Is an overseas education worth it?

Chuck14 (Canada)

Here in Canada I work with Chinese students who come here to go to high school. My wife and I find homestays for these students and watch over them and their homestay families for the entire time they are here. The student is rarely prepared properly to go into a stranger's home and struggle with language and cultural barriers. We work to make it as easy for the student and their family as much as we can. One thing we emphasize to each student is the enormous opportunity they have to be immersed into a native English speaker's home. Many times the student will feel lost for a while and stay shut in their room usually qq'ing or skyping back home to their friends. We see this as normal behavior for a while at least. Some students have planned out their futures with education and experience from abroad to take back to China. Others do not, I'm afraid, and obviously the experience will do them no good for their future. Although it is natural for all Chinese students to hang out together, so many of them miss out on the English opportunity in their homestay. We also encourage our homestay families that they too have an opportunity to experience China through their student. The experience alone is valuable for any teenager growing up and so I think it should continue.

Students attend the commencement ceremony for Green River Community College at the ShoWare Center in Kent, Washington, on June 14. Deng Yu / China Daily