In this episode of Lunch Hour English, host Speaker B interviews Jem, a Hawaiian‑born English teacher who has lived in Korea for over a decade and runs her own English academy in Sinchon, Hongdae. Jem shares the practical challenges of opening and operating a private hagwon— from interior design to classroom layout— and explains her conversation‑focused, feedback‑rich teaching philosophy that prioritizes speaking time over textbook drills. She offers concrete advice for parents who want to support their children’s English learning even if they are not fluent themselves, emphasizing environmental exposure and tailoring methods to each child’s learning style. Jem describes the "One Parent, One Language" approach she uses at home with her multiracial children, recounts the developmental timeline of bilingual language acquisition, and reflects on the cultural differences between Korean and U.S. education systems, particularly the Korean emphasis on memorization versus the U.S. focus on creativity. Throughout, she highlights the growing multicultural acceptance in Korea and expresses a balanced view on future schooling choices for her kids, advocating for personal expression over test‑driven assessment.
Chapters
You might have heard there's like a few techniques for how to raise bilingual children. Even if you are not fluent in English, don't worry about that. Suddenly they can distinguish which one is English, which one is Korean.
Welcome back to Lunch Hour English. Today I am at a Chinese-Korean restaurant and we've got all kinds of delicious food in front of us here. Jajang, jjamppong, tangsuyuk, all of the Korean classics. I'm excited to dig in, but first I will introduce you to my very special guest today. This is my friend Jem. So will you introduce yourself?
Hi there everybody, I'm Jem. I'm from Hawaii in the USA. I've been living in Korea over 10 years.
Yeah, a long time.
And I'm currently working as an English teacher also, and I'm running my own English academy in Sinchon.
You're a boss babe.
I'm a boss babe, trying my best. But I'm a big fan of Jeonbong here, so I got this one. But Jajangmyeon, you know, tangsuyuk, all of them, I'm a big fan.
I don't think I've I've never had Chinese food this early or this sober. So you ready to dig in? So you mentioned that you're running a hagwon in Hongdae.
Yeah.
Can you tell me a little bit more about that? It is a big accomplishment. So how was it like opening a business in Korea and what brought you to do that?
I have actually been running this academy for 10 years, as long as I've been here. Yes.
I didn't realize that. I mean, for me as a foreigner in Korea, like thinking the prospect of opening your own business here, it's kind of scary in the beginning.
It's a lot of trial and error, and there were things that I didn't think of— interior design and space and the size of a classroom and the distance between me and the student. There are a lot of little aspects that you really need to consider when you open the business or open a kind of study space.
That's amazing though.
Thanks. For me, you know, teaching has kind of always been my passion. Before, I was kind of doing here, there lessons but I kind of wanted to teach with my own philosophy, which is kind of giving feedback to students. A lot of times people go to academies and they sit down with a book, but I think that's really not as helpful as actually engaging in conversation. So I like to do a lot of conversation and feedback-based activities. I just want to make sure that they have as much talking time as possible because a lot of people, they, they speak in English and they're afraid of making mistakes, and even if they make a mistake when nobody tells them, and then you might end up making the same mistake again. So I just try to help them out, tell them gently, and after that they feel a little bit more confident. Because even if we study it all day with a book, when you come face to face— hey—
it's so different, right?
You freeze up.
I think confidence is key actually when it comes to learning a new language. So that's really great.
Yeah, I actually also teach moms and kids together. Mom can also learn from ABCD. It is totally okay.
So actually a lot of our viewers are in that kind of situation. So we have a lot of moms who are teaching their kids English. Maybe they're not totally fluent, but they want to help their kid learn English. So do you have any advice for parents out there? How can they help their kid get more fluent in English?
Yeah, two things really come to mind. The first thing is, even if you, the mother, are not fluent in English and you're afraid that if I teach them the wrong thing, they're going to learn the wrong thing, don't worry about that. Just introduce Introducing it into the environment, making it comfortable, is a really good idea. And I would say the second one is just acknowledge your own child's learning style. Not every kid can look at the book, write down 100 words. If your kid loves music, try introducing songs. If your kid loves exercising, dancing, move your arms, anything like that. Just kind of recognize what is the way that your own child can kind of absorb this information the best.
