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Rigged for Implosion
Just as Nova instructors were getting shafted yet again when g.communication reneged on its promise of jobs, the cover story of the December 26 issue of Newsweek was a special report by David McNeil on English conversation schools. It's a good review of what ails eikaiwa and is similar to the article he wrote in The Japan Times in 2004. Let's Japan also gets a nod in the report.
For anyone who has taught English in Japan, the problems with eikaiwa are well-known: problems with lesson fees, management that places profits over quality, poor training, poor instructors, unmotivated students, and style over substance. The 9-page report paints a picture of an industry rigged for implosion with Nova's collapse causing the whole mess to come tumbling down.
Here's a summary/running commentary of the article:
Entertainment disguised as education
p.34. After noting the 43.3% drop in sales in foreign language schools across Japan just before Nova collapsed, some schools, in an act of desperation, tried to brand themselves as being safe and stable in an effort to attract students. Shawn Thir, who runs the website Let's Japan: "Eikaiwa is a scam. It's entertainment disguised as education aimed at sucking out as much cash as possible from its customers' wallets." Noda Kentaro, who has been teaching English in Japan for 30 years thinks that the collapse of Nova was good for Japanese as it opened their eyes to the fact that they've been receiving a poor-quality product.
The article then lapses into an old canard: The Japanese are terrible at English as demonstrated by their poor TOEIC scores. Japan is the "sick man of Asia" scoring lower than Cambodia and Laos. Why is this if so many Japanese go to eikaiwas? The report suggests that one reason has to do with exclusively employing native English-speaking instructors. They may be native speakers but are poorly trained and unmotivated. Says one Japanese instructor, "They are unmotivated, not punctual, and some even skip work."
A 35-year old male student complained that he saw several instructors set up role plays for students while they took a nap. He added that instructors have also told him that the reason they came to Japan was to pick up girls.
A 30-year old esthetician, who lost ¥350,000 in the Nova collapse, says that instructors lack motivation no matter the English school. "Nova's problems are problems for the entire English conversation industry. Instructors aren't motivated, and since they are working under short-term contracts, there is no sense of professionalism."
p.35. The report switches gears and examines the origins of the eikaiwa boom. One explanation traces it back to the end of the Pacific War and an NHK announcer named Hirakawa Tadaichi who had a popular eikaiwa radio broadcast called "Kamu kamu eikaiwa." However, there were few chances for Japanese to speak English in the aftermath of the war, leaving studying English out of the reach of those without money. During the 1990s, it was businessmen like Sahashi Nozumu who brought eikaiwa to the masses. Under the rubric of "globalization," the Japanese government made it easier for foreigners to obtain visas and instituted a training assistance plan that paid students up to 80% of their tuition. These measures jumped-started eikaiwa as the number of foreign language instructors in Japan with Specialist in Humanities visas increased to more than 45,000 in 2006 from 15,000 in 1988.
Working with no guarantees and no insurance
But, as an American instructors points out, as eikaiwa grew, so did its McDonaldization. Management treated lessons like hamburgers, emphasizing volume over quality and appearance over content, with its "teachers" the staff of the fast food eikaiwas working for low wages. An American working at GABA's Ginza school points out that he is paid ¥1,400 for a 40-minute lesson. His students were shocked to find out that that was all he received out of the ¥7,000 yen they paid for one-on-one lessons. "The students don't realize that most of the lesson fees go toward paying for ads on the Yamanote Line. Instructors receive only a fraction of the fees."
p.36. However, when Newsweek interviewed GABA, AEON, ECC, and GEOS, the schools told a different story. When asked about the lack of training for its instructors, GABA said that its system was designed to be flexible so instructors can work when the want to, leaving it up to them to train themselves. AEON claims to be stricter, providing 1 week of training once instructors reach Japan, and then another full day of training two or three months after they start working. AEON also maintains that it helps its instructors adjust to living in Japan.
A Bosnian-born instructor, who has been teaching English and French in Japan for 17 years, could speak no English at all when he first arrived in Japan and taught himself the language by watching Hollywood movies. Although he is self-taught, he says he has better understanding of grammar than most native speakers do.
Instructors also talk about the lack of job guarantees. A Canadian teacher who came to Japan in 1998 says that he was never told to get a work visa when he was hired in Vancouver and had to lie to immigration officials upon entering Japan that he was a tourist.
Virtually all instructors at AEON work on short-term contracts that pay few benefits or allowances and have limited prospects for advancement. Instructors don't know when they'll be fired and have no paid holidays. Becoming ill is a big worry. Says Dennis Tesolat of the General Union, "Some working conditions are worse than factories."
