Busan Mayor Hur Nam-sik has a strong conviction that Busan Global Village, an English immersion camp in the southeastern port city, will grow into the country’s representative English education hub.

For the last two years since its opening in 2009, BGV has garnered great recognition from locals as well as some from outside the city for its high-quality, yet low-cost language learning programs.

While watching students of various ages taking quality English lessons at BGV, Hur feels happier than anyone else as he was the very one who supported its establishment on the site of a shutdown school from the very beginning.

“I will develop this camp into a top-of-the-line English training center. I will not rest on this small success, but will try to develop it into one that would go beyond Busan and represent the entire nation,” Hur told The Korea Herald.

“BGV has now just started. I appeal to you to show your interest in and affection to this camp so that it can become a crucial center to nurture young global talents.

BGV was established on July 3, 2009, with a goal of providing a low-cost alternative to language learning overseas. Commissioned by the metropolitan government, a consortium of Herald Media and Korea New Network operate the institution.

Located in the center of the nation’s second largest city, it seeks to help students learn both the language and the culture of English-speaking countries. Built on an 18,718 square meter plot, BGV houses a variety of imitation facilities ― an airport, shopping mall, bank, hotel, post office, bus stop and police station.

“We will expand chances for young students and other citizens to learn English. Through this, we will nurture global leaders,” he said. “By connecting this center to public education, we will motivate students to learn English and help reduce their costs for private English education.

He stressed that BGV has sought to enhance public English education while at the same time it tried to stand on its own financially through a variety of profit-generating projects.

The primary objective of the village is to offer chances for students to personally contact native speakers of English and learn their language as well as their culture. Through this, he said, students will be able to enhance their self-confidence in their language acquisition process.

In the initial stage of its operation, BGV has focused on providing chances to experience the language to as many students as possible rather than offering specialized programs to a small number of students.

For more enhanced English education, BGV plans to introduce the curriculum of a Canadian international school that includes in-depth language comprehension programs such as debates in English on a variety of issues.

Hur also said that he will try harder to develop English education content so that students can experience more of the language in diverse situations as if they were studying in English-speaking countries.

He has another ambitious plan to develop BGV into a cultural experience center.

“It is not simply a place where people experience English. We will also hold flea markets or events, such as making kimchi so that foreigners can understand multiculturalism and BGV can play a venue for cultural exchanges as well,” he said. 

By Song Sang-ho (sshluck@heraldcorp.com)