Why Am I Doing This?

I'm a former teacher of Yes Youngdo English School in South Korea. I worked for language institutes before and after being employed by this one, so I think I know a lot about this business and am qualifed to write about it.

Whether you know about Yes Youngdo, have worked there, have worked at another hagwon or are interested in learning about Korea welcome. This blog is mainly for teachers who have worked for or are interested in Yes Youngdo, but I'd like for teachers who work or worked at any other hagwon/institute in Korea to read this blog as well.

I'm going to tell some stories about my own experiences, those of teachers I worked with and post stories that I've found on ESL teachers websites. The reason is I want people to be aware of bad experiences which some teachers have had. I also plan to write about what I've learned since the time I was employed by Yes Youngdo, and talk about how it's different now looking back. I've learned so much about teaching in Korea from every perspective.

If one does a simple search online they can find out a lot about this school. Many teachers have posted photos or blogs. Some post on online forums. Some teachers said great things about Yes Youngdo while others didn't. I'm fully aware that by some accounts this is a great hagwon and some teachers had good experiences there, but I think some of the stories of bad times should be told.

I want to make this blog clear and easy to read so I'm taking care choosing colors, fonts and a template which are all easy on the easy and make the blog more readable. I also plan to edit to catch typos or other mistakes, or to add more to each post.

I'm a person who thinks everyone should treat each other kindly and fairly as much as possible. I'm sorry for all the mistreatment of teachers in Korea. I'm also sorry for hagwon owners who hire unqualified teachers.

A few things before I start:
1) I'm not trying to give Yes Youngdo a bad reputation.
2) I'm not doing this to hurt, upset or anger anyone.
3) I'm aware that teachers in Korea have had problems at many schools, institutes, colleges or universities, not only at this place.
4) Because Yes Youngdo is an institute I'm going to refer to it as a hagwon, the Korean name for institute.
5) I may abbreviate Yes Youngdo to Yes or YY.
6) When writing about other teachers I'll protect their identities as much as possible.

I plan to write about these things: working conditions, classroom, class size, students, management, other teachers, office and teacher's room, textbooks and storybooks, homework and quizzes, perks, vacation, working hours, owners, office staff. I plan to compare everything at Yes Youngdo with other institutes I've worked for or heard about.
Please understand doing this is so important to me that I'm willing to use my free time to work on this blog. I'm not doing it on a whim - it's serious.

I welcome any comments, questions or suggestions.

Peace