Washington Spirit Owner Michele Kang on Leaving Seoul to Study in America

Watch Washington Spirit Owner Michele Kang on Leaving Seoul to Study in America - Bloomberg on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00You had an opportunity to go to college in the United States, and in those days, as I understand it,

00:05Korean families saved up money so their daughters could have money to get married.

00:11And so your parents were saving up money for you to get married, and then you said,

00:16I want to go to the school in the United States, and what happened?

00:19Yeah, so especially at that time, unmarried young women going to America alone was just unheard of

00:26and not acceptable, right? No parents in their right mind would send an unmarried young woman

00:32to a foreign country. So I had to negotiate. So at that time, Korea was going through a lot of

00:38political turmoil, sort of a democracy movement driven by a lot of college students and college

00:45campuses. So the colleges were shut down. So I kind of said, well, you know, I want to go study,

00:53but the schools are shut down. I can't study. And if you don't let me go, then I may participate in

01:00these demonstrations and my career, my future could be ruined. Who knows? And I kind of used a little

01:06bit of a threat, but also a little bit of a negotiation. And I said, give me just for one

01:12year's worth of the tuition and living expenses. And after that, I'll figure it out. And when I start

01:19making money, I'll pay back every penny. And when I get married, you don't have to spend a dime.

01:24I'll figure it out. And I pay everything back and some more.