Novelist Min Jin Lee (‘Pachinko’) Has Something to Teach Us

The pursuit of a better life through education is increasingly undermined by shifting economic realities and systemic insecurity. Bestselling author Min Jin Lee argues that the traditional promise—that studying hard and following the rules leads to success—no longer holds as global financial forces and corporate instability render former social contracts obsolete. Hagwons, South Korea’s private learning centers, represent a desperate, sacrificial response to this uncertainty, functioning as an "ethnic solution" to state-level educational failures. Beyond the classroom, the conversation highlights the necessity of prioritizing the "important over the urgent" when navigating personal trauma, professional rejection, and the pervasive anxiety of the modern age. By examining the Koh family’s trajectory in *American Hagwon*, Lee underscores the need to move beyond toxic stereotypes and recognize that true security requires a holistic, empathetic understanding of human potential in an unpredictable world.