Paju Enlish Village

In Korea, August 15 is a National Holiday, for freedom and release from Japanese and any other country rule after the Korean War. There is a government holiday in March I believe, but Aug 15 is to celebrate the people from protesting and the uprising. So we did not have class today but offered a field trip to the students. 39 out or 48 students attended. We traveled to an English Village, 10+ years ago the government set up English Villages to help show the importance of learning English and teach people. It is used for tourism or field trips. You can take classes there and only speak English. The kids had a blast. As I was talking with Ms. Bang, the woman who drove me to the airport directly after the EV, I realized that that is one of the biggest factors in learning a language. Some of the kids really struggle with English, they only speak it in class, not at home, not with friends. Like me learning Spanish- though now I speak it at home or with friends, and I caught my self almost saying phrases to the kids like "ten cuidado" and what not... but at the English Village some of the kids were rather quiet and some really shown with their English. and Ms. Bang has a son in the class and she said she would like him to go to a English country to be fully immersed. Essie and Amanda, two of the assistants, have come to America before and are great at English because they were forced to use it. It makes a huge difference.

watching Ratatouille on the 1.5 hour bus ride there. The kids really got into it and were staring a the screen, I think partially so they could read the Korean subtitles. They all also opened their snacks and several shared with me, even the seaweed bars and fish. .........
first we had to go through Immigration, note- Stonehenge is on the right. This is the British English Village, all the architecture inside too in very European.
At the EV, the girls took a cooking or bear making class and the boys took a robot making class. And then all of them made stress balls... which were used as soccer balls once out of the classroom. Kids don't understand stress I guess. Here are the boys with their robots and the girls with their bears. Karla and I were not allowed in the classrooms, they said no adults allowed for some reason. But we did get to watch a really ridiculous musical about a Pumpkin Hero with them. and then help them in their last class- the stress ball making. A man from Australia and a woman taught that class. It would be fun to work here.