his thesis describes a
semi-ethnographic study of Japanese
female students in Vancouver homestay
settings. My research is based on
postmodern feminist theories and its
purpose is to explore the homestay
experiences of Japanese female students,
from their standpoint. The research is
based on interviews with 14 Japanese
female students, four host families, and
four homestay coordinators. The focus is
on the students' narratives about their
interactions with their host families in
everyday homestay settings. Three key
points emerged from their accounts: the
significance of Orientalism in students'
framing of their homestay experiences;
the ambiguities of homestay resulting
from its being a private/public sphere,
which causes an ambivalent identity for
the students, the important role of
homestay coordinators in the students'
understanding of their situations and in
their negotiating material/discursive
homestay realities. The conclusion drown
is that Japanese female students
negotiate their identity within the
social, economic and discursive contexts
of homestay, winch involves multiple
layers of power relations.