This is Paju Camp, an English village located in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, just outside of Seoul. In this class the participants are trying to express their feeling through the animals of different colors. But one thing sets this class apart – the students are not Korean. Here’s Secretary General Kim Byung-gil of Paju Camp to explain more.

This place came to be known to people in Thailand, China, Russia, France, and Japan. They came through Korean TV shows and music. Last year the camp saw about one thousand visitors and this year we expect to see more than 1,500.

It is unusual for people from non-English speaking nations to come to Korea, rather than the United States, England, or Australia, to learn English. Here’s Adam, a teacher here who has been teaching English for the past seven years.

We get many students from Japan, Russia, China, and Thailand. A guide who brought Russian students here said that Russians used to go to Los Angeles or London, but those places were too far away and too expensive, which is why they come to Paju now. Russian students are satisfied with the cost, the distance, and the quality of the English programs here.

Korea’s English villages are known for its geographical proximity and quality programs, as well as their affordable fees. Director Heiji Miauchi of Japan’s International Educational Network has been recruiting over the past three years Japanese students for the Gyeonggi English Village language program. He says the number of Japanese applicants is rising every year.



I have been bringing students here for the past three years. This village provides great facilities and interactive curriculum for students. Japanese students like it here because there is no place like this in Japan. Some of the students are repeat applicants. When I started recruiting students for this program three years ago, I had only 14 applicants, but now I get more than 100 applicants a year. Last summer I brought over 80 students and I plan to bring more than 300 students during this summer vacation.

Presently, the publicity campaign for the English village targets only Koreans. The village does not run any special PR programs for foreign students. But foreigners came to find out about the village and its top-rated programs through Korean news reports, as well as personal accounts and reviews. Here’s Ms. Kim Mi-jeong, a member of the Educational Operation Team at Paju Camp, to tell us more.

We don’t have any special PR means for foreign students. We rely on the accounts of our former foreign students, who talk about their experiences here with their friends and family. In 2009 we had 72 foreign students from six countries, including Taiwan and Japan. In the following year we had 192 foreign students and 613 in 2011. This year we expect to enroll about twice as many foreign students. Japanese students take up the bulk of the foreign participants, followed by Russian and Thai students.



Paju Camp at Gyeonggi English Village opened on April 3, 2006. Located in the city of Paju, outside of Seoul, the expansive English education compound is built on a site measuring nearly 280 thousand square meters. Here’s Here’s Ms. Kim Mi-jeong, a member of the Educational Operation Team at Paju Camp, to tell us more about the English village.

Paju English Village is modeled after a village in England. As soon as you enter the village, you can see Stonehenge and a castle gate. It doesn’t look at all like Korea. You feel like you are in England. The village’s educational facilities include a concert hall with a 700-people capacity, dormitory buildings that can accommodate 750 people, and classrooms equipped with high tech devices. There is even a small hothouse and a cafeteria, in addition to a bookstore and coffee shops. The cafeteria is fashioned after Hogwart School from the Harry Potter series. It has high ceilings and a majestic feel just like in the book.

Paju Camp at Gyeonggi English Village has recreated the charming atmosphere of an English village. People who visit the village forget that they are actually in Korea.

- The village is very clean and wonderful. I feel like my English would improve a lot in this place.
- It doesn’t feel like Korea here. It feels rather like the United States. I was amazed.
- This place feels foreign, unlike Japan.

The stone pillar standing in front of the immigration office, the gateway to the English village, resembles Stonehenge, a prehistoric monument located in the English county of Wiltshire. The street that stretches beyond the gate to the main hall is called Market Street, and it is lined with a bakery, a gift shop, an English bookstore, restaurants and coffee shops, and even a traditional English pub. Between the city hall and the concert hall is a small water fountain and a garden, reminiscent of the Covent Garden in London. The concert hall looks like the renowned Royal Albert Hall in London, and the city hall is built in the Victorian style much like the National Gallery. The dormitory buildings remind us of Rye, a small village in southern England that seems to have popped out of a fairytale. Gyeonggi English Village was made to immerse oneself completely in English culture and environment. This is where foreign students come to learn English, says Adam, one of the English instructors there.



