Gyeonggi English Village advertises they're "Creating Global Korean." Given how those language immersion experiences turn out, that sounds about right.
The Korea Times has the story:
Most English immersion villages are running deep in the red, with fewer students enrolling in classes at them.
Against this dismal background, Seoul City Hall is opening its third English village. Its existing two are making ends meet thanks to a city contract to have schools send their students to them in large numbers.
. . .
According to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, English villages across the country lost 21 billion won in 2007. Data from 2008 was unavailable
Experts say the government needs to conduct thorough research before they build the special-purpose villages.
“Local English villages are suffering because municipal governments invested in them competitively without conducting appropriate research on demand, location and scale,” said Lee Byung-min, an English education professor at Seoul National University.
“Seoul villages are making profits as they are receiving students from schools and are included in courses as part of the elementary school curriculum.”
These types of projects really aren't that uncommon, and they seem to run into a lot of problems, too. My first contract in Korea was with an "English Theme Park" planned for Seoul's Gwangjin-gu in 2005, but it went under before it opened its doors. I then signed a contract with an English Village scheduled for Incheon through the city government, but I lost my job with that one before I started the paperwork because the opening was delayed. There are also English Towns in nearly every city and county in Jeollanam-do, though certainly not on as grand a scale as the ones in Seoul or Gyeonggi-do, or the
In February I visited the Gyeonggi English Village in Paju, but I didn't get enough to warrant a post on it at the time. We not only picked a cold, rainy day to show up, we picked the one day of the week (Monday) when no programs were scheduled. And, if it weren't for the song "Kickin' it in Geumchon"
South Korea’s got Jeju, South Korea’s got Seoul
Busan and Ilsan if that’s how you roll
But when you work at EV, and live in Paju
Then the town to get down is 15 minutes from you
I would have had a hell of a time getting there at all since it's not clearly marked from Paju. I admit I went as kind of a cynic, having read the news reports picking on the place---on Korea Beat here and here---so I was both happy and sad when some of the shopkeepers spoke Korean to my fiancee, and greeted us with 어서 오세요, in violation of the "Only English, No Korean!" policy. I didn't press the issue because I wasn't "working" that day, and I didn't make any attempt to chat with the foreign employees on their day off. We enjoyed walking around the grounds, but it was a little disappointing that my fiancee, herself a learner of English, didn't really have much opportunity to use the language or be immersed in it. The fairytales they read aloud over the speakers in unnatural tones don't count as "immersion."
It's worth a visit only as a curiosity, in a country where they build English Theme Parks, but just be aware that the programs aren't aimed at adults, and there won't be much for you to do but look around and avoid the students. The bad reports in the media, and negative experiences from teachers and native English speakers, are helping guarantee the place gets more work as a filming location for music videos, commercials, and TV shows than as an educational center.
4 comments:
Another English Village? That's hilarious. If it goes ahead, then it should be on the understanding that several film crews are allowed to oversee every part of its development and day-to-day running, so that posterity will have evidence of exactly what happens when you let a bunch of ajosshis in shiny suits run an education facility. The failings of the Paju English village - which are legion - are a beautiful illustration of the hypothesis that Koreans couldn't manage shit into a bucket. Everything that is wrong with Paju comes down directly to cretinous (and occasionally dastardly) decisions from above. If it really were a separate nation (which is the conceit used as you enter through 'immigration'), then fake cobbled streets would long ago have run thick with the loosed blood of its dictators, and power would be in the hands of the underpaid Eastern Europeans shop workers (who were told they were coming to teach) and the thousands of schoolchildren forced to stay for a week.
I know someone who work at the one in Gangnam, um..it was past the Lotte World. I went inside once. She said the boss wasnt really bad, just a regular ajjushi running a hagwon. There were some students, but I think it wasnt doing that well.
Ive taught in a kindie, a company, and a high school here. I liked them all for different points, but I always say, it doesnt matter where you learn. Ive met poor old merchants who speak great English, they didnt go to Hagwons, etc. Its more of the mentality that you have to learn from a teacher, which is part of the Yangban idea here, maybe. The bigger the school, the more people will throw money at it? Dunno.
Ive been here off and on since 96, and I always say things havent changed really that much..a few more English speakers, a bit more English in places, but crappy business is crappy business
anyway, thank you for the opportunity to make a good living here, K-friends.
I've been trying to find out more about Incheon English Village. I'm going to be working there soon, and kind of terrified since it's my first ESL job. Hope it's not bad as they say.
Thanks for stopping by. Your best bet for information is to look at posts on Dave's ESL Cafe: http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/korea. By "best bet" I mean it has a lot of traffic from teachers, and you'll likely find threads on the Incheon English Village there. I'm short of time now, so I can't dig any up at the moment, but running a search for "Incheon" in the Job Discussion Forum should turn up something.
I was hired to work at the Incheon EV back in 2005, but the opening was delayed and my contract cancelled before I left for Korea.
There are a variety of opinions on English Villages, and really no matter what school or program you've applied to, you're always going to be terrified for your first overseas EFL job. Provided you approach it with patience and professionalism, you'll get something out of it. Even if something doesn't go as planned---you can plan on something not going as planned---you might take some comfort in knowing that that sort of thing happens to everyone in their first year.
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