Star educator, who built business empire Hansaem, dies

By Kang Hyun-kyung

Seo Yong-ung, a star educator who assembled quite a fortune in the 1980s through his business empire Hansaem named after his nickname, died on Monday of a chronic ailment. He was 75.

He lost his wealth in the 2000s as a result of the downfall of his education business. His unsuccessful bid for re-election in 2000 as a lawmaker also played a part in the fall of his business.

Seo was the epitome of Korea's education fever.

In the 1980s and 1990s, he was an unrivaled star in Korean literature courses offered by his for-profit education institute aiming to help students enter university.

He was famous for his unique teaching technique “highlight and underline it,” a phrase he uttered during his lecture whenever he found keywords or key phrases that his students must memorize to earn good scores in Korean literature on the scholastic aptitude test.

He is the author of the bestselling Hansaem Korean reference book series. They became must-have items for all students.

Due to the phenomenal success of the reference book series, Seo was oftentimes compared to Hong Sung-dae, the author of mathematics reference book series “Jeong-sok” and now founder and president of educational foundation Sangsan in the southwestern city of Jeonju.

Seo and Hong were neck and neck in their influence among students at that time. Both Hansaem and the Jeong-sok series were regarded as essential reading for students preparing for the college entrance exam in the 1980s and 1990s.

After graduating from Seoul National University in 1969, Seo began his career as a high school teacher. In 1978, after spending a decade as a Korean literature teacher at high schools in Incheon, he joined the private education industry as a high-paid educator.

Seo's success is largely related to Korea's education boom.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Korea was different from what it is now. Today, many are convinced that their success depends largely on inherited wealth as shown in the popular “spoon theory,” rather than personal efforts to climb the social status.

Back in the 1980s, however, education was widely seen as a shortcut for success and people's success in their careers was thought to be determined by which university they attended.

Unlike today when people who were born with a silver spoon in their mouth are regarded as having more chances to succeed, “creek dragons” ― referring to those who rose from humble family backgrounds ― were praised in the 1980s and 1990s.

Accordingly, people were desperate to enter prestigious universities and some chose to have a gap year to retake the college entrance exam to earn scores high enough to qualify for top universities. A private education boom has followed.

Seo's rise as a star educator came against this backdrop.

Those who sought second or third chances to enter the top-tiered schools enrolled in private academy courses to better prepare for the college exam. At that time, the ratio of the combined score of three subjects ― Korean, English and mathematics ― took the lion's share of their total scores. Admission to the top-tiered universities hinged on their scores in the three subjects.

Star educators were born. In the Korean course, Seo was the highest in-demand instructor and his heyday lasted for nearly two decades.

His career took a dramatic turn in 1996 when he declared his bid to run for the National Assembly in his hometown Incheon. He successfully ran for the election on then the ruling New Korea Party ticket and won 55 percent of votes counted.

His career in the political arena, however, was short-lived.

In 2000, he changed his party membership and joined the New Millennial Party led by then President Kim Dae-jung. His re-election failed to materialize.

Years later, Seo returned to the private education industry as an instructor. But he was not as popular as he had been in the 1980s.

In a media interview in 2011, Seo regretted his past two career choices ― his decision to leave high school for private education, and his choice to become a politician.

“It turned out I was unfit for politics. I was not meant to be a politician,” he said. “Before joining the National Assembly, I had a naive thought about politicians. I thought politics is the result of collaboration among experts from all walks of life. I thought they meet in the Assembly to discuss and agree on key national agendas. I thought I could represent educators. Later I learned my initial impression of politics was totally wrong. I realized there are people who were engineered for politics and, unfortunately, I was not one of them.”

If he had not quit his high school teaching job, he said his life would not have been as eventful as it was. But he said he learned a lot from his past glories as well as failures.

Seo is survived by his wife Seo Hwa-ja and two adult children Young-jin and Jeong-won. His funeral will take place on Thursday at Gachon University Gil Hospital in Incheon.