While many people are planning to spend some time at a beach or in the mountain to escape from the summer heat, students are busy learning how to speak English at a four-week intensive course offered by the Ansan English Village, the first such facility in Korea, during their vacation. A similar course was run during last winter vacation. 

The “English camp” is provided by the Gyeonggi English Culture Foundation as an alternate program for those who wish to take a short language learning course in an English speaking country. The rate of twenty-four applicants for every position offered showed how much students and their parents were interested in the course. 

For the course that was started on the 25th of last month, the provincial office paid half of the expenses to help reduce the students’ burden, in addition to giving the advantage of free participation in the program to forty students from low-income households, including those of the We Start Village, which is a program for provision of support for less-privileged children. 

The curriculum is designed to help students feel curiosity and the sense of tense as if they were in a foreign country, while encouraging them to find it interesting to express themselves in English and have no fear about talking with foreigners, according to an official there. 

First of all, classes are organized in a unique way. Students are divided according to their specialty, i.e. music, science, robotics, etc. Each class consists of ten students. First-hand experience activities, night activities, festival, and presentations are carried out for each “house” consisting of 40 students. 

Through such house activities, students participate in discussions and presentations and carry out English-speaking projects assigned for each house. Thus, they are encouraged to learn how to cooperate with others, feel the sense of responsibility and be engaged in good-natured competitions with other houses, in addition to learning how to speak English. 

The two hundred students are divided into five houses named Zulu, Navajo, Aztec, Headhunter, and Celtic, getting a hint from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry dormitories Gryffindor and Ravenclow in the Harry Potter series. 

This coming Sunday, the youngsters’ parents are allowed to visit the camp to meet their loving children after two weeks’ absence. Though they have been in touch with their parents via the Internet or phone, students are looking forward to the parents’ visit. The parents will also look around the classrooms, dormitory and other camp facilities. 

After finishing the four-week course on August 19, the students will return home on the buses provided by the Gyeonggi English Culture Foundation. 

For inquiries, please call the Foundation (031-223-5614).