7
American Hagwon
Renee promised not to get in the way, and she didn’t.
In Peter’s large lecture class, she sat in the back of the room and took notes.
After class, she insisted on paying for two of Fortress’s proprietary study guides, and while Peter taught his seminars, where her presence would be noticed, Renee solved practice problems in the teachers’ lounge.
The other tutors didn’t know what to make of the chic woman in the thin black turtleneck, brown leather pencil skirt, and narrow calf boots.
Valerie, an SAT tutor who worked on the weekends, stopped by Mido’s office. The skinny graduate student in a green hoodie and jeans fiddled with the straps of her gray knapsack while sipping coffee from a paper cup.
“The lady in the leather skirt. New tutor?”
“Peter’s mother,” Mido said.
Once told, Valerie could see the resemblance: the large, deep-set eyes, thick dark hair, and creamy complexion. Peter dressed so simply that it was hard to imagine such a rich-looking mother.
“Why is she doing practice tests?” Valerie asked.
“Good question.” Mido threw her hands up.
In the afternoon, Lion stopped by Fortress. Renee had now settled in Peter and Lion’s shared office and was doing reading comprehension passages.
“Thank you for the amazing dinner last night. I haven’t eaten so well in a long time,” Lion said.
“Does your wife cook?” Renee asked, her left hand resting on the open practice test, her right holding a pencil.
“Oh, yes, Yun is an excellent cook. Like her mother. She enjoyed the slice of cake I brought back.”
Renee smiled. “Mido mentioned that Yun’s family helped her family a great deal.”
“I think they helped each other.” Lion gathered the documents he needed from his desk.
“I was told that Mido has not finished college. Is that normal for hagwon work? In Korea, one cannot tutor at a hagwon like this one without a college degree,” Renee said.
“Mido is a special case. To be frank, we would not have hired her to be a tutor initially. She’s my wife’s childhood friend.
When we opened our first hagwon, we hired her to help us out with administrative things, then gradually we noticed that she was really good with young kids at Exodus—that’s our center in Cypress. ”
Renee nodded.
“She studied on her own and took practice SATs, and one day, she registered for it and got a perfect score on the first try. I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me because she was at the University of Sydney.
Like Peter, she’s strong in both English and math.
Normally I hire only college graduates or people with advanced degrees—teachers, graduate students, and people like Peter who come from creative fields.
We started her out with a small high school class in verbal, and the kids’ results improved dramatically.
Then when we started college counseling, her brother DH thought she’d be good with the personal essay sections of the applications.
So now she counsels kids for college applications and tutors SAT verbal. ”
“And I suppose she’s good at tutoring?” Renee glanced at the study guide.
“Her students routinely improve a hundred or even two hundred points, which is very hard to do. She gets them to do the work of critical reading and memorizing all those words. Her students have the best scores at Fortress. She could teach more sections if she wanted.”
“What’s her secret?”
Lion furrowed his brow. He knew she was digging for more information about her son’s girlfriend.
“Hard to say.”
“Try,” Renee prompted.
“She cares about them. I’ve come to believe that kids can’t learn unless they feel that you care about them.
Mido spends more time on each student than what’s required.
She writes them notes and gives each of them different things to read based on their personality and interests. The kids talk to her.”
“Ah, so the kids listen to her.”
“No. The kids talk to her, and she listens to them.”
Renee thought about that. Even the night before she had seen how carefully Mido paid attention to everyone.
“Does she need to finish college?”
“Not to have this job, as far as I’m concerned.”
“I see. I wish the students in Korea had a teacher like her,” Renee said.
“Well, our students are Korean,” Lion said. “They’re mostly American citizens but almost all are ethnically Korean.”
“I mean, the students in Korea. Not the Korean American ones here.”
“What do you mean?” Lion asked.
“Many students in Korea are anxious. They work all the time and hardly have time to breathe, let alone sleep. My friends’ children in international schools are under so much pressure. You should open a hagwon in Seoul. You could make millions.”
Lion frowned. “I don’t think so.”
“Why not? I can back you. You could have Fortress Seoul.”
“My kids need us here.”
“You can make more money there, especially with high school students.”
