What does “hagwon” mean in Korean?

A 학원 is not a school. It is a private academy you pay for and attend after school or after work, and it can teach anything: English, maths, piano, taekwondo, driving. Most Korean children attend several. The hanja are 學院, “study institute,” and the whole industry around it — evening classes, exam strategy, tutoring districts — goes by the name 사교육, private education.

The clip is an admissions specialist describing how the parents of high-achieving children choose: they will send a child to a 학원 nobody else uses if it suits that child, and they change the schedule without hesitating. Two words that travel with it: 학원가, a neighbourhood packed with academies (Daechi-dong in Seoul is the famous one), and 입시, the entrance-exam process the whole system aims at.