The K-drama, titled “Crash Course in Romance” was a big success. To make a long story short, it was about an unlikely love story between the mother figure of the student, Jeon Doyeon and the star teacher Jeong Kyoungho, aka 일타강사.

Why not learn some idioms related to this? Maybe it can give you a little bit of an insight into Korean culture. 

일타강사 : 일타 – It is a compound word with “일” meaning number one, “타” which is tar from star, and “강사” stands for a teacher or a lecturer.

While Korean education is generally very competitive, the area, called “Daechi-dong” has a mecca of private academies. The whole strip is packed with building after building of private education facilities. Every evening, traffic is unbelievable as moms pick up their kids from hagwons (cram schools).

Even among many hagwons in the Daechi-dong area, there are some star teachers. They are called 일타강사 and some of them are known to make 10 billion won (approximately USD 8 million) a year.

쪽집게 강사 / 쪽집게 과외: tweezer teacher / tweezer tutor

Some hagwon teachers and tutors are labeled as “tweezer teachers” or “tweezer tutors.”

As you can probably guess by the name, they are like tweezers when picking the right exam material for their students to study.

Of course, those “tweezer teachers” are on high demand.

대치 키즈: Daechi-Kids (or Daechi-dong Kids)

As the Daechi-dong in Seoul is considered the best area to receive private education, many moms are eager to move to there before their kids enter elementary school. The kids who grew up in Daechi-dong are labeled “Daechi Kids.”

Anyways, if you haven’t watched “Crash Course in Romance,” I highly recommend it!