The homestay craze: Worth the money?

The homestay craze: Worth the money?

By Rita A. Widiadana and T. Sima Gunawan

Homestay programs have become trendy among Indonesia's school
students in big cities. The programs, which are expensive, are
also considered profitable, attracting many organizations to this
business. The Jakarta Post interviews homestay organizers,
parents and students, as well as the staff of a number of foreign
embassies in Jakarta.

JAKARTA (JP): As the long-awaited school holiday draws near,
students cheer. Starting from the middle of this month, they will
have the chance to relax and forget about homework for a while.

Many students are obviously reluctant to touch their text
books, saying they want to make the best of their holiday and to
have fun.

Studying, however, can be fun.

Every year, thousands of Indonesian students travel overseas
during the holidays, not only for sightseeing tours but also to
study foreign languages, mainly English, under homestay programs.

They leave in the third or fourth week of June, for about
three weeks.

"Basically they study and have fun," Dewi Kurniawan, director
of the Dian Educasindo International Education Agency, said.

The students, too, have the opportunity of enjoying the
cultural experiences of living abroad, especially because they
stay with local families during their stay. In addition, they
also learn to live independently.

Dian Educasindo started business in 1987, organizing homestay
programs for students who want to study English in the United
States. The English course is held in cooperation with the
International English Institute in Fresno, California. Responding
to the growing demand, the business expanded, arranging the same
program to Australia, Singapore, New Zealand and Canada.

"In Singapore, students can study either English or Chinese,"
Dewi said.

Starting this year, students, who want to study Chinese, also
have the choice of going to China because Dian Educasindo has set
up a cooperation with a linguistic institute in Shezhen, about a
three-hour drive from Beijing.

The fee starts from US$1,995 for a three-week homestay program
in Singapore or Perth. Those going to China will pay $2,195; to
Brisbane, $2,395; to Sydney or Auckland, $2,495; to California,
Canada or Britain, $3,295.

Generally, the students take the language course from Monday
to Friday, from 9 a.m. to noon. After class, they tour the city
and its surrounding areas, play sports or other leisure
activities. During the weekends they have more time to enjoy
themselves.

Last year, Dian Educasindo sent 298 students overseas. Groups
consisted of between 25 to 50 students each. Most students
joining the homestay program were between 12 and 16 years old.
But there were also some elementary school students, who were
only nine years old.

Puri Overseas Study offers homestay programs to study in
Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, United States and Britain.

Puri is sending students to the University of California in
Berkeley and to St. Milner College in Perth, but it may have to
cancel the trips to some places due to lack of participants.

"We will send them anyway if they do not mind going by
themselves, without a tour leader," Tri Nugroho, a consultant for
the education agency, said.

The longest running organizer is probably the Education First
(EF) International Language School. Ungki Aldar, an EF program
coordinator, said that the program was first offered in 1965 for
Swedish students who wanted to study English and have fun during
the summer holiday.

The international school started recruiting Indonesian
students in 1986. Today, its students come from 30 countries
throughout the world.

"We send an average of 500 students to the U.S., Britain and
Australia. Our target for this year is 700 students," Aldar said.

The students are divided into two age groups: 12-14 years and
15-18 years.

Education First offers three places in the U.S.: New York,
Chicago and California. In Australia, the students study English
in Sydney only, but those going to Britain also have three
choices: Cambridge, Oxford or Torquay.

Students who are set to study in Britain are offered a tour
package to see other parts of Europe. Dian Educasindo arranges a
trip to Paris, but students who go to Britain under EF's
arrangements can go not only to Paris but to Geneva, Monaco and
Nice, or Brussels and Amsterdam as well--with an additional fee
of $700.

EF offers a three-week homestay program to study in Sydney for
$2,750, while the fee to study in the United States or Britain is
almost $4,000.

Aldar said that starting this year, in response to the demands
of some students, they will have the chance to live in a
dormitory of the Long Beach California State University.

Homestay programs have not only attracted education
consultants and travel agencies but have also encouraged other
institutions to plunge into this educative and prolific business.

They include a number of English courses and teenage
magazines.

Yayasan LIA, or the LIA Foundation, has been organizing its
homestay programs since l990. Henny Ardi, deputy director of the
foundation's Overseas Training and Travel, explained that LIA's
homestay programs were first intended for its own students.

"But as the programs are developing, LIA also accepts junior
high school and high school students at the age of between 12 and
19 years old from Jakarta and other cities," Henny added.

LIA sets the destination for its homestay programs to only one
place in the United States. "We are seeking the opportunity to
send our students to other English-speaking countries. We have
already received several proposals from English institutions in
Singapore and New Zealand," she said.

For the last three years, LIA has been collaborating with the
University of California in Riverside, in organizing a four-week
intensive English course for teenage students from all over the
world.

The cost, $3,550 for LIA students and $3,650 for other
students, includes airplane tickets, intensive English course,
daily living costs and a holiday tour to seven cities in the
United States.

