Eager learners: New participants of the Basic English Course (BEC) March intake.

Westerners planning a trip to Pare should pack patience and good humor before they visit the East Javanese town known as the English kampung.

Anyone with white skin, a long nose and who is taller than the locals is a mostwanted chat buddy in Pare, once an agricultural center of 18,000 people servicing the vast fertile plains around nearby Kediri.

Now Pare'€™s prime industry is teaching English, with conversation classes a main feature, but with whom?  Enter the prey '€” a strolling foreigner grazing the streetscape. The students salivate '€” who'€™ll leap first?

Most know the traditional '€œAllo Misterrrr'€ approach is ineffective so have refined their behavior.  The pack pounces; encounters are friendly but wearing, and there'€™s little escape. Welcome to Kampung Inggris (English Kampung).

'€œI don'€™t like the term [Kampung Inggris],'€ said Muhammad Kalend Osen, the man who started it all almost 37 years ago.

'€œIt suggests that everyone in the street speaks English and that'€™s not true.  I don'€™t want people disillusioned.  From the time I first started the Basic English Course [BEC] until the year 2000 there was just my school. Now see what'€™s happened.'€

On vacation: Students during an informal learning session.
At first glimpse, Pare seems a delight. More than 120 language institutions are offering a rijsttafel of courses to suit all learning tastes.

Across the road from BEC, alongside, behind and beyond, BEC'€™s rivals shout for business with gaudy banners and risible names.

London, Oxford and Cambridge get honorable mentions, but the Oscar contenders for the most pretentious have to be the UNESCO Course, Wall Street Academy and the Onthel Islamic Institute, named after an ancient bicycle.

At this point let'€™s take a reality check. In Pare, '€œcamp'€ means a single sex dormitory where English is supposed to be used 24/7.

Most students are in their early 20s wanting to better their English for work or higher study.  They heard about Pare from friends and the Internet, and most are venturing afar for the first time.

Some schools, like BEC, are strictly Islamic, enforcing moral and dress codes, particularly on women.  Despite this, the energy and excitement of thousands of young adults gives Pare a fun feel.

Management student Dwi Yandika Putra, 20, and his accountancy mate Muhammad Rifki Alhabib, 21, both from Jakarta though originally from Sumatra, freely admitted that meeting women was a major attraction.

'€œThe girls here are more prepared to open their hearts,'€ said Rifki.  '€œIt'€™s easier to get to know them. We can mix with people from all over Indonesia and make new friends.'€

Added Dwi: '€œPare is so refreshing after the chaos and pollution of Jakarta.  This is the real Indonesia.  The landscape is fantastic.'€

Indeed, but it also includes nearby Mount Kelud, which exploded last February, showering the town with a gritty grey sand that makes sidewalks slippery. Many choose to ride bikes, easily rented at Rp 70,000 (US$6) a month.

Several industries have sprouted to service student needs in Pare.  Facilities include boarding houses, laundries, photocopy kiosks, restaurants and coffee shops '€” though surprisingly few booksellers.

Pare isn'€™t a tourist town so has been spared the exploitation virus that infects places like Bali.  Food, transport and accommodation costs are genuine rural rates for inland Java. Students said it was easy to live well for Rp 1.5 million a month including tuition fees.

Demand for space to build new schools has boosted land values tenfold, according to Pare district head, Ahmad Wahyudiono.

'€œIn the holiday season we get up to 10,000 students,'€ he said. '€œSo many other industries have grown up to serve their needs '€” our economy has tripled. People now have work who were previously jobless.'€

'€” Photos by Duncan Graham