The country's huge English Villages do little more than lose money, and in spite of the promise to provide a domestic English-immersion environment, often don't even provide that (1, 2), so it's not surprising that the one in Paju is recognizable more as a filming location than an education experience. Whether or not it's built to resemble what they imagine an American university campus might look like it has that effect, though it has a street car and a building labeled "City Hall." It's frequently used to replicate both urban and collegiate settings in music videos, commercials, and television shows, perhaps most notably in "Boys Over Flowers," and most recently in a commercial for 미닛메이드 orange juice:
I visited in February, took some pictures, and came to this conclusion:
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.
Taken in February. In front of the large building, and beside the street car, is where the Super Junior video was filmed in April.
2 comments:
Boy, that's hard to watch. I have a pretty high threshold, but that was too much. Couldn't finish it.
That super junior music video makes me hope Korea are utterly crushed this world cup, at least it'll dampen the "korea best" rhetoric for a bit
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