That's really good advice because I agree, everyone learns differently. Totally. So I love that it's a very like personalized approach. You doing this on top of being a mom.
Oh yes, I also have my own kids.
Wow, how old are your kids?
So my oldest is, uh, I have a daughter, she is 8 years old, uh, international age, and she is in the 2nd grade of elementary school. And my youngest, my son, he's 5 and he is in kindergarten.
Aww, that's so sweet. Do they go to regular Korean school? Yeah, they go to just regular Korean Korean kindergarten, regular Korean elementary school. How's their experience with that?
For my daughter, at first she said she had a hard time with actually Korean letters. However, you know, after about 2 or 3 months, they really teach it a lot in school. She's very good at it now. And for my son, Chu, getting along with his classmates. As a mother of multiracial kids, my husband is Korean, so my children are mixed. I was worried, like, are they gonna fit in? Nobody really cares. So, well, actually Korea is also becoming more multicultural. She's not the only one. Yeah, so there are more. They blend pretty well. The kids play very well during class time.
That's good. They speak all Korean.
All Korean, all the time.
So I'm curious, do you speak English with them at home or do you speak Korean with them?
You might have heard there's like a few techniques for how to raise bilingual children. And we adapt one technique which is called "One Parent, One Language," where each parent chooses their native language to use to the child. So I only speak English and my husband only uses Korean. When we're together, it does sound funny, but the children will respond to me in English and respond to their father in Korean. And even funnier, sometimes they will translate between us. We can understand, but they will actually translate between us.
That's so cute.
Some people do the environmental method, like all English at home, all Korean outside.
Wow, for them to be learning two languages at such a young age, that's such a big advantage for their future, I think.
It's amazing to see the actual process myself from being a baby up to this age. I can see that exactly right around 3 and a half years old is where the languages start to blend. And they get confused, but then they have this like burst of language and suddenly they can distinguish which one is English, which one is Korean. It's really cool.
That would be really interesting, the progression.
Yes, yes.
I don't know if this is true, but I've heard that like bilingual kids are taking a little bit longer to start like speaking more. Do you find that true?
I think you're totally right, and I was also panicking too because up to 8 18 months, right? I'm like, why are they not talking? But after 18 months, boom, suddenly they can speak 2 languages. So the development was slower, but then it came all at once, and then can't stop talking, can suddenly use high-level words. Where did you hear that? That's for the moms too. If they're thinking, oh, my kid's not learning English fast enough— no, no, they're processing. They probably know it, they're just not showing you.
So your kids go to school here in Korea. Before sending them to school here in Korea, do you like have any concerns, or did you consider sending them to American schools?
Yeah, absolutely. I, I worried a lot about, you know, they're very strict here in Korea about the studying style is kind of repeat, memorize, repeat, memorize, do everything quickly, um, kind of about just getting the right answer, whereas in the US they tend to focus more on expressing your creativity. And if you answer the question logically, like if you can prove why you chose this answer, then the teacher will give you a good score. So I think this was the huge difference I worried about.
Okay. Do you see your kids staying in Korea through college even?
I think ultimately I'll give them the choice when they're old enough to make their own decision, but But I'm, as a teacher, I'm not a huge fan of the cramming and test-taking culture because I do believe that some people can be very smart, but not everybody is good at taking a test. So I don't believe tests are the best way to judge somebody's intelligence. I do want them to be able to express themselves more. So, but in the end, I'm going to let it be their decision.
Jen, thank you so much for joining me today. I learned so much from you and your teaching method. I do have kids in the future. I know who I'll be sending them to.
Oh, this is sweet. Well, thank you so much for inviting me, and thank you. This was delicious, and I'm so full, and it's amazing lunch hour English with you. So thank you so much. Come back anytime.
I enjoyed it so much. Thank you everybody for joining us for lunch today. Please make sure to subscribe to our channel. Also check out the pinned comment below, and I will see you next time.
