Yongo is managed by:

Jamie

Born in Chungju, South Korea, I moved to Houston, Texas with my Korean-born parents when I was still an infant. I spent the first 21 years of my life studying and working in Houston, attending the University of Houston. Intrigued by the traveling and money-making potential, I decided to try my hand at teaching English and moved back to my parents’ hometown of Chungju in 1999. I worked as a teacher in various English institutes for the first few years, working for a number of schools, both good and bad.  In 2001, having heard one too many tales of teachers being mistreated, I decided to start recruiting teachers to help them find the kind of quality schools I knew were available. For the next 3 years I worked fulltime as a recruiter, placing over a hundred university graduates in good schools around Korea.  I made plenty of contacts with schools and directors and even more friends. A few years ago I decided to open my own private language institute in Samsung, which has kept me busy for the past 3 years. I met Dom in the summer of 2005 after bailing him out from a bad job, which he had gotten on his own, without going through a recruiter or agency. We’ve been close friends ever since, which naturally led to us getting into business together. Yongo is the result of this friendship. I’m now 31 and living in Seoul, South Korea for the past 9 years.

Dominique

I was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec until I was 10, when I moved to Ottawa. I graduated from Ecole Secondaire DeLaSalle in 2000. Between 2000 and 2002, I worked  as an English teacher in South America. I then returned to Canada and moved to Winnipeg, where I graduated with a B.A in Canadian Studies from the University of Manitoba in 2005. Shortly after graduating, I went to Korea to teach English and spent over a year teaching there. That’s where I met Jamie. He and I met because he bailed me out of a bad job I had found independently online and got me a great position in his city. At the end of my contract at that school, I used some of the money I had saved to travel through South East Asia for 5 months. I returned home to Canada in early 2007 and have been busy setting up Yongo with Ian and Jamie since then. I’m now 27 years old and I currently reside in Montreal.

Ian

I grew up in Ottawa and I studied International Development at the University of Ottawa and Conflict Management at the University of Waterloo. Throughout my youth I had the opportunity to travel and broaden my horizons. As is often the case, these were life altering experiences which made me realize just how much opportunity there was for young dynamic English-speaking professionals. I spent the last year running a small mediation and conflict management business and was recently looking to get back into traveling and international work. That’s when Dom and Jamie told me about their interest in helping young Canadians make some serious money while expanding their horizons.  It was a perfect formula: Stop spending money to travel, but rather make money by travelling! I was happy to help create a company that is dedicated to arranging good contacts for teachers in high-quality schools. I’m now 28 years old and living in Ottawa.

Jamie is our Korean office director

Dominique is our Montreal office director

Ian is our Ottawa office Director