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Home Stay Seminar for Host Families

     
    IPEE’s home stay program is a vital part of our Total-Immersion method of teaching.  The cultural interaction, communication, and the students well being while attending our institute are the prime focus of this  program.  If a host family is accepted by IPEE, after completing a comprehensive application, interview and home inspection by one of the co-owners, the family attends a seminar outlined below.

     ENABLING SEMINAR FOR FAMILIES

    General objectives:
    1. To present the program and the specific point of view of IPEE.
    2. To establish the priorities of the school in relation with the home stay program.
    3. To delimit spheres of actions between the student and the family.
    4. to channel possible uneasiness and listen to suggestions for resolution of possible problems.
    5. To try to join two different cultures.
    6. To promote a relation of confidence between the family and the Institute in order to efficiently resolve any misunderstandings.

    CONTENTS
    PART I

    • Welcome
    • Introduction
    • Costa Rica: its strategic tourist position
    • Costa Rican culture with regard to other foreign cultures
    • Individualized attention / temporary availability
    • Balance between Costa Rican and foreign culture
    • Needs of a foreigner
    • Privacy or loneliness?
    • Form of address, relationship
    • Showing one’s emotions
    PART II
    • Differences between hotel, bed and breakfast and home life.
    • Integration into family nucleus:  rules of every house.
    • Service
    • Discretional use of the service
    • Efficiency of the service (and amenities)
    • Food and nourishing habits in general
    • Limits of action radius
    • Member or intruder?  Change of habits in the family routine
    PART III
    • Reasons why the service is offered
    • “My liberty ends when the liberty of the other starts.”
    • Delightful moments and deceptions of every age.
    • Physical, mental and emotional handicaps
    • Taboos:  religion - racism - sexuality
    • Ethics
    • Honesty
    CONCLUSION
    • Duties and rights of the lodger
    • Letter of the Institute to the family
    • Doubts and suggestions

HOME

IPEE Spanish Language School
Apartado 562-2050
San Pedro, Costa Rica

Tel:  011 506 283-7731 
Fax:  011 506 225-7860

 e-mail: ipeecr@racsa.co.cr