Brief Introduction

the Founder of the English Village, Principal Weng

Interview Time: from 10:30 to 12:00 noon on January 24, 2013
Interview Location: the principal's office in Ling Jhou Primary School

1. He is the principal of Ling Jhou Primary School, and the founder of Ling Jhou English Village in Kaohsiung.

2. He organized the opening ceremony for Ling Jhou English Village – Kaohsiung City English Carnival in 2008. He acquired recognition and appreciation for holding the event.

3. He has been advocating international education, and trying to build up students basic English abilities.

4. He strived to get various English resources for the school, such as English teachers from the Fulbright Grant in the U.S. A., international volunteers, and educational interns.

Interview Summary

Q: How did you establish the English Village?

In the hope of learning from others to enhance English teaching in Kaohsiung, I accompanied the director of Kaohsiung Education Bureau, Mr. Yinyao Cheng, to experience Anshan and Bozhou Englsih Villages in Korea in 2007. After returning from Korea, I invited professors from Wenzao Ursuline College of Languages, parents, English teachers, and relevant officers from the Kaohsiung Education Bureau to set up Ling Jhou English Village. We hoped to create a reality situation for students to learn English easily..

After taking on the task, we tried to fix the old South Building. We also included classrooms on the top floor that had been vacant for nearly a decade. Using the concept of color management, classrooms were divided into four areas and painted green, yellow, orange, and blue. In this way, the classrooms were converted into places such as a clinic, restaurant, cinema, gym, castle toys, maritime capital, village square, and an information center for students to learn English. Thus, the outline of the village was formed. The classrooms together became the first integrating English Village in Kaohsiung City.

I was most proud of the top floor of the South Building that had been idle for ten years. It became a popular supermarket. Through the creative transformation, our worry about classes taught on the top floor disappeared. The dangerous top floor was turned into the students’ most favorite maze. The main elements of the maze are two yurts. The green yurt was the theme pavilion of “Maritime Capital,” while the blue yurt was the “Global Village.” They connected our harbor city to the world.

Under the efforts of our teamwork, our experience led to the trend of English studying in our city. It also attracted the interests of the schools or organizations in other cities. Schools such as Fongshan Primary School, and Wufu Primary School in Kaohsiung, Jiabei Primary School in Jiayi City, Weige Private School in Taipei, and Tainan Education Bureau all came to our village to study, to exchange our experiences and knowledge mutually, and to encourage and criticize each others for making progress.

Looking back at the building process, I felt that the more than forty-year-old building was reborn after one-year-long planning, constructing, and operating. Not only did it make our campus vibrant, but it was the best location for teachers and students to learn English.

Q: Why was the English Village torn down?

It required a lot of people and money to run the Village. Each year, the Education Bureau has to budget more than 10 million NTD for transporting all of the 5th grade students in Kaohsiung to the Village. Besides, in addition to equipment, it also needs foreign teachers. The bureau must budget a lot of money to hire foreign teachers to teach at the Village, and on personnel management, too. But, in fact, it was unexpected that the Village was torn down. We hoped to rearrange our classrooms to relocate the Village, but there were irrecoverable problems with our old building because of the frequent earthquakes. For the students’ safety, we decided to tear down the old building. However, we kept all of the equipment and ornaments of the Village. We hope that there would be opportunities to use those again after the new building is completed.

Q: Would you please tell us what your expectation of the yurts was when they were moved to the coconut groves?

Before the yurts were lifted down by the crane, we had already known that their appearances were ruined. But they became our students’ good friends since they had existed in our school for five years. They are memorable, so I am very happy to learn that your team wants to restore the yurts. I hope that the yurts will become glamorous again by our strengths and brain power. I believe that your hard work will yield desirable results. Our yurts will be the best representatives for practicing environmental protection. Because of the yurts, our school and our community will be closely reunited again. I hope you will have fun and learn a lot. We are proud of you.

Reflections

Guanying

Though every primary student in Kaohsiung experiences learning at the English Village, I just learned today from the principal’s introduction that our English Village modeled after the Bozhou English Village in Korea. The intention of constructing an English Village was great. On one hand, it provided a good surrounding for students to learn English. On the other hand, it solved the problems of idle classrooms. It killed two birds with one stone.

Yishiang

It is unbelievable that it required so many people and money to build the English Village. I was surprised to hear from our principal that the Education Bureau must spend more than 10 million NTD for transportation to the Village. How expensive it is! The goal for student to master English cannot be reached easily and shortly. It also requires the government’s determination to keep up their policies.

Jinhan

Our principal showed us many photos of foreign teachers. Then I remembered that I met many of them. Because of the English Village, our school has the opportunity to have foreign teachers. We are very lucky.

Zhian

Our principal told us that to tear down the village is a big task. They had to move and store all of the valuable things first, so they can be reused after our new building is completed. Then, I found that tearing down building also required knowledge.

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