On November 10, 2018 The 5th Host Family Program Meeting for Int’l Students and Chinese Families, organized by School of Int’l Education, was held in JLU Nanhu Hall.
During this meeting 53 Chinese families and 63 int’l students from 22 countries were matched. First, the participants watched the video clips about previous activities of the program to know more about it. Li Meihua, dean of the School of Int’l Education, made the opening speech, illustrating the expectations for this platform built for int’l students and Chinese families according to her own experience, and hoping that int’l students know more about Chinese culture and relieve their homesickness while Chinese families feel the charm of diversified cultures via this platform.
Representing Chinese families, Dr. Nie Shu from JLU No. 1 Hospital addressed the meeting. She said Chinese families and int’l students communicated and learned from each other via this platform and both sides broadened horizons and achieved better understanding. Dr. Nie hoped that more and better service would be provided to make such internationalized family exchanges take a further step.
Wang Qiao, JLU teacher and another representative of Chinese families, shared her experience of being hosted abroad. She hoped the love between the int’l students and hosting families would be passed down so that both sides would feast on this kind of cultural banquet in the context of mutual respect. She welcomed the int’l students to Chinese families and hoped that both sides would bring something to each other.
Abbas Khan, an int’l student from Pakistan representing the 4th program, said in his speech that he had met a very good family and felt the warmth of his family from very far. A family was more than just blood. A warm heart and a warm smile for each other were enough to bring people home though they belonged to different nations or spoke different languages.
丁氏云英, an int’l student from Vietnam representing the 5th program, expressed her expectation for the activity. She said she often felt lonely since she had been away from home for nearly 10 years. She took this program as a good opportunity to find the warmth of family and a second home – a harbor for her heart in another country.
Smiles were always on the faces of the participants while they talked freely with each other. Their intimate exchanges had broken the national boundaries in a short time. It was believed that this program would become a long-lasting memory for their lives.
The backdrop of the Program: Host Family Program is a non-profitable program initiated by JLU School of Int’l Education for int’l students and Chinese families. It is aimed to build a bridge between both sides so that int’l students can know more about Chinese culture by contacting common Chinese families and experiencing Chinese family life. Since its launching from November 2016, five programs have been running. Every March and September when a new semester begins, int’l students and Chinese families are recruited. Then the partnering meeting is held to match them. By now 250 families and 317 students have joined the programs. At early stage, those JLU teachers who had studied abroad supported the program. Now the hosting families have expanded to all the families in and out of JLU. The success of the program is attributed to the love and help from the hosting families. Meanwhile, many int’l students involve themselves in the program and remain very enthusiastic about it.
