Reflections on living with a Host Family
With the fall semester done, I find myself looking back and reminiscing over the memories of the semester. Many of these are, of course, good times that I’ve had with friends that I’ve made here at Kansai Gaidai from all over the world. Since many of my friends here were only signed up for the fall semester, I’ve had to say a lot of goodbyes to people that I’ve grown really close to over the past four months. Aside from memories with my fellow foreign students, I can’t help but look back on my time with my host family here in Japan.
When I first moved into homestay, after about a week of living with other students in the Seminar House, I was a bit wary of the change of scenery. For one thing, I was just making friends with the other residents of the seminar house. Also, I wasn’t sure how well I could communicate with them seeing as they didn’t speak very much English, and my Japanese is far from fluent. Finally, I didn’t know if I could deal with a family with three small children (aged 2, 4, and 6). Truthfully, in my first week living with the family, I went to talk to someone in the International Students Office about moving back into the Seminar House with my friends. The lady that I talked to there said that all students have an adjustment period for homestay, and advised me to stick with it for a bit longer.
In retrospect, I am extremely grateful for these words of advice. Although it certainly would have been easier to move back into the Seminar House and continue speaking English and hanging out with friends, in the end, living with a host family provided me with opportunities I would never have had otherwise, like attending a Shichi-go-san ceremony, taking a trip to Hiroshima, and many more. Also, I got to eat delicious homemade Japanese cooking every night, and play with the children who, I must admit, really grew on me by the end of the semester. My initial fears that I would be isolate from my Seminar House friends were completely unfounded: my family had no problem with me coming back late or hanging out with friends, as long as I called or mailed before dinner.
I think that doing the homestay in my first semester here in Japan has given me a unique perspective on Japanese family life that many people never get to see. It also increased my Japanese listening ability by leaps and bounds. I am eternally grateful to my host family for making my first semester such a great time.