When Newsweek spoke to the major eikaiwa schools, they replied that they complied with the laws of Japan. Bruce Anderson of GABA says that all instructors are told up front that GABA doesn't sign contracts with instructors and uses its own flexible system instead. If instructors don't like it, they are welcome to work somewhere else. ECC replied that all of their instructors, be they foreign or Japanese, work on one-year contracts since that is the duration of most of ECC's classes.
Students, too, have also been subject to McDonaldization. One if its manifestations is in how the schools pitch mastering the language. Professor Yamada Yuichiro of Shudo University in Hiroshima says that students aren't going to improve their English by taking lessons once or twice a week, but the schools make their money off students who renew their contracts.
p.37. Shawn, the owner of Let's Japan, speaks of his interview [with GEOS]: "Their 3-day interview was full of exciting stories about working and living in Japan, and somewhere in those three days they slipped the question, "How are you with helping out with sales? Can you do that?" I wanted the job, so I said, 'Yes.'"
Blond hair and blues preferred
Before Nova collapsed, instructors stayed with the company for an average of 10 months. Dennis Tesolat jokes that they had people whose sole job was to pick up instructors from the airport. GABA instructors tend to stay for about a year. Many students complain that they feel abandoned when popular instructors quit or transfer to different schools. A woman who studied for five years at GEOS before ending her contract says that the teachers changed often and many of them spoke with thick accents.
Another manifestation of McDonaldization is the illusion that students can become fluent in English simply by taking cheap lessons with a native English speaker. Says professor Otsu Yukio of Keio University, "We think it's important to listen to a native speaker talk, but when we consider a language we don't know, such as Swahili, it's impossible to pick out the words in the stream of sound. Simply listening to English is also pointless."
Marketing has crafted an image that studying English equals learning American English. An Australian of Vietnamese decent , who worked at NOVA, noticed that some students' parents wanted a more "foreign-looking" instructor, preferably a young person with blond hair and blue eyes, and from an English-speaking country.
The blue box on pages 37 & 38
5 misconceptions Japanese have of eikaiwa
1. Native English speakers are preferable over Japanese teachers. Ability should trump nationality. There are lots of native English speakers who are terrible at spelling says one expert.
2. You can improve by taking lessons frequently. You won't learn much in taking lessons once or twice a week, but even going three or four times a week doesn't offer much of an advantage. You have to be motivated to learn instead of showing up and just talking.
3. Everyday conversation is not a starting point. Many people think they can learn everyday conversation without the underpinnings of grammar and vocabulary. The reality is that everyday conversation is difficult.
4. Teaching Method X is great! There are a lot of schools that tout their unique teaching methods. That is hard to swallow given that many of these methods are really variations of the Berlitz method.
5. There's no risk in paying lesson fees up front. While paying monthly may not be as risky as paying everything up front, it's hard to say which is better. Monthly payments means the school has to have money steadily coming in or it can wind up in trouble. If a school goes bankrupt, you could lose everything. Make sure to check the terms and conditions for canceling a contract.
p.38 Emily, a Filipina who started working in September at a school in Setagaya, Tokyo, was fired from her job so the school could hire a white British instructor. The school told her that they were looking to hire more white instructors in order to attract more students. This was in spite of the fact that Emily had a university education and taught English for 6 years in the Philippines before coming to Japan.
GABA hires teachers from 50 different countries, and while there is a tendency to want to learn American English, most students change their thinking after meeting their instructors. ECC says it doesn't discriminate. Most applicants are from the United States, Canada, and Australia, and they just happen to account for the bulk of instructors employed by ECC.
There are also problems with the way English is taught in public schools. Doug Young, who has taught English in Japan for 14 years, says that public schools have been successful at teaching most students how to read but have failed when it comes to speaking.
Comment: This is another old canard--Japanese are good at reading English,but terrible at speaking it. This canard is a generally used as a standard apology by Japanese educators when explaining the shortcomings of teaching English in schools.
No stopping the decline of the industry
Studying a foreign language has become a way to improve one's self or an escape from daily life. Eikaiwas are supposed to be about improving the English ability of their students, but Nova's unprecedented collapse is bound to leave people asking questions about the industry. Nova's fall may produce short-term benefits for some schools. Since the summer, GABA has enrolled nearly 2,000 students with GEOS accepting 800 Nova students.
