English Village

Here in Taiwan, they have a lovely little thing called English Village. They exist in a series of re-envisioned and rebuilt classrooms in elementary schools, each room newly designed as a weather station, an airplane, a convenience stores, a restaurant. They exist all over the country, and serve as their host schools pride and joy.

In previous years, Kaohsiung ETAs worked in them; Yilan ETAs still do. To work there is to lead the small groups of kids who come from all over through the labyrinthine hallways, instructing them to speak only English and helping them practice it in practical situations. For the teachers, that means repeating the same lesson over and over and over and over and... let's just say I'm glad it's not in my job description.

So why am I mentioning it, you ask? Well, because today, I went. Or, rather, the Qingshan 5th graders went and I tagged along. After a long, drawn-out and WET (it was pouring) process of finding Wufu English Village that ended in a kindly staff person taking pity on the clearly lost foreigner and the discovery that Patty's phone is broken, I was led into the Weather room with a group of my 5th graders.

After that, it was the airport...

The "airplane!" Pretty cool, really...

Flight attendants...

And a captain!

...also, a bathroom. LOVE that they included that.

...and then a break wherein I was introduced to Darren, their token foreign teacher from Canada, and Barry, "the military guy," as he termed himself. Then we went to Darren's "class," the faux-fast food restaurant, where we discovered that he is the EPITOME of an otter and loves to sing Adele's "Someone Like You" in a high falsetto, then to the convenience store, where I was dismayed to see "cup water" on the list of drink options. Oh, well. At least they had English newspapers on the walls that I could read to distract myself!

American prices! With decimals and everything!!

Darren the cashier

Of course there was a convenience store!

 It was an interesting day to see how English Village works--and a day which confirmed my happiness not to be working at one every day. It was fun for a day trip, though!