He looked down at his sneakers covered in dirt from a morning run.
Yun had once mentioned opening another location in Orange County, but he felt terrible about how unfair it was that some kids could afford to have great tutors like Peter and Mido, while others could never have them.
Fortress was not the most expensive hagwon in Irvine, but it wasn’t cheap, either.
It had never been Lion’s goal to get rich through teaching.
He’d taken it up in order to support his music and avoid being a burden to his family.
Somehow he’d become a famous hagwon owner and a part-time local musician.
He played several times a week, but he knew he’d never tour to promote the Zekes.
Every day he thought of the prospect of the baby, and it thrilled him to think of having a family with Yun.
What he had once yearned for had changed, and surprisingly, making his music second, third, or even fourth in his life didn’t bother him as much as he would have thought when he was younger.
“How much do the Fortress tutors make?” Renee asked.
Lion wasn’t sure. Yun knew the figures better than he did.
“Full-time, starting base salary is $65,000, but Peter and Mido make more. They do a lot of administrative work and college consulting, which is more lucrative. As of last year, Peter and Mido get a percentage of the net profits of Fortress. However, they know that the profits from Fortress also subsidize Exodus, which has a poorer population of newer immigrants. We can keep the fees at Exodus low because Fortress earns so much more.”
“You could charge more, then?” Renee appeared puzzled.
“I created Fortress because several parents asked me to open something like this for high school students in Irvine. Yun thought it would be a financial success, but I hadn’t realized how well-off the people are in Irvine and Newport Beach.
And now we depend on Fortress. Without its success, we’d have to change the fee structure of Exodus.
” Lion didn’t mind talking about the business model.
Often he wondered if what he was doing made sense to anyone else.
Peter had told his mother that Lion was a noble character like Robin Hood, wanting to take from the rich and give to the poor, but she hadn’t understood what he meant until now. Lion’s sincerity was evident, almost to the point of naivete.
“Aren’t you concerned about Korea?”
“What do you mean?”
“The children of Korea are suffering. From too much pressure. The middle- and upper-middle-class families want their kids to study abroad because there are limited spots in the top Korean schools, and in a global economy, candidates who have exposure to the West do better in the job market. If you opened a great hagwon in Seoul for Korean students who want to study in America, then maybe you can send more Korean kids to the US. There are so many incredible schools here, but most of the Koreans only know the Ivies. You can tell them about the other schools. Then more Koreans would have a chance to study here.”
“Is that a good thing? For more Korean kids to go to the US?” Lion didn’t know the answer himself.
“Also, wouldn’t I just be helping more rich kids get into the highly selective schools beyond Harvard, Yale, and Princeton?
International students usually don’t get financial aid, so we’d only be helping students who already have all the resources.
If we helped a student who didn’t have resources, then what do we do when he can’t pay the full tuition where he’s accepted? ” Lion shook his head.
“If you opened a Fortress in Seoul, then the money you raise there could help you expand Exodus in Cypress.
Then you can help more poor kids here. Or you can open an Exodus in Seoul, too.
What do you think? You can do both. I bet if you opened a college consulting hagwon in Seoul, then the profits from that company would fund at least another fifty kids at Exodus or maybe more.
“In fact, I can guarantee that with just a little word of mouth, you can get a hundred students in Seoul to apply immediately.”
“We already have students who fly from Korea just to work with Mido, which is so expensive. I mean, she’s great, but—”
“I have buildings in Daechi-dong and Apgujeong. You can have two floors in the same one as Eagle Academy, a hagwon Peter attended.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Because I was able to study in England and America. It changed my life. I always thought it would be great to create my own school which was more globally focused, but this could be a way to keep costs down since I’ll donate the space, and I can help with the visas and start-up capitalization.”
Lion didn’t say anything. He was thinking.
“You could help poor kids here or in Seoul with the profits.” Renee studied Lion’s face.
She knew people made deals if the offer aligned with their motivation.
Lion wanted to be fair in an unfair world.
Her grandfather had cared deeply about educating his children and the nation.
It had been a dream of his to build excellent schools.
Renee wanted to work with Lion, feeling certain that her brothers would help out through the company’s foundation.
