Celebrating Amazing Homestay Hosts*
All week, we’re celebrating the people who support your English holidays and quietly become part of the story of your stay:
Blue Noun’s homestay hosts.
*When you meet them, you’ll want to celebrate too!
Homestays: Where English Comes Home
At Blue Noun, our holidays are carefully curated — every element chosen with intention.
One of our early decisions? Not to host guests in the ‘teacher’s’ home. That setup can work for some English learners, particularly the extroverts, but we knew it wouldn’t suit everyone. Our holidays aren’t about fitting in – they fit around you!
Plus, there’s something powerful about changing scene.
About setting a gentle boundary between working and resting*.
(*Although most of our English holiday courses live somewhere in between.)
Feel at Home in English
Our homestays pair you with local people who have beautiful homes — and even bigger hearts.
They’re curious souls who know what it means to be on a learning mission.
Many have been right where you are:
Welcomed into someone else’s home, in a new country, learning a new language.
Or they’re people who love the world — and are now exploring it by inviting it in.
If you’ve got the heart of a traveller but feel too old for a bad night’s sleep, this week is for you.
What to Expect this Homestay Week (Starts June 09th)
Let’s celebrate the journeys we’ve had.
Each day this week, we’ll be sharing:
- Our 3 Word Story Challenge – with prizes!
-
Meme-style posts debunking homestay myths (collaged with real images from our host homes)
-
Behind-the-scenes moments and learner stories
-
Reflections on what makes homestays powerful for language learning.
English Teachers & Coaches
We’ve included simple classroom ideas for using the 3-Word Story Challenge with your learners at the foot of this blog.
Rewriting English Homestays
Homestay Week is a bit of fun: travellers coming together to share tales.
But we do want to share an important message:
English learning does not need to be uncomfortable.
You don’t need to fit into someone else’s learning system. You don’t need to compromise. You need to find what works for you.
Choose a language learning option that feels good!
The Competition | Your 3-Word Sleep Story
This Monday, The 3-Word Story Challenge Launches
Tell us:
What’s the worst night’s sleep you’ve ever had while travelling?
In just three words.
We’ll be choosing our favourites to share throughout the week — and if we feature yours, you’ll win a prize.
🖼️ This week’s bonus prize is by a brilliant local artist HooperHart, aka Rudy and the Rowan Tree.
Her works are enchanting illustrations of Scottish nature, wildlife, and cosy Scottish cottages in the landscape. Tiny, precious, perfect. (If you have already visited Blue Noun, you may have noticed our painted flowers on the windowsill)
About the Judge
Good friend Lolie Ware, storyteller, radio host and comedien is choosing her favourite entry after 7 pm, every day next week (Monday – Friday).
Here are some 3-Worders from me & my Friends…
Join the fun on our socials to win a prize
3 Word Story Challenge | ELT Resources for English Teachers
Read out these 3 Word Stories and ask your students to imagine them:
- Margaritas in Mexico
- Broken leg itchy
- Boss on Holiday
- Neighbour’s dog BARKING
- Sailboats and seagulls
Collect the words that come to mind when they imagine each of these 3 word stories.
How to use the 3 Word Story Challenge in class:
🔹 Reverse storytelling
Ask learners to expand someone else’s 3-word entry into a full story.
Perfect for revising past tenses and working on inference.
Use any 3-word story in the comments of my posts (link below).
🔹 Ask + answer
Each student writes their own 3-word story.
Classmates ask yes/no questions to uncover what happened.
Use any 3 Word story in the comments of my posts.
🔹 Create characters
Turn those 3 words into a whole fictional scene.
Who are they? Where are they? What went wrong?
Discuss this quote:
‘I would have written a shorter letter, but I didn’t have the time’.
Quote (unknown)
Tips for L2 English Users & Teachers
For anyone adapting the 3-Word Story Challenge to an ELT Classroom, know that you are sharing a powerful way to bring your students’ native language and present language together.
- I made it public because every time a learner posts a comment on social media in English, they are casting a vote for the English speaker they are becoming.
- Focusing on words, not grammar, is a superb way to stay powerful in the language if frustration is derailing progress. If lessons have been a bit intensive, use this to change the energy.
- Language learning should not be an incessant march forward into more and more words, without enjoying the view — looking back at everything you’ve been and who you are becoming — and taking time in your new language to share you. If you are teaching inside a system, set aside 5 minutes at the end of class for a conversation that engages the learner through their own story.
New language is only memorable when it means something — or when it’s repeatedly and actively working for you in conversations (or writing).
Much of language learning in ELT feeds you information — and if you’re lucky, invites an opinion. If you’re really lucky, the person asking actually cares. (But don’t count on it.)
Expressing opinions is not the same as making time to talk about yourself. We are more than our opinions. We are built out of our experiences.
Converting them into stories makes us stronger.