On the other hand, Nova's failure has resulted in the loss of consumer trust. A staff member in the marketing section at Shane Corporation says it's not a problem of losing faith in the schools, but a decline in the desire to learn English that is worrying. AEON says that Nova's system made it hard to implement a curriculum, unlike AEON's, which has lessons on fixed schedules. "There's the English conversation industry and then there is Nova."
A report from the Yano Research Institute says that sales in eikaiwa for fiscal 2007 fell by 4.7%. The report predicts that after peaking in 2003, eikaiwa will enter into a period of long-term decline. The cause of the crisis of eikaiwa can be attributed to a steady decline in quality and changes in the law. Consumer protection measures were in place that made it easier for students to cancel their contracts and ask for their money back. This was a factor in Nova's bankruptcy. The government also ended its training assistance program. Business consultant Ken Worsley says these two things were fatal for the industry. A researcher for the Yano Research Institute says most of Nova's roughly 300,000 students took lessons with the aim of improving themselves, and the decline in quality and end of the training assistance program may prove to be a reasons to stop studying English.
Some instructors don't think job conditions have changed. Says, Jessica, an American who lost her job when Nova went under, "I've heard a lot of bad stories since Nova's collapse. Instructors who found jobs at other schools say it's the same as Nova."
Many involved in the industry say that unless consumers stop thinking that they can easily learn English simply by taking lessons at an English conversation school, the quality of English teaching won't improve. The instructor from Bosnia has this advice for students: Study at home by yourself, and then go overseas. There's no need to go to school."
p.39-40. The final two pages are a look at what makes a "dream school" and what schools overseas are doing that is successful. In short, they are institutes that have strict curriculums, high standards, and teachers with MAs and PhDs and other qualifications.
LJ is currently using a spam filter, which may eat legitimate comments, particularly those containing URLs. If you are having trouble posting a comment, email LJ.
Comments
Awesome!
You were quoted in Newsweek! How cool is that? LJ was indeed (and I guess still is) the place to go for info on Nova and eikaiwa in general. Take a bow, and keep up the good work.
PIG
Japanese Students can read but not speak...
And Japanese students can write, too. No, they can't. What is really needed is some decent reading and writing fluency education.
Who really believes...
that most college educated Japanese can read English? Do Japanese people really believe that? I certainly don't.
Too much of English education in Japan leaves out the most important part: communication. Reading and writing, as well as speaking and listening, should be learned with communication as the (eventual) goal. The emphasis on eikawa is misplaced because it is an example of the partitioning of English (and probably all language education here) into separate streams without ever expecting communication in most of the streams. It seems to me that most Japanese (for their purposes--gotta hedge a little) think eikawa is the only time they can communicate in English. It doesn't occur to the average student that communication has actually occurred if he or she reads English instructions in a textbook and follows them.
Japanese can read but ...
As the Doug Young who you referenced in the article - well, not sure that the original article quoted quite correctly as haven't read it yet (have been abroad) but my point was not to resurrect the old canard but to point out that the state school English target is still stuck in the days long ago when it was designed to teach reading and comprehension. A lot if not most Japanese people can read some (note - some) English, and by the terms of the original remit it was a success.
Remember it is only in the last 20 (about) years that it has been worthwhile to teach spoken communication to most of the population, as before that they probably would not have had a chance to be in an English speaking situation.
And I never wanted to give the impression that I thought Japanese people were terrible at speaking English. I don't. I think that the state English education until (arguably) very recently never had the goal of teaching spoken communication, and therefore it can not be judged a failure because it was never trying.
I think that Japanese people can learn languages as well as all humans - it's the teaching that's the variable that is under our control
Get Real
The fact is the public schools aren't educating people, so there are schools like Nova and Berlitz. People use Eikaiwa for many reasons, not just to be perfect speakers. No more than going to tennis school will make you into a pro player. If students, err customers, make the mistake of believing everything the salespeople tell them, then so be it. Do you go to Mc Donalds for a healthy meal or satisfaction? How about Disneyland? For that matter, is Newsweek _real_ news or entertainment?
"I think that Japanese
"I think that Japanese people can learn languages as well as all humans - it's the teaching that's the variable that is under our control" - well worded. The variable of student effort is the responsibility of the students alone.
I think the article plays up the "unprofessional", "unmotivated" angle too much.
"The fact is the public schools aren't educating people, so there are schools like Nova and Berlitz. People use Eikaiwa for many reasons, not just to be perfect speakers. No more than going to tennis school will make you into a pro player. If students, err customers, make the mistake of believing everything the salespeople tell them, then so be it. Do you go to Mc Donalds for a healthy meal or satisfaction? How about Disneyland? For that matter, is Newsweek _real_ news or entertainment?" - I agree completely, but customers can become students merely by intent, if they're serious about studying, then even if they are a paying customer they can take advantage of the environment to learn something.
