Paju "English" Village

Suwon English Village is closed! There it is, in the above photo, with boxes full of English Village dollars and the old Economy game left outside to rot. We were randomly driving by our old school last week and couldn't believe it when we saw that it was shut down. We made our taxi driver let us out of the cab so we could investigate. Turns out, the school had closed just 2 days before we got there! We were the first teachers at that school, working at our first ESL jobs, so it was a little weird to see that it was closed but we were still here! With a little investigating by Jo, we found out that the teachers had only been given 3 weeks notice that they were out of jobs and that it closed because KBS (who owned the building the Village was in) didn't renew their lease.

It's quite sad, really. I feel bad for the teachers who were probably good friends and were forced to split up all over the country at new jobs or go home. After visiting the Alice in Wonderland English Village just a week earlier, it got us thinking- what's going on with all these abandoned English Villages?

The English Village is a pretty recent idea in a country that's been obsessed with English education for decades. The first one was built in Paju in 2006 as an alternative to sending children abroad for English immersion experiences. The Villages were supposed to be "English only" places where kids could learn from "edutainers" in situational classes. Within a year there were 20 English Villages in Korea, but now they're all closing down. Why? Well, in my opinion they were a fad. A lot of money was spent to make these places look impressive when they opened, but no money was re-invested for long-term success. Plus, when people go abroad to learn a language they often stay for at least 6 months. The English Village programs are never more than 2 weeks long, so it's insane to think a person could improve much in such a short time. And it's a flawed concept if there isn't a commitment to enforce the English only policy. But in my experience, Koreans want to learn English but they almost never want to speak it. The employees at the school don't want to speak English, the bosses don't want to speak English, and it just falls apart from there.

So, having had worked at both Suyu and Suwon English Villages, and having visited the Alice Park English Village, we decided to head north to Paju and visit the school that started it all: Paju English Village.

There's a direct bus (200 or 2200) that you can catch outside Hapjeong Station exit 2, which takes about 90 minutes to arrive in Paju. They leave every 15-20 minutes, so it's pretty convenient. The ride seemed to go by fast, and we were all in a good mood because it was the first day in a month that it wasn't raining. A big draw in the Paju area is the Premium Outlet Mall, which our bus seemed to circle at least a dozen times before dropping us off at the Village. According to the sign, even the mall is into edutaining!

Are we in Hollywood, or is this the English Village? Wow, so overgrown.

Just like at the two English Villages we worked at, your visit begins with a trip through immigration. We were given passports (just like at the other schools) and they were stamped as we went through. There were signs posted that the immigration staff should be wearing uniforms, but they were just dressed casually. We ALWAYS wore an ill-fitting shirt and tie- have some respect for the job, guys! The immigration teachers seemed playful with the Koreans, but when the guy saw me he said, "you don't want an interview do you?" and the girl asked Hannah, "how long have you been in Korea?" "3 years,"Hannah said. "Ugh, me too. it's time to get out!" the girl replied, stamping her passport, before turning back to her macbook. LOL!!! This place was awesome already!

We were given an information pamphlet that said, in bold black print, "Only English, no Korean!" but ironically, the entire pamphlet was written in Korean. And from that point, we never saw a single employee or patron of the Village speak English to another person. The employees at the store and restaurant that we visited spoke in English to us, but switched straight back to Korean when they waited on Koreans. Some little kids at the park seemed interested in us and probably wanted us to edutain them, but it was too bad that there weren't really any foreign staff around for them to talk to.

The first thing we did was stop in a convenience store, which had a cooler full of beer! LOL! Why didn't our Villagey have one of those?

An "English only" sign.

We were hungry so we got some food. I chose a cup full of cola with some chicken nuggets in a bowl above the cola and some cheese sticks (served with ketchup). It was pretty good.

City Hall. The Villagey grounds were pretty impressive, though it was clear that it hadn't been kept up at all since it was built. Plus, a lot of the buildings were closed. Still, this was definitely the nicest of the Villageys I'd been to, though Suyu is quite nice too.

Inside City Hall... if I wanted help, who was going to help me? The building was empty. And actually, besides the two immigration teachers, the only other foreign staff we saw was one girl teaching a "bank" class. There were signs up for lots of different classes that were supposed to be running while we were there, but no one was there. The teachers must have a pretty sweet schedule!

Who could resist a photo op like this?

I immediately regretted posing with the stuffed toys as soon as I touched them. They were so wet, and upon closer inspection, covered in mold.

At the 3D cinema (which was showing a Korean movie) there was a sign explaining what to do with your ticket if the movie was starting, but there was no staff around to collect your ticket. Why wouldn't there be someone to take your ticket?!

The dormitories were all named after African tribe names, which was kind of random because the Village is supposed to be based on a European theme and all the buildings looked European.

Inside one of the dorms. I love what they've done with the place!

This poster was hanging in the "Media" building. The speakers at the Village were also pumping out some hideous songs the whole time we were there that went something like this: "Media! Media! I love media! Science! Science! I love science!" I love media??? Really?

This Museum of English Pub History sounded amazing, and totally age appropriate for the park guests, but sadly it too was locked up.

Across from the Pub museum was the perversely named "Kiddywood".

Stonehenge in the car park.

I absolutely loved the English Village. I love the ridiculousness of it and taking the piss out of everything that was there, but as a functioning business- good god, I'd be shocked if it was still there in a year's time. Go now- while you still can!

But we weren't done with Paju yet! There is so much to see and do there. I'd always heard that Paju English Village is close to the North Korean border, but I never realized how close it was. It's like... across the street. There's a touristy sight close by called the Dongil Observatory, which is only 460m from North Korea, so we decided to check it out. We took a bus there (the ever-convenient #200) and thought the fence in the above picture would be a good place to start our hike up to the entrance.

It was such a long hike up to the observatory! It was so humid today and I was a slimy mess by the time we got to the top. To make matters worse, when we got there we saw a sign for a free shuttle bus that we could've used to get up the hill. Dammit!

Admission was only 3,000Won (I love Korean admission prices!) and we spent some time gawking over at the North. We could see some people walking around in a rice paddy. It was quite thrilling!

North Korea is a fascinating place, and I've read at least half a dozen books about the country and watched any documentaries I can about it. It's so many mystery! The observatory had an interesting little museum to look through, full of North Korean products and even some models of a typical North Korean schoolroom and home (above). Notice the framed pictures of Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung. You can be put in a work camp if your home is caught without such a photo hanging in it, or even if the frame is a little dusty.

And then you can go to the gift shop and buy some DMZ hand towels or soap.

Next, we wanted to visit the Heyri Art Village, so we hopped on the #200 again. Before long, we'd realized that our trip was taking a bit longer than we'd expected and suddenly we were on the highway back to Seoul! We'd taken the bus the wrong way! It was too late to turn around now, so we had to give the Art Village a pass and continue on home. It seemed so sudden. We didn't even have a chance to say goodbye to Paju...

Here's what most of the drive home looked like: barbed wire and guard posts. Most of the time, I totally forget just how close we are to such a dangerous nation.

Well, after eating some questionable Mexican food in Hongdae we arrived back home feeling a bit weathered from our day of sightseeing. I'm looking forward to relaxing tonight before beginning my LAST WEEK AT PSA tomorrow, with a tall glass of North Korean beer- bought at the observation tower gift shop. I passed on the DMZ soap, but I'm quite interested to taste this beer. They don't sell that in the English Villagey cooler!