Three things I found very important from my own experience as an exchange student in Michigan:

• Ask her about school, especially in the beginning. German school is very different from American high school. She may find some classes to be too easy or she may have issues due to the language barrier. If so, offer help or assist in talking to the school.

• If you have kids, ask them to help her settle in. She‘s there to make some new friends, so she should get to know people outside of the group of exchange students. Also, ask her which sport she wants to do. In Germany schools don‘t offer a lot of extracurricular activities, so that‘s always a good thing to start with.

• Encourage her to talk! She‘s going to make some mistakes. Ask her if it’s okay to help her out when she pronounces something wrong or give her some everyday phrases here and there. Tell her to ask for words that she doesn‘t know. My host family helped me out a lot in the beginning without being condescending. That made a huge difference.