YFU Handbooks 2015 Family Handbook (Study Abroad) | Página 11

with challenges. Developing a strategy of how to address
this transition time will help your child mentally prepare
and equip him/her with a plan to develop and depend upon
the new support network. It will also help you react more
appropriately if you receive unhappy or negative emails or
phone calls from your child in the initial days or weeks of
the exchange.
If you do get a negative email from your son or daughter,
do not immediately panic! It is very likely that what was
negative today will be resolved by the end of the week.
Allowing your child to resolve problems on his/her own is
part of the growing process. However, if you are alerted to
an emergency that requires immediate response, please
contact YFU’s emergency support line at 1.800.424.3691.
Being an exchange student requires independence. A
large part of your child’s success as an exchange student
depends upon his/her willingness and ability to develop
a support group in the host country. In order to do this,
your child must be ready to break away from the support
group that s/he has known and relied on his/her entire life.
Likewise, the support group from home (family and friends)
must allow your student some space. This will allow the
host family and local Area Representative to develop a
relationship with your child and be ready to take over the
support role that you fill at home. If your child can build
meaningful relationships with their support in country (i.e.
host parents and Area Rep), s/he will have the necessary
resources to succeed.
Your child will be serving as a youth ambassador to
his/her host country. YFU has selected your child to help
expand understanding between countries and cultures.

And so, as your child develops new relationships in the
host country with the host family, teachers and others, s/
he has the great responsibility of representing the United
States and all Americans. While this can be seen as an
overwhelming responsibility, it can also be as simple as
sharing stories about the home community, culture, family
and country. Each person who comes in contact with a
foreigner is, if only subconsciously, further developing ideas
of what an American is.

PROMOTING A SUCCESSFUL EXPERIENCE:
SHARING, RESPECTING, LEARNING AND PATIENCE
While we know that skills and knowledge help us get
through our experiences in life, it is often attitude that
determines our ultimate success. An exchange student’s
attitude can make a world of difference when going into a
new home; forming new personal relationships; learning a
new language; and developing a new support network with
new friends and new coping skills.
Four things that YFU encourages of its students are
sharing, respecting, learning and patience. These are
four simple acts that will go a very long way when living in a
foreign culture. By promoting an attitude that encompasses
these, you are promoting a successful experience for your
child.

SHARING ONE'S TIME AND SELF
It can be hard when a student has just gotten back from a
long day of school in another language, feeling tired and
feeling in need of some time alone. But engaging fully
in the host family’s life is a wonderful gesture and more
importantly a sure way to learn about the people and world
that s/he is living in. YFU frequently hears from its alumni
that the key to their successful experience was the giving
of themselves to their new family, school and community.
Specifically, they say that learning their host family’s ways
of doing things, and discovering their own place within
the family, was a crucial part of having a successful time
abroad.
Respecting the differences that your child encounters in his/
her host culture can be especially difficult during the most
challenging periods of his/her exchange. Thinking back to
the motivations of living in a foreign country can make this
an easier task, and remembering that differences between
cultures are what make this world so exciting to live in.
The time that your child is abroad will pass by very quickly.

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