thing we can think about when it is exchange, right? Also, learning the language helps you to have more friends, Swedes prefer to speak their Swedish rather than English even though they are just so good at it.
The third is to help your host family with some housework. Sometimes your host family will give you 'order' about what to do, usually just wash the dishes, and in Sweden people use dish washer and washing machine, so all you need to do is put stuff into the machines, it is easy, so you can always help with something even your host family doesn't ask you to do, or ask them is there anything you can do for help.
The last one is to be grateful. It is really important, you are so lucky to be chosen by the family among so many people, they take care of you just like your own parents and siblings, you should always feel appreciate. Saying thank you is never old-fashioned.
In addition, here is the story between me and my host family, I have two host families, the first one was welcome family, their daughter just came back from exchange year and their son just finished job in Australia, so the family wish to have the moment to be together, yet they still took nearly two months to take care of me and showed me a lot about Sweden.
Then my second family, their second daughter is an exchange student to Japan, so they host me and want to learn some culture about Asia by the way, and they are really really so nice, they always took me to different places for events or meet new friends, and my host parents love to train, to be honest, before I came to Sweden, training is kind of on my most hated list, but under their influence I went to gym quite often until I broke my knee during the skiing trip.
In fact we got a whole week for the ski trip, however I had the accident the second day, so I ruined their trip and my host parents had to send me into a hospital and took care of me the whole time, during my time in the hospital my host mom always try to make me relax especially when I knew that I was about to have a surgery. To make me not feel lonely my host mom always asked me for the permission to go home when I transported to the hospital near home, and she stayed with me the whole time before, during and after the operation. When I could go home all my family members did a lot to help me, and they always told me to train my leg to make it recover as soon as possible.
My host family is so fantastic, but I didn't just enjoy the kindness from them, I share my school stories and everything I bought with friends, on the birthdays, Christmas and some festivals I prepared small gifts for them. Before I hurt myself, I once joked that I am in love with the dish washer and I don't mind to be the only one who take care of it, I can do it all the time. I am quite a lazy girl, but I helped some during the house cleaning, and one big thing, I am so interested in learning Swedish, though my Swedish speaking and listening are very poor, I am quite ok with my writing and reading, so I am always happy to show my writings to my family.
Having a host family is still not the same as in your own family, you will have a new experience, with culture difference, you will find some new rules in your new family, sometimes it changes a lot, so you need to balance your own habits and host family's habit. It won't be easy if you stay for ten months, however it will bring you a lot of benefits which only wait for you to explore them.
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