[Student Reporters] Korean Students Hate Hakwons? Not So True.

Yoona Lee / <10th, Milton Academy>

Korean students are not always happy about private institutions called hakwons. They think it‘s too expensive and that there’s too much homework. Also, they don‘t like the fact that hakwons make them stay until midnight.

However, when they go to study in foreign country and the opportunity finally comes to escape from hakwons, students choose to continue their private tutoring. Seowon Oh, a sophomore from Milton Academy MA, goes out to Boston for private tutoring for AP chemistry every Saturday. After she solves the practice problems, her teacher grades them and shows her how to solve the ones she got wrong or doesn’t know. She leaves her dorm at 11:00AM and returns at 8:00PM, sometimes even as late as 9:00.

Some people might be shocked that she spends her precious Saturday weekend studying; however, for Seowon who has been going to private institutions called hakwons in Korea, she isn‘t that stressed about her commitment. “I’ve been attending Korean public school since 5th grade ever since I came back from America, and Koreans who attend public schools are usually used to going to hakwons,” she says. In Korea, some students attend up to three hakwons after school. Sometimes, the institutions force students to stay until past midnight or for more than five hours.

Even though Seowon has experienced all these, surprisingly, she does not think negatively of hakwons. She even goes back to Korea every vacation to attend them. “I need to go to hakwons because I don‘t work well by myself. Also, I procrastinate a lot, and I find the teachers hard to approach,” says Seowon, “The way I think is probably because I am Korean. As Korean, I care more about grades and standardized tests. If I were American, I think the situation would’ve been a lot different.”

Also from Korean public school, Min Song, another Korean International student from McCallie School agrees with Seowon. He says, “Of course hakwon‘s are not that necessary, but it is positively sure that they higher your grades, especially since public education is horrible in korea. And everybody goes to hakwons, which eventually makes hakwons essential to the students in korea.”

However, it seems like generally only Koreans from public school agree with Seowon’s and Minsong‘s ideas. Most of Korean-American students and those from international schools think private tutoring is useless. Their idea of private tutoring is limited to taking lessons for music or art. Esther Kim, who is a sophomore at Milton Academy, attended KIS before she came to Milton. She says, “Why do I need to go to hakwons when I can just ask the school teachers for help? Well, I might need one to study for standardized tests, but even then, I don’t want to get private lessons during school.”

Despite the differences in opinions, they both agree that Americans take private tutoring least seriously. An interview with one of the Milton Academy students exemplified this fact. Yael Acker-Krzywicki says, “Private tutoring? I never really thought about that. I‘ll do it if I need it. But I don’t think I‘ll need it.”

In conclusion, the fact that Korean students rely on hakwons even while they’re in foreign countries indicate that the ministry of education‘s plan to reduce private tutoring in Korea is going to be difficult. It seems that hakwons have already penetrated too deeply into Korean education.