Afraid of Japanese Home Stay?

Question:

I am a 17 year old female, and i have the opportunity of going to japan with my high school class. we would be doing 10 days of traveling around japan and then 10 days of staying with a host family.
The only part im worried about is the home stay. I feel like i dont know much japanese and it really scares me to be by myself with someone who could possibly not speak much japanese.
Does anyone have any insight to make me feel a little bit better?

Answer:

I did the same thing when I was 17. I had only studied Japanese for one year and was not very good.
Its really not a big deal. You will find out that there are tons of ways to communicate that are not language. My host mother would write out schedules for me and explain them with hand motions like "san-ji (writes 3:00) gakkou (does motion for driving, points to herself, gestures towards me like "come on") mukae ni ikimasu" So, I got the gist, she's picking me up from school at 3:00. We would watch TV together and I would ask them basic questions. Honestly, it all went really well. And that was before the internet was really wide spread. Now, you can look things up on your phone when you need to explain things (assuming you get a phone while you are over there). Its much easier now.

Don't worry. Take the leap. You will be glad you did.