In doing this, I'm not trying to upset anybody, I'm not trying to hurt this hagwon's reputation and I'm not trying to keep teachers from working there as I said before! I am someone who thinks that all people should be treated with fairness and respect. I don't believe that schools, hagwons or corporations should mistreat their employees. I don't believe anyone should mistreat anyone else. And if they do, people have the right to talk about it.
Consider this: Micheal Moore put together the very famous movie titled Sicko. I know he did this thinking that if he exposed the practice of health insurance companies making people think they're covered and then denying coverage when it's really needed, he could change things for the better. I thought the movie was great. I'm glad he made it. I'm glad it went around the world and I think everyone should see it!
Amnesty International sends letters to leaders of governments who deny their citizens basic rights. They have gotten some people out of jail who were there without reason. When a country's leader knows that people know what's going on, it can make him/her think twice about their actions.
I think all the posts on the internet about Yes Youngdo had some effect on their practices. At one time there were so many bad posts on Dave's Esl Cafe, which I think is the most popular site for teachers in Korea, that it must have worried them. The managers, directors and owners must have paid attention. This is the same site which they have used to advertise for new teachers for a long time. And their students and families could possibly see the posts. (If you haven't already please read my blog on posts being deleted at Dave's Esl Cafe http://www.eslcafe.com/.) This probably led to better treatment for teachers! Yahoo!
***Wouldn't people act differently if they knew anything they said or did could be posted on sites that have thousands of visitors?***
During the time when so many posts were on the ESL websites, these are the posts which stuck in my memory: One teacher wrote he audiotaped a conversation between him and his manager and was going to the police. (I never saw a follow-up.) Another said that some teachers wanted to catch this same manager and basically beat the delights out of him. (Not exact words.) Still another had one teacher writing that he/she was fired 6 weeks before her contract ended for asking for a few days off to go to her grandmother's funeral. She wrote that she couldn't believe it. Bonus and flight ticket home - gone! Still another teacher wrote on the number of teachers who had been fired while stating that the firings were probably timed in a certain way which allowed Yes Youngdo to save money on flights and bonuses.
(If a teacher works for the better part of a year but doesn't receive their bonus, airfare or even their last paycheck due to something called an "11 month firing" the hagwon saves an awful lot of money!!! If the monthly salary and bonus are each 2 million and the flight is at least one million, more like 1.5-2 million, that's 5-6 million won saved!! Unfortunately many hagwons in Korea when faced with this situation chose to let their teachers go.)
Unfortunately, some of these posts which tell these stories are gone. The sites have been redone. There was one great thing one unhappy teacher did. He/she took 10-15 posts, put them together and posted them all at one site. There's no need to name this site as the posts aren't there anymore. But I wish I had copied it at that time.
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