“Think about it,” Renee said.
She left for New York on Tuesday morning.
Peter hadn’t been alone with Mido while his mother was staying with him. After work, she came over for dinner.
“I see you at work, but it’s nicer when you’re here,” he said. “I think you should move in.”
Mido shook her head, still smiling. “What? No. I don’t think so.” Her reply was to be expected. She still didn’t sleep over.
“Was it good to see your mom?”
“Yeah. Hey, my mother has this crazy plan. Did Lion tell you?”
Peter opened the refrigerator and scanned its contents.
“No, what is it?”
“She wants us to save Korean children.”
“Oh, is that all?”
“She wants Lion to open a Fortress and eventually an Exodus in Seoul. The same model, and we’d work there. She’s willing to back it for two years even if it doesn’t show a profit. I think the family foundation would support it. She just said not to worry.”
Mido sat down near the window.
“How many students?”
“You’re serious? You’d do it?” Peter pulled out glass containers from the freezer and set a pot of soup over the range to heat. He checked the rice cooker, which was full of steamed white rice with barley and mixed beans.
“If we could recruit good teachers and provide housing and excellent pay, then we could create a new kind of hagwon,” she said. “Where would it be?”
“She has a few buildings in Gangnam which we can use. Apparently there’s space in buildings in Apgujeong and Daechi-dong,” he said.
“My aunt lives in Apgujeong,” Mido said. “Can we have nice dorms for the tutors?”
“I guess.” He shrugged. “My cousin owns hotels, and some of them are higher-end gositels. I can’t imagine we’d need that many rooms. My mother has always wanted to start a school.
That’s why she backed Eagle Academy. She charges below market rent to the owner, Tom Song, partly because he’s her old friend, but also because she thinks Koreans should be exposed to Western education.
It would be easier to open a new kind of hagwon than start another international school. ”
Mido snapped open the tops of the side dish containers and set them on the table. Peter ladled soup into bowls.
“If Bo stays here with my father, then I could try it.”
“You can’t teach the students there because you don’t have a college degree, but you can train the tutors and manage the company, I guess?” Peter ate half of a pickled egg as he started to puzzle out what had seemed like an impossible idea until Mido took it seriously.
“Maybe if we did this, we can help more kids. Give out scholarships and lower the fees. We can train tutors to focus on customized learning. There are lots of college graduates and teachers who want to work in Korea.” Mido grew more excited at the idea of taking Fortress to Korea.
She felt like calling Yun to discuss it with her.
“I like it here. Don’t you?” Peter looked worried.
“Yes, I do. We wouldn’t go there forever.”
“Don’t kids need us here?”
“Yes, of course, but I think I’d like to try this. Maybe we can do something different, and somehow be more fair. I mean, unless you don’t want to do it. I wouldn’t do it without you,” she said.
Mido never forgot her primary school in Seoul, the callousness of Mr. Na and the kindness of Mrs. Lim, the endless amounts of school homework and hagwon exercises.
She had disliked the class ranking and corporal punishment.
Eagle Academy had made it possible for her to catch up to her peers.
She had never forgotten Sean Teacher: his handwritten notes of encouragement, how he sang “Danny Boy,” and their occasional field trips to museums and parks.
Of course, everything had been better because of Yun.
She had learned so many things during that brief period in Seoul.
Her classes in Sydney were far easier because she’d kept up with the strong students in Korea.
As a grown-up, Mido wanted to know more, and it sounded exciting to go back but this time as someone who could help.
“Mido,” Peter said, looking up at the ceiling thoughtfully, then facing her.
“So you won’t move in with me, but you’d be willing to go to Seoul to open an American hagwon.
I can’t imagine a country that needs private tutors less than Korea.
There are thousands and thousands of hagwons there.
A lot of them are really great ones. Korea is doing just fine without us. ”
“Yes, but theirs aren’t like ours. We could bring them what we’ve learned here, and we can learn there what we don’t know here. Maybe they don’t need us, but I want to try. It could be helpful.”
Peter leaned his head against his hand and considered everything the others had said—first his mother, then Lion, and now Mido. He didn’t know if this was a great idea, but it wasn’t a terrible one.