Blond Hair Blue Eyes
I don't fully agree with the blond hair blue eyes accusation though. I'm sure its rarely an issue, from time to time.
I was in Japan with NOva for 13 months, and am of Indian descent - it was never a problem in and out of eikaiwa. Same thing goes with my roomate, who was black. His students loved him.
I find this to be a bigger issue in America, than in eikaiwa, that is for sure.
Motivation, Pride and Professionalism
I consider myself to be a fairly motivated and professional individual. Before coming to Japan to work in Eikaiwa I worked in a corporate environment where hard work was always recognized and rewarded--I had received salary increases and promotions on my own merit, and my boss always backed me up when I needed it. My company took good care of me, and as a result I developed a strong sense of pride in my work and in my company. When one has pride in one's work and company, then the motivation and professionalism will naturally follow. This is a no-brainer.
When I came to Japan, the first Eikaiwa I worked at came as a stark contrast to my previous job in the U.S. I originally came with a positive attitude and outlook, but the day-to-day routine of being fucked really began to wear me down. The shit that school pulled or tried to pull is too numerous to mention here. And it wasn't personal. All the instructors had their "dealings" with the company.
My point is, if you are fucked by your company on a daily, weekly, or otherwise frequent basis, it's really hard--if not at all impossible--to develop a sense of pride in your work and company. And if you don't have pride in your work, then your motivation and professionalism will most undoubtedly suffer.
This is a no-brainer, and Japanese companies, including Eikaiwas should realize this: Take care of your employees, and they will take care of you...
being indian or black still
being indian or black still makes u look foreign.
being asian decent, you completely blend in and they think you're japanese.
interesting
I am sure that your dream came true meeting Nozomu in Shibuya. Did you ask for his autograph? Also just wondering why people write the same comment in different sections. For example, I am sure the gun comment is the same.
Meeting Nozomu in Shibuya?
I couldn't find any reference to this in any post here - which post are you referring to?
Professionalism
I agree on your point that the cause of low standards in the eikaiwa industry in Japan is related to failings in state education. The government puts very little into the training and development of its own professionals so there isn't anything to compare to within the country, except perhaps jukus- which can be very good at getting students through their tests.
One of the reasons why standards of ESOL teaching can be much better overseas is that a great deal of it is done by state organisations, which compete with each other to attract students. Private providers are also in competition with state providers, and often subject to regulation.
jon
Anders Lundquist
Anders Lundquist was officially fired earlier this week by g-com, although it was reported that he resigned.
Landers Andquist
AL just don't dig Yakiniku.
just wondering
What is happening with the g spot/nova fiasco (other than the obvious lies etc.)? Does anyone have figures on the number of schools they have opened or the number of instructors they hired (for now)?
Just curious here. My guess is that there will not be much left in a year (if there is now).
I know that the Tokushima
I know that the Tokushima school is functioning as normal. How long that will last, your guess is as good as mine.
Old Canards
Thanks for that clarification, Doug. I wasn't trying to single you out. It's my bad for over-simplified your comment in the summary.
Back to the canards, I've heard the stories of about poor TOEIC scores and the ability to read vs speaking English over and over, but usually in the context of some official making excuses for Japan's poor showing. You'd think they'd realize they could stop trotting out these excuses if they took a hard look at what they are doing wrong and what other countries are doing right.
The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them. -Albert Einstein
Shawn
MOGURA!!
excellent post...
And the Anonymous guy who pondered if you go to tennis school, will you come out a pro?...brilliant..well said.
I was just wondering what exactly IS a good teacher..or a bad one..
I LIKE to think I did a good job at Nova..that I was popular, and that people enjoyed my lessons....that is, until contract time came up, when all the "complaints" were conveniently trotted out, and I got stiffed again..(heh..it STILL paid more than Canadian Tire..I wont be here forever..so I truly dont care..)
I always hear this shit about how many bad teachers there were..well...WHAT exactly makes anyone a GOOD teacher?
Do I have to go to teachers college to find this out?
The Girl went to teachers college, and they treat her like dirt at her school, like Nova treated me.
