Day 346: The Sinister Hagwon

POLY School has an enemy, and that enemy is Gulmaek Hagwon which is directly across the street from us. 'Hagwon' is the Korean word for 'private English school academy' and once you've been here more than a week you pretty much adopt that word into your own vernacular.

Anyways, the schools have quite the rivalry going on just because the market for ESL students is really competitive these days, especially since the Korean economy has been in the shitter (and sliding deeper in) for the last couple of years. POLY School, luckily, has an awesome reputation and we actually have a waiting list of students who want to come study at our school. POLY is known as being a very prestigious academy where only the brightest of the bright go, and last year we were actually ranked the best hagwan chain in the country. So essentially, I work at the 'Harvard' of Korean English language schools. Pretty cool!

Well Gulmaek is also a pretty good school and so once a while they manage to 'steal' students away from us. (and the vice versa happens too.) It's always frustrating when this happens, and any loss makes you feel bitter. Gulmaek is the most evil of all hagwans. They're ginormous and have this dark industrial-looking exterior with tinted windows so you can't see what evil acts are taking place inside, and they don't hire foreign teachers at all, and have been known to actually send spies to our school library to try and sneak peeks at our much-coveted learning curriculam. Every time I look across the street at them it's like dark clouds move in over top with scary lightning bolts piercing their roof. I can practically hear their cackling... I swear they're doing experiments on aliens or serving puppies for lunch to the students or something! They're just So Evil!

Well I found out today that two of my brightest, most favourite students in my Grade 5-1 class are going to be lost to the Evil Gulmaekians! Their Moms have decided to switch schools, much to the disappointment of the girls who don't want to leave POLY. (Apparently Gulmaek offers math or something that we don't...whatever!) I was totally pissed when I heard this! Now, it's personal! How dare they steal away Agnes and Hayeon from me! Oooohhhhh..... That school is going down!!! I'm on a mission now to destroy them. Completely. I don't know how yet I'll accomplish this dire mission, but I must!

Watch out Gulmaek - your ass is grass!