Dear host family letter

Liebe Community,

ich weiß, dass es schon sehr viele Beiträge zu dem Thema gibt, aber ich wäre sehr dankbar, wenn mir jemand bei meinem Brief helfen könnte. Irgendwelche Verbesserungen, Rechtschreibfehler oder sonstige Hinweise?

Dear family,

First of all, thank you so much for taking the time and reading this letter. Also, thank you for considering spending 10 months with me, allowing me to live with you and granting me an insight into the Japanese culture and everyday-life.

My name is ***** and I am a 16-year-old girl. I live in the south of Germany, in a small town called ‚‘*****‚‘, that has about 12.000 inhabitants. It’s a very rural area with lots of forests, hills, lakes and new places to discover.

Here I share one side of a house with my mother ***** and her life partner *****, who i have known for the past 13 years. My parents broke up when I was 2 ½ years old and divorced in 2011, but i still have a very good, open and trustworthy relationship with my father *****, whom i usually see once a month.

At home i usually cook for my family, take care of my pet (a lovely bearded dragon), help to do the dishes and the laundry, clean up my room and the kitchen and sometimes help my mother with gardening or grocery shopping. Of course, I am also willing to help you with household chores wherever I can in order to support you.

While my mother works as a cleaning woman, my father is a retail merchant. My mother´s partner works in a company that produces automotive parts. I am visiting the 11th class of a secondary school in ‚‘*****‚‘, which is a small town 20 minutes from where I live. My favourite subjects are English and German, but i also enjoy Spanish a lot. As you can see, i am very fond of languages. After I graduated and hopefully did well in my A-levels, I am planning to attend university. I would love to work with people in my future occupation and I am especially fascinated by psychology, but i also consider choosing a job that has to do with different cultures and languages.

I have been studying English for the past 6 years and I started learning Spanish approximately one year ago. I have been studying Japanese for only around 3 months, but i try to study a lot. Ever since I started studying English the thought of spending some time abroad is something that has not lost grip on me. After i have been fascinated by the little I knew about the Japanese culture since I had watched my first film by Studio Ghibli when I was 4 years old, so Japan was my first choice. I would love to get an idea of the countries’ lifestyle, language and mentality, which I think is something you can’t get by just visiting a country as a tourist for a short time, so I am very thankful you consider helping me to let my dream come true.

In my leisure time I enjoy reading and drawing a lot. It is something that is very relaxing and working on a big drawing project is something I do with a lot of enthusiasm and motivation. Another very important thing to me is travelling, since my desire to visit new places and experience new cultures is very strong. I have already been to Italy, Croatia, Spain, Poland, Egypt, Austria and the Czech republic, and i still want to travel to England, Sweden and, of course, Japan. I also enjoy spending time with my two best friends, who live in Berlin and Vienna, so i usually only visit them every few months, but we are still very close. Furthermore, i enjoy doing sports a lot. When I was younger used to do horseback riding for 8 years and i still do it from time to time. I had been training karate for 7 years and i recently started doing it again. In school i play basketball and dance and i am very interested in figure skating.

It usually takes me a little to get comfortable around people i just met, so i might seem to be quite shy and introverted at first, but after a few days i am normally very open, i like to talk and i care a lot about the people surrounding me. For me having a relationship that is characterized by trust, honesty, love and respect for the other person, as well as for their needs and wishes is very important to me. I don’t like to start a fight and i always want things to be uncomplicated.

Something you should know about me is that I am a pesceterian, so I eat fish, but I don’t eat any meat. Of course, I wouldn’t expect you to cook two separate meals, I am just fine with eating food after I took the meat out. If there is no other possibility than to eat meat I would do it, but I would definitely prefer not to. Thank you for your understanding regarding this.

Another thing you might be interested in is that I am very fond of children. Although i am my parents only child, i have been able to collect many experiences with children. Three of my best friends have siblings (between 1 and 12 years old) and i love spending time with them. I also have 3 cousins who are younger than me and whom i really like. In addition, i used to give English lessons to two children.

Lastly i want to mention that i love animals a lot. I own a bearded dragon and used to own guinea pigs, fishes and rabbits. I also took care of dogs and cats that belonged to friends and i am fortunately not allergic to any pets.

All in all i am looking forward to making new experiences and i am already very exited.

Again, thank you so much for taking your time and reading this letter, I hope you are having a wonderful day and i would love to get to know you.

Yours sincerely,


Den Brief finde ich schon super, Du hast nur ziemlich oft „I“ klein geschrieben, das muss groß. Den Absatz mit dem Pescetarier würde ich etwas kürzen, es reicht, wenn du schreibst, dass du kein Fleisch, aber Fisch isst und das Fleisch auch nötigenfalls aussortierst (nur wenn das wirklich für dich o.K. ist!). Den letzten Satz würde ich weglassen. Wenn Fleisch essen für dich nicht wirklich eine Alternative ist, dann nenne diese gar nicht erst. Denk daran: Es ist für ein ganzes Jahr!

Dein Brief ist wirklich gut! Ich wollte fragen, ob das mit dem Pescetarier sein kein Problem von der Organisation darstellt? Bei mir steht nämlich, die nehmen gar keine Leute für Japan an, die bestimmte Lebensmittel nicht essen (egal aus welchen Gründen). Ich gehe für ein Jahr nach Japan, 2018/19 und bin seit 3 Jahren Vegetarier. Bis jetzt habe ich die Online Anmeldung noch nicht abgeschickt.
Wie hast du das gemacht mit den Essgewohnheiten? Hast du es nur in den Brief geschrieben, oder musstest du sonst noch etwas ausfüllen in der Anmeldung?

Mir ist nämlich Bange, dass ich deswegen keine Gastfamilie bekomme, obwohl ich kein Problem damit hätte auf Pescetarier umzusteigen und mir das Fleisch auch rauspicken könnte.