Korean professors chime in on English village issue

A few posts back we featured a report from KBS on the English village in Paju and the lack of English a Korean reporter found during his visit there. The Hankook Ilbo has a page today on the opinions of a few professors on what role the villages should play in English education here.

Original article

“The strong points of the English villages must be put into good use,” as English lit. professor Jeon Byeong-man from Jeonbuk University stated regarding the English villages, once popular throughout the country, which are now being challenged on their usefulness. To exhibit the function they were built for he believes they require specialized programs and resolute funding to match them.

Professor Jeon stated that “A week-long program is only on the level of an experience using the language, not an answer to English education as a whole,” and that “short-term programs need to be specialized more towards the ability to give students the motivation to study English.”

He also added that “With the month-long summer school program there’s definitely a substitutive effect similar to that of going abroad for short-term language training,” and that “In this case, in order to have education carried out in small groups and with high quality like a language academy, the country needs to provide stronger support in order to see an effect.”

Professor Jeon also said however that “In the end the important thing is to increase the ability of English teachers within the country and provide proper English education,” and that “English villages run short-term programs, and thus should be developed more as experience programs than educational institutions.”

According to Prof. Kim Mi-gyeong at the Korean Educational Course Evaluation Institute (name directly translated from Korean), “We can see that the English villages have the effect of raising the interest and favourable impressions towards English of the students, but also advised that “Without development of programs that actually raise the ability of the students we’re going to see less and less room for them as time goes on.”

Prof. Kim also noted that “There is nothing to evaluate the performance of the English villages at the present besides on-site surveys,” and that “We’re going to have to see some concrete studies on the effect of these English villages in order to stymie the debate going on at the present and to prepare survival strategies for them.”

At present there are eleven English villages throughout the country run by local self-governing organizations, and including educational offices and private companies as well there are over twenty English villages either under construction or being planned.

An English Village in Name Only – This One Uses Korean

KBS has just aired a report from one of their reporters that went to the Paju English Village to see just how much English is being used there over a year after commencement, and it’s not a pretty picture.

One odd thing I found about the report is his claim that an entrance fee of 6000 won for adults is a high price. 6000 won isn’t even enough to get you a bagel on top of a macchiato at Starbucks. Why so cheap?

Original report – video embedded on page

Anchor: In the Paju English Village, opened under the banner of giving people the experience of using English, English is disappearing.

An English village where you can’t use nor hear English – our reporter Jeong Changhwa finds out exactly what’s going on from the scene.

Reporter: Last year after opening its doors, the Paju English Village claimed that English was used there from the moment you buy the tickets.

Ticket counter employee: (In response to “do you use English here?) “Yes, we carry out all the classes in English.”

Reporter: However, right from the beginning, the village guides themselves talked not in English but Korean.

Guide: (in Korean) “You have to run to get to the 2:10 class.” (Where is it?) “It’s not far…”

Reporter: Here we have ten exotic-looking shops inside the village.

Every one you go to is supposed to have at least one foreigner or a Korean that speaks English well, but the rules are hardly enforced at all.

In one place there’s a sign asking people to please use English, but this didn’t seem to help at all.

Shop employee: (In response to “do you have to only use English here?”) “Uh, no, well it doesn’t matter…here, take a look at this to order.”

Reporter: It’s no small price to get in here, costing 6000 won for adults and 5000 won for children. However, there was almost no place to actually use or hear English inside the village.

It was next to impossible to find people getting used to English in a natural way while purchasing goods.

Why has this happened? Last year when it was opened each shop had two foreigners for a total of 26 people, but now after the year-long contracts have ended, there is only a total of about two foreign employees in the shops.

You have to pay extra to get into a real English program here.

Interview with customer: “People should be coming here with the goal to speak and experience English, but there really isn’t a chance to do so here.”

Reporter: Last year the English village here had a loss of 20 billion won (20 million dollars), and left the hiring up to the shop proprietors.

Phone interview with person from the English village: “When we first started the English village itself hired the foreign employees but now that the contracts have ended it’s changed over so that each store owner has to do the hiring by themselves.”

Reporter: In an educational project where making a profit should not be the goal, having to match revenues and expenditures is what has given rise to this problem.

Interview with Professor Han Munseop from Hanyang University: “Don’t just look at this from the point of view of profit, you need to think about how to run this from an educational point of view, that’s what will bring in more profits in the long run..”

Reporter: A high-quality English village with 85 billion won (85 million dollars) poured into it – this place is becoming a ridiculous English village, where English isn’t even used.

Immigration bust of the week

Our Bust of the Week award goes to the hardworking men and women of the Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency in Suwon, who rustled up nearly 50 illegal teachers. Prize catches include a Columbian, a Panamanian, and one particularly enterprising Bulgarian.

Stories like this give us a peek into ESL trends. Looks like the market is white hot, if some schools are even taking chances on South Americans. Of the 40+ busts, half were from English-speaking nations but the largest demographic was 17 Chinese teachers, perhaps confirming reports that Immi is targeting them.

This report comes to you from the Hankyoreh, who did our translation work for us.

A 38-year-old Bulgarian who came to South Korea on a tourist visa in July 2001 found he was treated special here, at least compared to other illegal aliens, especially those from Southeast Asian countries, who have to work for lower wages and live on the run from the law.

The Bulgarian was hired as a “native lecturer” at a foreign language school in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, and earned about 2 million won (US$2,160) a month. He lacked formal qualifications and came from a non-English speaking country, but he got his teaching job because he can speak some broken English and is white.

Two other foreigners – a 27-year old from Columbia and a 32-year-old from Panama- were also hired as as English teachers for the same reasons, though they are illegal immigrant workers.

Illegal aliens who have found teaching jobs in the greater Seoul region sometimes pay 25 to 30 percent of their income to the middlemen who find them their jobs, in order to stay relatively “safe” from legal authorities. Some are caught, of course, and deported to their respective countries. On May 9, the Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency (GPPA) said it found 46 illegal immigrant workers who were teaching illegally at foreign language–including English and Mandarin Chinese–institutes on tourist visas. In addition, police arrested 56 South Koreans, who hired the foreigners or found them their jobs, on charges of violating immigration-related laws.

The foreigners were able to hide their lack of English skills by teaching just the alphabet or counting numbers for children in kindergarten-level classes, police said.

Kim Su-gwang, head of the police agency’s investigation for foreign crimes, said, “Those foreigners came here after watching Internet ads luring them with money and tourist opportunities in exchange for language skills.”

“The case shows you a lot about South Korean English education,” Kim said.

Of the foreign language teachers arrested in the latest roundup, there were 17 Chinese, 10 Canadians, 7 Americans, 4 New Zealanders and 8 foreigners from non-english speaking countries.