2011年10月21日
Home Stays & Study Abroad (Feedback)
Thanks for all your comments and questions this week. I hope that it was a useful experience for you. As Kattie said, the reason that doing a home stay is so expensive is that there are too many middle-men. Kattie told me how much she thought would be a fair price for a two-week stay with airport pick-up, three meals a day, and help with planning trips, and the figure only came to about 65,000 yen. That is partly because the yen is so strong against the pound at the moment, of course.
If any of you would like to contact Kattie directly, you can email me at my company address, which is info at mark btbpress dott com. (I misspelled "dot" in case the spammers have programs that look for that sequence of words.) Anyway, if you get in touch with me, I will put you in touch with Kattie.
In the meantime, here is some feedback on your comments from this week.
It shocked me again because the money will be much more than that I could afford.
(Sorry to hear about that. I hope it gets fixed soon.)
This week will be a lot of fun to me.
(a lot of fun for me)
I had never stayed with a family abroad.
(I have never stayed with a family abroad.)
Well, I've never experienced a homestay with a foreign family myself, so I hope I will be able to visit and stay with your family some day in the future.
(Nice sentence.)
As you probably already know, people don't visit the UK for the weather!
(Very true! This summer was absolutely horrible!)
When I was doing home stay in Australia about 20 years ago, I had no idea that I had an option to arrange everything by myself.
(I had no idea that I had the option of arranging everything myself.)
Like in your student's case, he knows you and you introduced one. I
(Actually, my student found the home stay through an agent. I only met Kattie because my brother took the student back to her house and told her about me.)
Your introductions about Manchester and other places get me itchy feet.
("made my feet itch" or "gave me itchy feet.")
What is the most good thing by being host parent?
(What is the best thing about being a host parent?)
My image towards Manchester was ''industrial city'' and the football team ''Man Utd.''
(My image of Manchester was of an industrial city with a famous football team.) ["The football team Man Utd" is not wrong, but I think the sentence as a whole sounds better the way I have written it.]
Actually, when I arrived at a home stay family, an unexpected mishap waited for me.
(There was an unexpected problem.)
According to him, he knew(noticed?) this mistake after I left Japan and couldn’t let me know.
(According to him, he hadn't noticed the mistake until after I left Japan, so he had no way of letting me know.)
[This is a terrible story! The school should have refunded part of your fees for this. If they couldn't contact you because you left Japan, someone from the school should have met you at the airport.]
It was my first trip to foreign countries.
(It was my first trip to a foreign country.)
Thanks to the Internet, I might be able to do it by myself now!!
(This is a good point. It is much easier to arrange things yourself now than it was in the past.)
The boy's name was Mark and 17 years old then and now 35.
(The boy's name was Mark. He was 17 years old then, and he is 35 now.)
Hi David
It's first time for me to give a comment here.
(Hi Fuji, nice to have you with us. Thanks for sharing your experiences.)
I just feel that Japanese agents are taking advantage from Japanese students and tourists.
Because Japanese people prefer group to indivisual, also they trust agents or shops easily.
How do you think about that?
(What do you think about that?) [I agree 100%! Japanese companies prey on people's feelings of insecurity and fears about using English. Of course, the staff of those companies don't get paid very much - it's just the bosses who make a lot of money.]
By the way, I'm sorry to hear what happened to your daughter when she studied in Spain.
(Nice sentence.)
It was surprise to hear about the story about a tax free shop.
(This would be "the" tax free shop, because it has already been mentioned in a previous comment.)
I hope I could go to Manchester near future.
(I hope I will have a chance to go to Manchester in the near future.)
I watched the site of the Manchester Christmas Markets.
(I had a look at the site of the Manchester Christmas Markets.)
Looking at them, I became want to go to Manchester
(Looking at them made me want to go to Manchester.)
That's all for today. Have a great weekend, and see you again on Monday for a new topic.
PS Thanks again Kattie for taking the time to join us this week.
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Comments
It's me again.
I'm afraid, but "I want introduce people around me" should've been "I want to introduce your place to people around me."
- tsuneko
- 2011年10月21日 13:22
Hi David and Kattie,
Kattie, thanks again for your further information . I haven't checked all the places and things you had introduced us yet,but as you mentioned, there are a lot of places and events that I can't find in the guide book. If I were to name places in my area,Nagoya and its surroundings, I couldn't do such a way as you had done.
Four years ago, I rode on the Snowdon Mountain Railway not walking to the top; the train was lovely! It was at the end of October, but it was hailing and cold! I was the only Japanese, and I was thrilled with being there.
I just got back from Canada,so I don't think I can visit the UK soon, but I'm very interested in your information. Kattie,I'd like to contact you directly, so I'll ask David to let my email address to you. I bet my friends are also interested in this information.
It was very nice talking with you.
David, thanks again for giving us such a wonderful experience, and thanks for your feedback. It was very helpful as always.
>It was surprise to hear about the story about a tax free shop.------- "the tax free shop" I got it, but I'm wondering if the part "It was surprise" should have been " I was surprised / It was a surprise." Right?
>This is a terrible story! The school should have refunded part of your fees for this.---Yes,I think so now, but at that moment,such an idea never came up with me. However, at the last day of the course, I wrote the feedback about two week's course at school including the home stay. I wrote my thought (or complaint?) about this mistake because I had tried to make sure this point to the staff several times.
