▲ The Korean Hagwon / Director Ria Kim

If you do not have problems reading and writing Korean at a young age, you often do not pay much attention to it anymore. But compared to other subjects, Korean is a subject that requires a solid foundation. Instead of simply reading and memorizing texts, you should develop the ability to interpret and utilize this ability. 

One on one teaching and test helps students achieve their best!

The Korean Hagwon helps students improve their Korean language skills through individualized programs. (hagwon: a Korean term for a for-profit private educational institution.) Director Ria Kim has been running Korean language tutoring in Suyeong-gu, Busan for more than 15 years since she was in graduate school, focusing mainly on special purpose high schools and private high schools located in Busan, especially the top class, such as those who ranked first in the school and had perfect scores on the CSAT. As she gained the experience and know-how needed to educate top students, she naturally produced results that allowed her students to achieve perfect scores in the Korean language. As a result, she has become known as a study center for top students in Busan and beyond. “As I taught the top students, it became a large hagwon with more than 80 students, and they would come from other areas such as Pohang, Ulsan, and Changwon, not just Busan. I don’t assign textbooks to students when they come in, even if they have the same grades. Some students have poor non-literary skills and others good literary skills, so it becomes more apparent as you go to the top of the class” says Kim. Therefore, new students are given 8 starter pack lessons using algorithmic teaching materials to identify their academic characteristics, and then they are given a program that is tailored to their needs, so that they can improve their weaknesses. 

Maximizing reading comprehension!

The Korean Hagwon offers individual lessons through a customized program. It can be used to determine a student’s personality, thought process, and level of learning, to design curriculum, and to help students learn efficiently and independently. The lessons are not just about reading a commentary, but helping students learn to think for themself. The questions on the language test can be broadly categorized into vocabulary, grammar, literature, and non-literature. Students can be weak in any of these areas, but many students are particularly weak in non-literature. This is because non-literary texts often describe unfamiliar and difficult concepts. Therefore, The Korean Hagwon emphasizes reading comprehension and helps students develop proficiency in all areas of the language, including non-literature. Reading comprehension especially is its know-how for developing information processing skills to read text, summarize and analyze the information they need. It has its own non-literary program to improve vocabulary and factual, structural, and logical comprehension skills. Through this, students learn how to read properly, reduce the time they spend reading paragraphs, and increase their understanding of the questions. 

Following each student closely!

The Korean Hagwon devises the optimal study plan for each exam and follows up closely with students to ensure that they follow through. To this end, it runs a chat room where parents, teachers, and students gather to share test results and individual student statuses. Teachers are given work phones so they can keep their personal and professional lives separate. They write test analyses before and after exams to identify students’ weaknesses while also drawing out their strengths, which can help them improve their performance on the next test. Teachers hold regular consultations with students to discuss grades, career paths, regular admissions, and rolling admissions, and suggest optimal goals for students. 

Help them make their dream come true!

The Korean Hagwon operates The, Place, which serves as an independent bookstore, a publishing and a creative space. Along with classes, the school runs an online and offline habit project, the 21 DAY Challenge, and The, Korean Language Magazine, which provides students with practical educational information, and The, Place, which allows students to read and study at the same time. “There are many book-making programs nowadays, and there is a difference between a child who has made a book with a diary and a child who hasn’t, so we think that it can create a new experience for students” says Kim. It plans to help students start publishing their own books later this year, and will organize book discussion groups, poetry writing groups, and photo exhibitions to give students a variety of experiences. Through this, The Korean Hagwon has grown beyond being a Korean hagwon to become a space that provides a wide range of opportunities for students in Busan.