'English villages' facing closure

By Kim Bo-eun

“English villages” across the nation, which were popular in the mid-2000s as venues for English language immersion camps for students, are now facing closure due to a lack of demand.

Several of the villages have already closed after snowballing operating losses and other debt-ridden ones are transforming themselves into more diversified training facilities.

The English villages in Paju and Yangpyeong in Gyeonggi Province signed deals with the Ministry of Education and the Korea Foundation for the Advancement of Science and Creativity last month to change into training institutes.

The nation’s first English village in Ansan, also in Gyeonggi Province, closed in December 2012 due to deficits.

With the Gyeonggi Provincial Government initiating the boom in 2004, local governments established the villages to help parents save money they had been spending on overseas language programs for their children.

The exotically-decorated villages became hugely popular, with dozens more being set up nationwide. At their peak, there were 10 facilities in Gyeonggi Province alone and 50 facilities around the country.

However, their popularity soon faded, with doubts about the effectiveness of English learning at the villages where students stay only for several days or weeks.

Gyeonggi Province invested 170 billion won into building the first three facilities in Ansan, Paju and Yangpyeong, but the Paju village alone has a 20 billion won deficit.

Critics say local governments wasted taxpayers’ money as the facilities were built without a long-term outlook for demand.

A 2012 report from the National Assembly shows 10 of 22 villages run by local governments had deficits, with several being sustained by support funds.

In April, three English villages in Seoul were found to be earning money by offering lessons for English proficiency tests such as TOEIC and renting the facilities for non-educational events, which was in violation of regulations.The operators of the facilities said they did so to make up for growing deficits.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government had put some 80 billion won into building the facilities and had handed over operations to private entities, but is now looking to change them into non-specific training institutes.

In Daejeon, a district office opened an English village in 2008 and had a private company run it on commission, but the company quit in 2014 due to losses. After failing to find a successor the district office put the site up for sale, but has yet to find a buyer.