As you can see, students realize this is a complete village, a totally different environment. They know this is an English village. You can look outside the classroom and see a village. It’s made to look more like a village than a school campus. Classrooms are well equipped and great for studying. That’s why students are sorry to leave this place. The best part about studying here is that the students take home positive experiences about learning English. It’s important for young students to have positive experiences about English.

English courses for foreign students include a five-day program and a four-week intensive program during summer and winter breaks. But these courses are definitely different from the programs offered at other institutions. Here’s Mr. Kim Byung-gil of Paju Camp to tell us more.

Other private English institutions operate about six hours a day. But our program provides daily 12-hour English education with qualified native English-speaking teachers. One instructor is responsible for one class of 13 students. Whenever the students have to go somewhere, a Korean instructor accompanies the native instructor. We have never had an accident. Another merit of our programs is that English education does not end at nine o’clock at night. Since it’s a sleepover-type program, students can stay late and get one-on-one tutoring with an instructor. We place foreign students in the same room with Korean students so they can learn not only English but also foreign cultures. All of our students love it.

Seventy percent of one hundred instructors here are foreigners. The program selects only the highly qualified instructors and keeps a close eye on their performances, further boosting the quality and effectiveness of English education here. Here’s Mr. Kim Byung-gil of Paju Camp again.

We insist on high standards. The instructors are vetted thoroughly when hired. Many of our native instructors here have teaching license and some even have the license to practice law. The camp also has thirty Korean instructors who help out these native teachers. We always try to recruit the best teachers.



Students enjoy the classes even though they have to study 12 hours a day, because all classes are based on three “E”s – education, experience, and entertainment.

Students compose their own music, using a music software on their computers.

Students also learn about English and other cultures by playing games. They especially like a class pitting teams against each other. It is no surprise that the students find the class fun and engrossing.

The combination of interactive play and first-hand experience help draw and retain the students’ interest. Even those who felt shy about learning English feel like they have become more interested in English. Here’s English instructor Adam.

I have to make the program interesting for young students to learn English conversation. Since they have to study English for 12 hours straight, from nine in the morning to nine at night, I have to make the program more interactive and fun than just reading, translating, and studying grammar in the classroom. The most popular class among young students is the cooking class where we make quesadillas or cupcakes. This class is great for holding their attention and inducing them to talk in English. There are many fun classes, but the cooking class is always the most popular one among the students.

Five days are not a long time, but enough to instill some confidence in these students.

- I had fun. I even had a bowling class. It was great for studying, because we played lots of fun games.
- It didn’t feel like studying. I think I learned through experiences.
- I got comfortable with talking in English. And it was nice talking to foreigners.

Already her fourth time here in Paju Camp, Japanese chaperone Kamokawa says that she’s satisfied every time she comes here.

Instead of using a blackboard or a whiteboard, students learn by playing so they enjoy studying. I was impressed by how nice the teachers were. They remembered the students’ names and welcomed back former students by calling out their names. Children liked their teachers and wanted to come back, which I think is a telling sign of a good teacher.



As the English program at Paju Camp became more widely advertised, city council members and city education officers from Saga Prefecture in Japan came to the English village for a tour. Here’s Mr. Toshihiro Kawasaki, chief of the Saga Prefecture Education Council, with his impression.

I was really impressed with my last visit in summer, so I brought back local government and education officers from Saga Prefecture this time. Japanese students learn English starting in elementary school, but many of them cannot converse in English even after they graduate from college. We can read English but can’t speak it fluently. So I wanted to learn from this English-teaching program. This is the most interesting case study. Unlike the case of English taught in schools, students were able to actually use English in their life after studying here.

Other English camps around Korea are also seeing their foreign student enrollments rising. In Yangpyeong Camp 120 Russian students took part in the program in 2010 and 220 foreign students in 2011. This year the camp already received 360 applications from foreign students. Here’s Adam with his take on the future of the English village program in Korea.

My Thai students love talking about Korean movies, music, and celebrities. Hallyu is one of the reasons why these Asian students come to Korea to study English. As more foreigners study here, this English village program could be another part of hallyu. Paju Camp of the Gyeonggi English Village could become an international English education center for surrounding nations before long.