Best Language Institute is, or was, located in Kangnung (Gangneung), in South Korea's Kangwon (Gangwon) Province. Best was originally a family-run hagwon. It was founded by the brother of Margaret's director, Mrs Kim Eun Ryung. Mrs Kim sold the school in September of 2010. We haven't been back to Gangneung in many years, so I have no idea who owns Best now, what it's like to work there today, or even whether it still exists. For the history books, when Margaret worked there in 2000-2001, the school had 6-8 teachers, one usually a native English speaker. Classes met 6 hours or more per day. The school taught mostly grade school kids, but it also had evening classes for adults and private tutoring. In 2000 and 2001, Best were crammed into the downtown Kangnung (Gangneung) office building shown on the left above. It was super convenient, about a 3 minute walk from Margaret's apartment. In the spring of 2003, BLI moved to a larger, more modern building on the outskirts of the city, close to the newest apartments with more affluent families. That's it in the third picture above. The banner hanging down the middle of the building boasts that they have an American teacher.
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