Jennifer Jong was born in Los Angeles and has lived in Southern California her whole life. She has lived all over the Los Angeles area, spending time in Koreatown, Los Feliz, and finally settling in Glendale towards the end of elementary school.

She attended hakwons on and off from the 1st to 5th grades. She not only attended academic hakwons, but also learned to play the piano at hakwon starting in the 1st grade and continued to learn for 3 years. Academically, her hakwon helped target specific math problem areas. There they also worked with her on word problems and spelling, but no english (i.e. reading comprehension, writing).

During this time she typically went to hakwon afterschool during the week from 3 until 7 or 8 when her parents could pick her up after work. Some nights the people at the hakwon took her home around this time. Because of this, she described the people and the hakwon itself as a sort of babysitter, because they were the ones to look after her when she finished school but her parents were still at work.

The academic structure of the hakwons offered some one-on-one attention, and also group work. Her classes were mostly groups limited to about 10 kids of about the same age and level. There were kids at the hakwons as young as 5 up to 12 or 13.

Jennifer recalls hakwon having a very social atmosphere. She didn't attend regular school with most of the other kids, but had many friends in the context of hakwon. She noticed many groups of kids making friends and social groups there where typically child like disputes would break out. She remembers there being petty fights between boys vs. girls, and girls vs. girls, etc. On breaks, the kids would go out to stores and buy food, and also hung out together and played. Breaks would be 30 minutes long or more at times. She recalls many groups of friends being formed, and she remained friends with some kids from hakwon up until high school. Most of the kids Jennifer went to hakwon with never went to regular school together, but they were still friends.

Jennifer also attended a different hakwon for a time during her junior year of high school for 3 months. This time she studied for the SATs. She noticed here too that kids made social groups or cliques and it was apparent to her that these kids had attended hakwons together before. This type of hakwon also had a very social atmosphere. Jennifer didn't mind attending hakwon as a kid because of the social nature of her experience was fun for her. She wouldn't have had as much fun or made as many friends if she didn't attend hakwon during elementary school she says.