I'll email you later. お願いします。
Have a lovely weekend,everyone,
Anne
- Anne
- 2011年10月21日 15:51
David,
Thank you very much for your feedback.
The boy's name was Mark and 17 years old then and now 35.
(The boy's name was Mark. He was 17 years old then, and he is 35 now.
I understand that a simple sentence doesn't cover two different information(name and age)and different tenses. I'll never make the same mistake again. Thank you very much.
Kattie,
The price for a two-week stay with airport pick-up, three meals a day, and help with planning trips is surprising. I want to introduce your accomodation to my friends and I'm also interested in staying at your home, so I'd like to know your e-mail information. Anyway, thank you very much for useful information.
Have a beautiful weekend, everyone.
Kyon
- Kyon
- 2011年10月21日 18:20
Hi Kyon,
If you would like to get in touch with Kattie, please email me at the address given in the entry.
- David
- 2011年10月21日 19:56
Hi David,
Thank you very much for the feedback. I made lots of mistakes as always. But I learned from the mistakes.
And also thank you for giving us an opportunity to talk with Kattie and know about home stay situation. She is very kind and we learned lots of places and events when we had a chance to go to the UK.
Hi everyone,
Have a lovely weekend!
Fumie
- Fumie
- 2011年10月22日 07:01
correction:
>I'll ask David to let my email address to you------I'll ask David to let my email address know to you
I forgot to write the important word!
- Anne
- 2011年10月22日 08:19
Hi David,
Thanks for the feedback.
>Thanks to the Internet, I might be able to do it by myself now!!
(This is a good point. It is much easier to arrange things yourself now than it was in the past.)
Yes, when I had a home stay, the international phone call was expensive so it was hard to arrange the things by myself. If I had a chance to have a home stay now, I can get intouch with through the Internet.
Hi Kattie,
Thanks for your tips. Wish I could visit every places that you listed. I have been to the UK twice. I went to York during my second trip. It was really nice place, and liked it very much. Anyway, I am thinking of visiting the UK near future and I would like to stay your house.
Hi everyone,
How is the weather where you are? It's been raining since last night here in Tokyo. I am on a train and heading to Manazuru. I will be stay a nice hotel there and have a massage. I have been busy lately so it will be a nice and relaxing time for me;)
Have a nice weekend,
amo
- amo
- 2011年10月22日 11:56
Hi David,
I'm interested in the last topic.
(I had no time so I didn't send comment about it.)
I would like to get in touch with Kattie so I send e-mail at the address.
どうぞ宜しくお願い致します。
Hi tsuneko,
Thank you for your kind message.
I especially care my back!
電気・ガス・水道・電話などの引っ越し手続きもしなくては。
I have many many things to do!
Green
- Green
- 2011年10月22日 12:48
Hi Amo,
It started raining here in Kobe, too. I used to like a rainy day till recently but I'm terrified of it now. Have a gorgeous stay in Manazuru!!
Hi Green,
Most welcome. Hang in there!!
- tsuneko
- 2011年10月22日 14:49
Good day,everyone.
This is my first time to leave a comment here.I always read other sections,but I had never read this page.I think this is a really good opportunity to discuss topics in English and Japanese,and get to know other people.
Finding a host family on the web site seems dangerous to me,since i'm a suspicious person.There are many bad people who just want money,so I think we have to understand that it takes risk.
Today is a start of a new week.ganbarou!
I'm looking forward to reading a new topic.
cherry
- Cherry
- 2011年10月23日 19:02
Hi Cherry,
Nice to have you with us. You are right that it is a bit dangerous to arrange a home stay by yourself, but if you go to a language school, they will take care of that for you anyway, so you don't need to go through an agent.
Look forward to reading your comment on the next topic.
- David
- 2011年10月23日 21:18
Hello,
I have been away this weekend and haven't had a chance to get back to everyone who got in touch with me through David. I'm just about to go to bed but I'll email everyone tomorrow. I think it's already Monday morning in Japan so I hope you all have a good day.
Kattie
- Kattie
- 2011年10月24日 08:00
Sorry, I didn't have time to do another entry today. I'll do it tomorrow.
- David
- 2011年10月24日 23:11
Hi David and Kattie,
Yes, it was a very useful experience for me. I watched the video of Chiristmas Market on the site Kattie introduced. That's nice, especially I'd like to have that brown drink, I was not sure it was hot chocolate or hot sweet wine, though. I don't think I can make it this christmas because I'll soon be very poor due to a repair of the roof. However, I'd like to contact Kattie directly just in case I won a lottery(who knows?), and also, I want to introduce people around me, so I'll email David later to ask for the contact. Kattie, I'll email you after Halloween.
By the way, about 65,000 yen for a two-week stay with airport pick-up, three meals a day, and help with planning trips would be very helpful for the guests. Maybe, I should make a change to the fee of mine.:) Besides, thanks to Kattie, I start to feel like searching more about places and activities in my place to help and satisfy my guests.
Thank you very much.
Have a nice weekend, everyone!!
Hi Fuji,
Nice to meet you! See you soon.
Tsuneko