Students at Embassy CES London have voted Doreen Lee as the HomeStay of the Year in 2007. Doreen has been hosting students for 8 or 9 years and one significant thing she has learnt from the experience is tolerance. She likes hosting students from Embassy CES because she gets support when she needs it, and particularly enjoys hosting students from Taiwan and South America.
Below Doreen answers a number of questions about her hosting experiences:
What do you do to make students feel welcome?
I don't have any rules except that students must call when they are going to be late. I tell them to treat my house as their own. I encourage students to have their friends round and to stay because they are far from home.
Why do you host?
Originally I had a friend who was an Accommodation Officer and she asked me if I'd like to host. Then my husband died and I had time on my hands.
Have you had any problems?
Just one. I had a nice Chinese rug in the students room and it was a bit large so it kept getting caught in the door. Rather than move the rug one of them cut the end off it!
What sort of things do you do to encourage student to practise their English?
I ask them to stay when I have friends visit (and not scuttle upstairs to their room), so that they are included in the conversation and get the opportunity to practice their English with someone else besides me.
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