The students will be staying with their American foster
parents for four weeks. "They will benefit from this cross-
cultural experience with their new families because they can
learn about the western culture. Besides, the students are also
forced to speak English, on all occasions," Henny said.

"Participants are obliged to fill in a form stating his/her
personality and their requirements for the selection of their
foster parents," Henny noted.

Aisah Sulaeman, a LIA teacher who acted as a chaperon in l993,
explained that this rule is applied to avoid complaints, from
both the students and their foster parents. Three years ago, a
student lodged a complaint, stating that he refused to stay with
his foster parents because they had a puppy. In the form he had
written that he did not want to stay with a family which had
pets.

She said that LIA's homestay programs place more stress on
quality rather that quantity. So far, the foundation limits the
number of participants to no more than 20 students every year.

"Of course, we also offer various fun and entertaining
activities because the program takes place during school
holidays. But we do focus the programs on education," she added.

Hai, a popular Indonesian teenage magazine, has been
organizing homestay programs since l990.

"The combination of fun and study is our motto," Dharmawan, an
editor of the magazine, explained.

In organizing the programs, Hai set up cooperations with a
number of travel agencies. The destinations of the programs vary
from year to year. In l990, for example, Hai jointly organized
homestay programs with Iwata Nusantara Tours and Travel for high
school students. The program's participants were enrolled in the
International English Institute in Fresno, Los Angeles, the
United States.

Last year, the magazine collaborated with the Hard Rock Cafe
in organizing a homestay program to Brisbane in Queensland,
Australia. About 43 high school students took part in a Homestay
English course at the Hilton Language Center in Brisbane from
June 19 to July 9 last year. This year's program will take place
in New Zealand.

"The number of homestay participants increases every year,
meaning that the demand for such programs are rising among local
students," Dharmawan added.

Teenage idols

To draw as many participants as possible, and to make the
programs more interesting, Hai also invites teenage idols, such
as teenage movie stars or musicians. Last year, Hai asked members
of the Java Jive band to act as chaperons.

Mode, another teenage magazine, frequently involves popular
teenage figures in its homestay programs.

Since starting the business in l989, Mode's homestay programs
have been very popular among local teenagers. "We always invite
winners of the magazine's Cover Boy and Cover Girl contests to
act as chaperons. As a result many students want to take part in
the program because they are eager to spend their holidays with
their idols," an editor of the magazine said.

This year, the magazine is organizing homestay programs to the
United States and Britain. It is setting up a cooperation with
two travel agencies, Niyasa Travel Agency and Interland Travel
Agency.

Financially, the magazine gains no profit from the program.

"We act as a coordinator and send our editorial staff as
chaperons," the editor said.

However, she admitted that they face little difficulty in
marketing the program because many parties also organize similar
packages.

"We have to be very innovative in creating unique and
interesting packages, otherwise we cannot compete with other
organizers," she maintained.

Embassy

However, Andri Nursafitri, education marketing executive of
the New Zealand Embassy, commented that people should be careful
in selecting homestay programs offered by various institutions.

A good homestay program should offer precise schedules from
the beginning to the end of the program, Andri said.

People, he added, should also recognize the accreditation of
each institution mentioned in any homestay program. Many
organizations provide misleading information to candidates in
order to gain as much profit as possible.

"The embassy is willing to inform the public about the
accreditation of education institutions in New Zealand," Andri
said.

The New Zealand embassy acts as a mediator between New Zealand
institutions and their local counterparts in Indonesia.

Andri added that homestay programs in New Zealand started in
l992. A large number of education institutions in that country
have been actively promoting their homestay programs for
Indonesian students. They set up joint ventures with local
education consultants, institutions or foundations.

Citing an example, he said the Trisakti University established
a cooperation with the ILA South Pacific English School in
Christchurch in l992 for homestay programs.

The Permai Foundation has a cooperation with the Christchurch
Polytechnic School. Other education consultants and travel
agencies such as Puri Tour and Dian Educasindo have also set up
joint agreements with several institutions in New Zealand.

A number of financial institutions such as Thomas Cook and
Bank Niaga have jointly organized homestay programs for
Indonesian students at the Dominion English Language School in
Auckland, New Zealand.

"The embassy will keep monitoring all agencies involved in
homestay programs. We will not hesitate to warn these agencies if
they are found disseminating the wrong information to Indonesian
students," Andri said.

Ardythe Huberfenwick of the American-Indonesian Exchange
Foundation, admitted that it is very difficult to monitor the
homestay programs organized by American and Indonesian
organizations.

"We have thousands of educational institutions. It is very
hard for us to provide information on the accreditation of each
institution," Ardythe, the foundation's coordinator for Education
Advising Service of the American Embassy, said.

Indonesian students, she said, should be very careful when
joining homestay programs.

"The offered programs are not always appropriate and foster
parents are not always nice people," Ardythe warned.