Doing exchange/homestay as an adult

[Ariel]

Does anyone have experience on doing an exchange/homestay as an adult? It only occurred to me today that it might be a thing, and after Googling it, I did indeed find a website offering it. The reason I'm considering it is that going to live in a country abroad isn't always practical for immersion, and the idea of doing online immersion doesn't really appeal to me. I've ended up going on solo holidays where I've hardly practised the language at all. You have to be very socially outgoing, and even then, you still have to find people interested in speaking to you.

So: has anyone tried this as an adult? Did it go well? Was it worth the money?

Another option is WWOOF, which is basically a homestay on a farm where you work in the day and get free room and board. I'd be interested to hear if anyone has experience with this sort of thing as well.

[David1917]

I've heard of people successfully learning a language via WWOOF, but you do have to come to grips with the fact that you're going on a vacation to do hard labor. I say vacation because, while you get room and board, you still have to pay for your travel, and maintain your home (unless you go on vagabond mode).

I also know Prof Arguelles discussed having done a month long homestay in St. Petersburg after he had begun learning Russian. He had to have been mid to late thirties at the time, since it was the Korean years.

[James29]

I did it twice. Once in the Dominican Republic and the second time in Ecuador. They were two very different experiences. Both of them were very good experiences. I did them both through Spanish schools that did all the coordination with the families for me. They included a few hours of Spanish courses each morning. I had an amazing family experience in the Dominican. The food and special things the family did for me blew me away. I still keep in touch with the family now some 7 or 8 years later. The one in Ecuador was fine but I just mostly did my own thing. I'd definitely recommend it.

[zenmonkey]

There are several websites that offer language exchange vs couch surfing. I don’t remember the names but I’m sure a search would turn them up. There is workaway and swep also ...

[StringerBell]

I did both as an adult; in my late 20s I lived in Poland for a month and a half with a Polish family who spoke no English and I took Polish language lessons at a school that had arranged the room & board. I actually ran away after class to avoid getting sucked into conversations in English, since everyone was a foreigner and they all spoke it much better than Polish. It was a great experience; I stayed with a family that included the grandmother, who had all day long to figure out how to talk to me. (I did not even remotely approach fluency from the experience, though. I went with something like barely A1 level and I know I would have gotten much more out of it if I had the level of Polish that I have now). Many other foreigners going to that language school were adults and staying with local families, so it's not a weird thing to do.

I also did WWOOF in a couple of different places in the US while traveling around the country, so I can't say what it would be like to do it abroad. It was mostly a good experience, though one place did have a really unrealistic expectation of how much labor they wanted in exchange for sleeping on their floor in sleeping bags and providing minimal food. However, another farm was amazing and I kind of feel guilty that they accommodated us so well for doing such a small amount of work. It's really important to hammer out the details of exactly how many hours/what kind of work they expect and exactly what they're offering in terms of room & board.

My suspicion is that WWOOFs abroad will probably attract a lot of English-speakers...so I'm not sure that it's an effective way to immerse yourself in the local language. I, personally, would probably try to rent a room in a house/apartment of local folks who don't speak much English. It will end up being pretty cheap, and you'll have all day long to do whatever makes sense to you, instead of laboring in a remote area with little time to spend in the surrounding towns/city.

[JoshuaMuse]

Don't wwoof .. Most hosts use you up as much as they can... if you remind them of the time limit they usually sweet talk you as long as they can.. then when your really fed up, your replaced like a light bulb thats 'burnt out' .. WORKAWAY is way better.