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Min Jin Lee’s warning is about what exams can do when they become gates to stability and opportunity: they sort people’s hopes according to criteria that those people may have little power to shape. In a Hindustan Times interview published October 2, 2026, the author of American Hagwon argues that this can be tragic without making parents who seek educational advantages villains—or learning centres inherently bad.
What does Lee mean by “the filtering of human hopes”?
Lee describes people wanting stability, useful work, and a chance to build a better life. Exams can serve institutions as efficient ways to select candidates, but a selection process also decides who gets access to the opportunities that may provide those things. Her concern is the human cost when people’s futures are narrowed by a filter they do not control.
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“But this filtering of human beings, human lives, and human hopes through exams is so tragic because what people want is stability; they want to feel useful; they want to work.”
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That is Lee’s interpretation of the pressures surrounding education and selection, not a claim that every exam has the same purpose or effect. The point is not that assessment itself is always unjust; it is that an exam can carry consequences far beyond measuring what someone knows when access to work, status, or further education depends on its results.
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Why is a hagwon central to American Hagwon?
“Hagwon” is a Korean word for a learning centre. Lee calls it the organizing metaphor for her novel, using it to consider both formal education and the private or “shadow” learning that grows around it.
“The hagwon, which is the Korean word for learning centre, was my organising metaphor for all this.”
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- NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST * A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW TOP TEN OF THE YEAR * NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2017 *A USA TODAY TOP TEN OF 2017
- Roxane Gay's Favorite Book of 2017, Washington Post
- NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * #1 BOSTON GLOBE BESTSELLER * USA TODAY BESTSELLER
- In this gorgeous, page-turning saga, four generations of a poor Korean immigrant family fight to control their destiny in 20th-century Japan, exiled from a home they never knew.
In the Hindustan Times interview, Lee describes learning centres as tracking formal learning while also reflecting what families can afford. She does not reduce them to a simple moral category: the role they play depends on the needs and feelings of the people involved. The question is therefore not just whether a centre is good or bad, but why families feel they need it and how unequal resources shape the choices available to them.
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In a July 19, 2026, New Yorker interview, Lee discusses the Suneung, South Korea’s university-entrance examination. She describes it as a rite of passage for students seeking a four-year college and the primary path for regular admissions, while noting that other routes exist.
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Lee distinguishes the pressure to reach highly selective schools from the idea that the exam is impossible for everyone. That distinction matters: a system can be navigable in general and still feel intensely consequential for students competing for a limited set of highly prized places.
The Suneung should not be treated as interchangeable with US SAT or ACT testing, civil-service exams, or all hagwon study. These serve different purposes and operate in different settings. The interviews offer a way to think about exams and access, not a systematic comparison of the Korean and US education systems.
Why does Lee emphasize sympathy for parents and children?
Lee’s critique does not blame families for trying to secure a better future. She says she has sympathy for both parents and children: their decisions take shape amid social expectations, family finances, economic shocks, migration, and uneven access to opportunity.
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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesThat framing shifts attention from individual choices to the pressures around them. A parent may seek extra instruction not because they are indifferent to a child’s well-being, but because they believe it is necessary to keep a future option open. A child may experience the same effort as a heavy burden. Lee’s point is to hold both realities in view rather than flatten the story into a verdict on ambitious parenting.
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- Min Jin Lee (Author), Lee Mijung (Translator)
- 구상부터 탈고까지 30년이 걸린 대작! 차별받는 이민자의 투쟁적 삶을 일제강점기에서부터 장장 80년에 걸쳐 그려낸 재일 한국인의 가슴 아픈 역사!
- ‘역사가 우리를 망쳐 놨지만 그래도 상관없다.’ - 어디에도 속하지 못했던 자이니치들의 도전과 생존의 역사 《파친코》
- 운명을 예측할 수 없는 도박 같은 재일교포의 삶. 발버둥 쳐도 헤어날 수 없는 ‘인생’이라는 이름의 굴레. 진솔한 서사와 치열한 작가 정신의 승리.
What does Lee offer as an antidote to disappointment?
Lee points to relationships: friendships and kinship that help people live through setbacks and uncertainty. She told Hindustan Times:
“If you don’t have good friendships, good kinship with family members, it’s difficult to accept all the disappointments along the way.”
The New Yorker describes American Hagwon as a novel about family, modern parenting, education, and global economic shocks. Taken together, the interviews place bonds between people alongside the pressure to achieve: relationships do not remove the systems or disappointments, but they can make those disappointments bearable.
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