Another group of students from the same school arrived on July 2 and will be leaving on Saturday.
Sen Kim, international coordinator of Hotel Riviera Saipan which arranged the trip, said the second group of 40 students are also attending Northern Marianas College’s English class.
For three days this week, from Monday to Wednesday, the students conducted a cleanup on Beach Road.
“They walked from Oleai Beach in San Jose to Susupe Regional Beach Park to pick trash and on Wednesday they cleaned up the carnival ground in Garapan,” Kim said.
While on island, they snorkel, swim and join local NMC students on hikes, he said.
“We will organize a scuba club as soon as we’re back in Korea and we will visit Saipan again,” one of the students said.
An education administrator who is visiting the islands with the Korean students said: “Though I have visited the Philippines, New Zealand, Australia Guam, and many other places, Saipan is the best because it’s close to Korea and is a most appropriate place for students to go through a concentrated and substantial English language learning experience.”
The third group, consisting 32 freshmen with two teachers from a women’s high school in Seoul, has arrived on July 18 and will be leaving on Aug. 8.
Kim said the third group is also joining the “English camp” at Hotel Riviera.
This group will visit the Aging Center to entertain the manamko’, he said, adding that many other groups of Korean students are planning to visit Saipan for its English camp.
On August 4, he said they are expecting 16 students from the Korean Immanuel Church.
The fourth group will be staying on Saipan until Aug. 22.
Kim said the number of Korean students visiting Saipan to study English will help stimulate the economic activities on island.
“Even though the economy in Saipan is poor now it’s good that the island is absorbing at least one-tenth of Korean students who go are going to abroad to study in English. This will help the economic condition of Saipan,” he said.
He said Saipan is now becoming the new destination for Koreans who want to learn English.
He noted that tens of thousands of Korean students visit Australia, the Philippines or New Zealand to study the English language.
“Many students from Korea as well as Taiwan, China, Japan, Russia and Europe will also visit Saipan to learn English,” Kim said.
U.S. immigration law allows Korean students with a tourist visa to take courses with more than 15 hours a week of formal English studies, he added.
He said Korean students feel comfortable learning English by speaking it with those who know the language.