I use drawings in class, I make tons of notes for the people I teach..I am one of these folks who (mayhaps perversely) doesnt mind telling the same story or explaining the same thing over and over)..I still (and probably always will) talk too fast, and too much...but I Have The English....whenever I try to get Them to talk...they simply dont...for years...I COULD just let them sit there...but I never did...does that make me a bad teacher?..Edo Fatler and the rest of the Nova cunts thought so at contract time.
If they had treated me with the respect I gave my students, I woulda gone all the way with Nova...but they treated me, and most teachers like crap, thinking there was a bottomless pit filled with replacements..and that people wouldnt spread the word back home that it was a bullshit company to work for...
I work for a guy now I would go through a wall for. THATS the motivation Mogura was talking about..I WANT to go to work in the morning! NOVA never took ME to Himeji for a day trip, or bought me lunch and a coffee every day...and what IS that really?...such simple small things, and I am feeling great at work for the first time in 5 years.
Novas Plan? (presumably all of them too)
a) Treat teachers like shit.
b) Teachers go home and tell 2 friends and they tell 2 friends and so on and so on and so on...
c) Fewer and fewer teachers willing to put up with micro-managing retards like Fatler and Nicky The Ambitious-Dummy-Cunt AT and Glenn the Intimidating-Lying-Bastard, and Tim The Flamer (only the BEST Nazis are gay) and Chari the Free-Stealing 2-Face ...when you can have a micro-managing retards at home just as easily in english with real pizza and all your friends.
d) Students cant get the lessons they want when they want like you promised...so begin to want their money back.
e) But I got NOOOOOO Money Honey!
f) See ya in the funny papers Monkey-Man.
g) Im here writing this.
And I cant believe that ugly burn-victim Anders is still lurking around...THAT guy should just Fuck Off Already...rude asshole.
To "Shoot Em Up"..you made your joke..it wasnt that funny the first time...come back with something new please...if you wanted to kill a bunch of people in a confined space (like a Nova school) and you were motivated enough, you wouldnt need a gun.
Xenophobia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenophobia
There is an entire section about Japan in the Xenophobia page in Wikipedia.
Some of the points made in
Some of the points made in this article make sense and are true to a certain point, however there is a lot of crap in here that simply just hasn`t been looked at objectively. Entertainment disguised as education? A scam?- To a certain level yes. A business first a school second, I think thats the general motto of most of these schools. I myself was a previous employee of Nova. Now within my time there I saw a lot of students struggle and get nowhere, obviously these were the types that just put no effort in at home and expected the instructors to perform magic. On the other side of the coin I saw some students start out with very little or no English ability and within a matter of months get to a decent level. I do know for a fact however that these guys put in that little extra bit of effort at home. Nova, and other similar schools should be used as a learning "tool" to practice speaking. Used in this manner I believe it IS an effective product. Unfortunately it was never marketed in this manner.-
Who the hell is this mystery instructor?-Quote(They may be native speakers but are poorly trained and unmotivated. Says one Japanese instructor, "They are unmotivated, not punctual, and some even skip work.") Hey Mr, I dunno what layabouts you worked with but with my whole year and a half with Nova I never missed a day. I also put a lot of hard work into my lessons and made sure that my students actually learnt something.
What about this 35 year old male student claiming that he was told by a number of male instructors that their main reason for coming to Japan was to pick up girls?-Are you kidding me? This is just another example of daily discrimination that guys like me have to cope with on a daily basis living in this country. Don't get me wrong, I love Japan but they really have to sort out their issues with racism. Not only am I surprised this guy made such a claim, but the fact that the publishers decided to print this particular segment seems childish to me.
The point made about native speakers not being essential....well each to their own but I just want to bring something to the table here. I have time and time again spoken to students that are considered to be "high level" claiming to be dissatisfied with their ability to communicate when abroad. The first branch I worked at had 3 Canadian instructors and one British(myself)-Now when my students went somewhere like Australia,Ireland,Scotland,Newzeland even America they were clueless. One thing the Eikaiwa system offers(the bigger branches) is that variety in the language. I believe stress,intonation and pronunciation are key factors in the English language. Don't get me wrong I have nothing against native Japanese teachers teaching English, but I know a few that still use kana pronunciation. Native English instructors are not important?? OF COURSE THEY ARE!
One thing this article does highlight however is the unfair treatment of teachers and students by some of these big language schools. But thats another big issue thats been discussed many times.
Now where did I put my lighter? Need a smoke after that rant.
Cuting Back
Well, teachers have started to be sent home because of a lack of students. Bye bye Nova... again!
Coming to Japan to pick up girls
Daily discrimination on a daily basis? Who gives a shit!
