Min Jin Lee Wants Us to Rethink Education
The Book Review

Min Jin Lee Wants Us to Rethink Education

B2Upper-intermediateOctober 9, 202656 min
  • Interview
  • Arts & culture

For Min Jin Lee, the process of writing fiction usually begins with a deep dive into reality. She spends years researching, traveling and interviewing people. That process underscored her belief that education was a common and central value for Koreans in diaspora. But it was also a complicated value, one that often resulted in extreme competitiveness and impossible expectations. In her new novel, “American Hagwon,” she tells the story of the Kohs, a middle-class family of five. The parents are fixated on attaining the best possible education for their children, thinking it will guarantee success and...

Play episode

Opens the player: the full transcript, every word clickable, with translation and flashcards.

Try it: tap any word

Real sentences from the start of this episode. Every word is marked with its level.

Sentence 1 of 12 · 0:00

, .

And I'm Joe Cascarelli, a culture reporter at The Times.

Hear this sentence

Tap a word to see its meaning in your language.

Do you know these words?

8 harder words from this episode. Tap one to see what it means, then mark it.

  • B21:55
  • B28:15
  • B219:27
  • B222:26
  • C135:42
  • C137:40
  • C149:53
  • C155:29

Mark a few words and we'll tell you how this episode fits your level.

Is this episode right for you?

B2

B2 · Upper-intermediate

Comfortable if you already follow TV news

A1 36%A2 29%B1 20%B2 13%C1 2%
  • 85% of the words are B1 or easier.
  • 165 words a minute: natural, fairly fast speech.
  • 170 harder words (B2 and up) in the whole episode.

Transcript

The opening of the episode. The whole transcript is in the player.

0:00

I'm John Karamanaka, a critic at The New York Times. And I'm Joe Cascarelli, a culture reporter at The Times. Together we host Popcast, a weekly pop culture chat show where we speak to the biggest musicians, actors, internet celebrities, and more.

0:12

We've had Bad Bunny, Olivia Rodrigo, and Anne Hathaway. We've also hosted live performances with Andre 3000 and Erika Badu. Plus, we end every conversation with a snack. Catch new episodes of Popcast every week on YouTube.

0:24

And anywhere you get your podcasts. I wanted to illustrate what it's like to educate a family and still believe that if you have a Western education, then you're going to be safe. When actually there are economic shocks which happen to perfectly decent people every day,

That was the opening. The rest of the episode (56 min) is in the player: every word clickable, with translation, saved words and flashcards.

Continue in the player

Automatically generated from the audio. May contain errors. Audio belongs to its publisher and is played from their feed. Rights holders can request removal — copyright & takedown policy