Yale is an established language academy with a reputation for excellence in education. Yale’s owner and operator, Han Eun Song and his wife Jin Hee Cho, opened their first language school, the Hyundai Academy, in Seogwipo in 1989. After several years of university study in California, they returned to Jeju in 1988 at the time of the Seoul Olympics as Korea was beginning to open itself to the outside world.
The demand for English language instruction here exploded over the years and in 1994, the Hyundai Academy was renamed the Yale Foreign Language Academy, moving into its own modern six-story facility in the center of the city.
After 30 years of extraordinary economic progress, Korea faced a crisis in late 1997 and early 1998 and many language academies across the country were forced into bankruptcy. But even during the difficulties of those years, Yale kept its commitments to this community. After all the doom and gloom, with Korea’s economy recovering rapidly, the future for the people of Jeju and for Yale has never looked brighter.
When Mr. Song and his partner and wife Mrs. Cho are asked how they have overcome the many obstacles they have encountered, they will likely answer that it was with God’s help. It is their faith in God and in Jesus Christ and mankind’s Savior that is moving them to build an international Christian School with a specific vision here on the south end of Jeju Island. With god’s help, this dream will soon become a reality. At last, students in Jeju-do will have access to a first-class education with a solid base of Christian values.
