 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
||
 |
|||
 |
 |
||
 |
 |
||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
Introduction for Students and Professionals
We know that coming to Canada can feel like an adventure; we know how it feels to encounter a new language, new friends, and for students in a homestay program, a whole new family. This is why we offer you our support from the very start of your voyage to their very finish. We tell you about your host family before you leave home, all about what to expect in Canada when you arrive. While you're here, we stay in touch: in person, in your school, on the telephone. We're your eyes and ears in Canada.
"The Canada Homestay International Warm Welcome"
What is the CHI Warm Welcome?
It is our promise to to provide you with appealing accommodations and caring hospitality in Canada, from a host who shares your interests and educational goals. It is our promise to help you prepare for your homestay before you leave home, and to stay in close contact for the duration of your visit in Canada. Our promise is good for everyone in the CHI Homestay Program. It means our clients arrive in Canada to a supportive home environment, and are offered assistance at every stage of your visit in Canada. After their visit, many of our hosts and their students remain friends for life.
Appealing Accomodations
All of our accommodations are located in appealing, safe neighborhoods accessible to your school or workplace via public transportation.
At CHI you can choose accommodations to suit your budget. ALL of our hosts meet our exacting standards for safety and cleanliness. All of our accommodations include, at a minimum:
- A bed with clean linen
You will also be provided with a quiet place to study, often in your own room.
- Private storage for your belongings (such as a chest of drawers or a closet) - Access to a bathroom with your own clean towels (Typically bathrooms are shared among members of the host family. We also offer premium accommodations with added features and benefits. Premium accommodations are closer to your school or workplace, or have distinctive features such as private bathrooms and Internet access. We also offer a limited selection of hosts with vacation homes, where you can enjoy a weekend away from the city. We also offer, to all of our clients: Airport Pickup and return, Special Learning Programs (such as Home Tutoring), and we try to accommodate special requests (like dietary restrictions).
Terrific Matches
To design a match especially for you, we follow a few simple steps.
STEP 1: WE LEARN ALL ABOUT YOU
When we know what you like, we can find a host who likes YOU!
At CHI we arrange a personalized match between you and your Canadian host, based on your backgrounds, interests, lifestyles, and educational goals. We want to know what you expect of yourself and your experience in homestay, your background, what you like to do in your free time. What you like like to eat, whether you like pets, and so on. The information you give us in your application helps us select the host who is most likely to meet your expectations.
STEP 2: WE FIND TERRIFIC HOSTS
We search year-round for the best hosts and host families.
Our hosts represent a variety of Canadian lifestyles and experience. To ensure they are compatible with YOUR background and experiences, we ask each of our hosts to complete a detailed application like yours. This is why the process of finding your host begins many months--sometimes years--before you arrive in Canada. Our standards of host recruitment are recognized as the highest in Canada. We visit interested hosts in person, in their homes, and carefully inspect their accommodations. We discuss their interest in international students, their professions, lifestyle, and hobbies. We discuss in detail our expectations for the kind of care and attention you will need. We follow simple rules to ensure that we are not working with hosts who are interested only in money, and to ensure your immersion in spoken English is maintained, we do not allow more than one student of any nationality in a homestay. All of our host applications require both personal references and a police background check. Once we have approved a host, we stay in close contact with them. We ask our students to evaluate their homestay experience in writing, and we review their evaluations with their hosts. We organize workshops to teach our hosts about different cultures and to talk about their experiences as hosts. We're so popular among hosts, that we find most of our new hosts through word of mouth. Even though most families who want to be CHI Hosts have experience, we select and retain fewer than half of them. Other agencies and schools have readily worked with host families that we have not selected.
STEP 3: WE STAY IN TOUCH
We are here to support you. While you are in Canada, you can speak with your CHI Homestay Coordinator as often as you would like, in person or on the phone.
Before you arrive in Canada, we will send you the CHI Guide for Students, an easy-to-read manual that describes what makes a successful homestay experience, what it is like to live in Canada, and how we can help you while you are here. On your first week of school, your local Homestay Coordinator will come to your school to meet you in person. Every week after that, your Coordinator will visit the school in person to answer your questions, to ask how things are going, and to help you with anything you are concerned about. In addition to these visits in person, we will ask you to evaluate your homestay experience in writing soon after you arrive, so we can make any changes required as you get settled in Canada. Although it rarely happens, if you or your host feels we have made an inappropriate match, we arrange a different homestay, immediately, for free.
IF YOU ALREADY LIKE THE SOUND OF CHI, OR IF YOU STILL HAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT CHI, PLEASE CONTACT US! WE'RE HAPPY TO TALK MORE ABOUT WHAT MAKES CHI SPECIAL. |
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
 |
||
 |