host family

[AlexAD]

Hello.

I have come across a sentence in the OAL dictionary that I am uncertain how to translate.
Unfortunately, there is no context provided for this sentence.

Shall I take a gift to my host family?

Could you please help me translating that sentence.

Many thanks in advance.

Alex.

 

[Rover_KE]

'Shall I take a gift for the family in whose home I shall be staying?'

Rover

 

[AlexAD]

Thanks, Rover.

Does that mean that there might be more than one family to a person?
I.e. if a son lives together with his mother, father and sister they are his host family, aren't they?
The son's uncle and aunt lives separately. Are they also considered as his family?

Thanks.

 

[bhaisahab]

Thanks, Rover.

Does that mean that there might be more than one family to a person?
I.e. if a son lives together with his mother, father and sister they are his host family, aren't they?
The son's uncle and aunt lives separately. Are they also considered as his family?

Thanks.

The son's mother, father, sister etcetera are his immediate family, his uncle, aunt, cousins etcetera are his extended family. If, for example, he is going on a language course to another country where he will be staying with a family, they are his host family.

 

[Barb_D]

My daughter is about to go to Germany. She will be staying with a family. They are her host family. (And yes, we are sending a gift.)

 

[emsr2d2]

You are not related to your host family. The phrase is used because the people you are going to stay with are "a family" and they will be your "hosts" while you stay there. Usually, you have never met them before. It is not the same use of the word "family" that we use when talking about our relatives.

In the UK, there are a lot of language schools where foreign kids come to study for several weeks at a time. They don't stay at hotels while they are here, they stay with English families who look after them, feed them, take them out during their free time. There are advertisements all year in my local paper for "host families" - ie families in my town who would like to offer to have a foreign student to stay in their house while that person studies English.

 

[david11]

Y

In the UK, there are a lot of language schools where foreign kids come to study for several weeks at a time. They don't stay at hotels while they are here, they stay with English families who look after them, feed them, take them out during their free time. There are advertisements all year in my local paper for "host families" - ie families in my town who would like to offer to have a foreign student to stay in their house while that person studies English.

Really? I have never heard of that. It is really wonderful that people learning English get opportunities to live with native speakers.Is that similar to something called paying guest?.

By the by in what newspaper do they give advertisement? because logically only people who are from other country will come and read English there.So,I guess the advertisement should be given in the other country newspapers.

 

[Barb_D]

The advertisement is to recruit families to serve as the host family. It's not to recruit the English learners. If you want to find English families, you need to advertise in newspapers in England.

 

[david11]

My daughter is about to go to Germany. She will be staying with a family. They are her host family. (And yes, we are sending a gift.)

All the best for your daughter:up:. Hopefully she will have a great time in Germany.

 

[david11]

The advertisement is to recruit families to serve as the host family. It's not to recruit the English learners. If you want to find English families, you need to advertise in newspapers in England.

Oh! sorry.I got it in the other way.So, is it also similar to paying guest?

 

[emsr2d2]

Oh! sorry.I got it in the other way.So, is it also similar to paying guest?

Not really. A "paying guest" is more like someone who goes on a short holiday to a bed and breakfast or to a small hotel. The foreign student's family pay the language school a fee for the course/accommodation etc, and the language school pay the host family a certain amount of money per week per student staying in the house.

Imagine I live in a three-bedroomed house, with my husband and my son. I see an advert in a local paper for "host families in the summer". I apply and am accepted. Some time later, a language student from another country will arrive at my house, move into the spare bedroom, I will feed him/her three meals a day, entertain him/her during free time and then wave goodbye six weeks later (or however long the course lasted). During that time, the language school will pay me around £80 per week per student (I only had one student staying with me, so I would have been paid £80 per week).