Korean Job Discussion Forums

[NilesQ]

Have any of you ever done a homestay? You see them posted as short term accomadation options, or as barter for English lessons. What is it like? I could see your average Korean family as smothering and all up in your sh:t all the time.

Would like to hear it all - the good, the bad, and the sparkling!

[BoholDiver]

It could be a good choice if you can accept many of the nuisances of living in a Korean household.

Undoubtedly, the ajumma and ajosshi will treat you like a child and talk down to you. They're going to want you to bow to them, etc. Doesn't feel like home to me but to each their own.

Food will be 100% Korean. I doubt you could even get a sandwich.

They're good places to advance your Korean language skill if you are studying in the university.

[jomiro]

ive done it.
wouldnt do it again. bad experience. was the toughest 2 months ive done. had planned to do it for three, but just couldnt bare with it anymore.

you have to live by the family rules. meaning, if they dont like you to go out, you shouldnt. doesnt mean you cant, but they just wont like it.
food is korean, room is korean.. if you are lucky youll get a bed, otherwise youll sleep on the floor, as thats the korean style.

and its true. it wont feel like home to you. it will feel like you are a tolerated guest, who is welcome to pay but not welcome to join the family.

[coralreefer_1]

When I first came to Korea I spent the first 4 months doing homestay with the professor who granted my scholarship.

They were a nice family, him being a professor and a doctor they have a very nice 4 bedroom home and I was fortunate to have my own room. It was a huge adjustment learning to eat Korean food and I found myself eating MANY hard-boiled eggs just to get the protein I needed.

As for privacy I wasn't bothered very much except when I wanted to use the phone to make a call. I didn't get my own cellphone until 2 months later, so whenever I used their home phone to call family or a friend, they wanted to know who i was calling/why/what talking about ..etc etc. That didn't bother me very much because even when i told them they didn't really understand.

They wanted me to listen to their 17 year old son read English each night and correct his pronunciation. That sucked because the kid didn't want to do it any more than I did. I wouldn't mind helping him if he actually had an interest in it..however he didn't. Eventually the mother gave up asking me about it.

I was not asked to bow to anyone, nor asked or made to feel like crap. I would guess that people who would open their home to a foreigner would be a little more culturally sensitive than that..but who knows.

I cant call it a bad experience, but certainly not one I would like to repeat. I was lucky that the family was very well off in regards to finances and made many efforts to make me comfortable. I probably would have enjoyed it more if I knew at least a bit of Korean. I think home stay can be a great opportunity if you can struggle with the language to actually have somewhat meaningful conversations, although I would not suggest it for learning the language.

[morrisonhotel]

[coralreefer_1]

If you already have some experience with Mandarin then it might be worth it. What I was getting at was (as in my case) I had no Korean experience, making communication beyond hand signals nearly impossible.

The home stay environment does not lend itself well to language lessons unless that is something the host family has agreed to put effort into (teaching you the language) When i say this..I am referring to learning the language rather than just picking up some new vocabulary words or expressions. If the family is willing to put in effort to guide you through some sort of program to learn then it would be great and I would say go for it.

[salgichawa]

[BoholDiver]

I bet it is helpful if you are learning it somewhere else. It gives you more practice when you get home and are forced to speak something other than your mother tongue.

[NQP]

I did a quasi homestay for about a year. I lived with a Korean American friend's Uncle's family. Was really cool. My friend and I shared a room. We were given the freedom to do whatever we wanted. However, sometimes his aunt would lock the gate if we weren't home by 2am(we usually got home around 5am on Saturdays). We would sleep in the Mok-yok-tang across the street or climb the wall if we had the key to the house.

It was a great year for me, but living with complete strangers would be kinda weird.

[Junior]

[sojusucks]

[Xuanzang]

If you can put up with staring, Korean food, constant invasions of privacy and paying for the experience. Then by all means.