You are either stupid, gay or can't pull Japanese birds my old son. Yes, many male instructors do come here to pick up girls and why wouldn't they?
Do you think the male instructors who teach in Brazil only go there to educate?
Wake up and smell the coffee! (or the Japanese girl next to you in your bed)
Going to Brazil girls are at least attractive there.
I am going to Brazil to teach English. At least the girls look decent enough to fuck there. Japanese girls are the least attractive of asian girls. At least in Brazil I won`t have to here かわい or すごい anymore. Japanese girls need to fix there teeth, get some ass and tits, and quit being so God damn annoying.
Oh I didn`t proof read this post so fuck you if there are any mistakes and you try to correct them.
Peace out
HEAR not HERE, DOLT..
Why even pretend you EVER proofread..another Anonymous idiot.
That's not a typing error, that's fucking just stupid.
Sorry, I couldn't resist correcting you...It's kinda my job...for now.
As an aside;
STUPID BANK HOLIDAY!!! THEY JUST FUCKING HAD NEW YEARS OFF...JESUS!..LAZY JAP CUNTS!! I hate being told gaijin are lazy, my fucking calendar doesn't have 40 fucking holidays every fucking year.
I thought this was a really
I thought this was a really poorly written article.
It seems to show the negative aspects of the workers as being singularly applicable to eikaiwa.
In every kind of job in the world you get good and bad workers.
the way it cites its `facts`...`Akira from Tokyo says `Teachers dont care about the students...they just want money and world domination` `. Oh. Must be true then.
Find me an unhappy student, and I`ll find you a happy one.
I also enjoyed the myths it `exploded`. Saying that an experienced Japanese teacher should be taken over a foreign speaker belies a complete lack of understanding of the industry. No matter how many home stays you did, no matter how many nights you stayed up studying `essential grammar`, you will not have the same inate knowledge of a language that a native speaker will. And there is also the people that come to learn about a foreign culture...but thats another can of shiz.
Summary : article was crap and typical of the lazy journalism that plagues any big event.
All AAM RAAM positions dissolved
All foreign management positions have been dissolved as of last Friday. Each G.com school will now be run by the Jap manager. Mine is a chain smoking fat cunt who after years of trying unsuccessfully to get some gaijin cock has become bitter and twisted. Never mind hey Eriko. Life will be even more hellish! Within weeks days off will be split up, any paid holidays requested will be denied and generally we will all be fucked up the ass from here on in. If you have any plans to stay the join the union. I am out of here. Fuck this. Allowing a bunch of emotionally immature girls to run the show? HA! These schools have 18 months at best. They are already talking about closures down here by March
the writing on the wall
Glad you have finally seen it!! You are absolutely correct though. Looking at the industry and the info I can get about G comm (from this board, news etc.), there is NO WAY g spot is going to make it with anything more than a handful of schools at best.
Face it Nova people. The company is gone and nobody really cares apart from instructors and former students.
"Japanese girls need to fix
"Japanese girls need to fix there teeth, get some ass and tits, and quit being so God damn annoying."
Indeed. It's nice being gay.
put on standby
I had been working at G comm Nova since the last of November, and I was just called and told not to come in. I am supposed to be sitting at home on "standby" at 60% pay rate. Just checked my bank account today, got paid for last month, but seems about 20,000 yen short. Figures.
Contracts up?
At G Ed I have heard that if you are a regular instructor and if your contract ends this month or next it will not be renewed.
Anyone out there been told to move on yet?
Brainwash'em with flowery Japlish
Has anyone seen G Com's blurb on the yellow envelopes? It's something like "THE NEXT EVOLUTION. With evolution comes a melthing and then it grows". Could someone confirm that? It definitely included the word(???) 'melthing'.
You see this so often in advertising. I think they don't care if it's good english, so long as it casts the right spell on their naive customers.
Teaching ... umm ... that English thingie
I'm one of those poor bastards still working in this "company" (you know which one). I turned down another offer because I have obligations this month that couldn't be filled taking another job. I've a 6 months pregnant wife and I'm desperately trying to convince her to move to my home country because the simple fact is this country does not want my services any more. And my wife ain't even Japanese! (women!)
I'm observed damned near daily giving feedback to people who have received their first pay packet in 4 months. What do you expect me to do? Tell them "Nova doesn't really encourage the 'hey let's talk for 40 minutes' or 'fuck it all I'm broke' approach"? Damnit these people haven't been paid for months, and I'm no goddamn different. You expect company loyalty now? Well .. my 10,000 yen increment was nice when I didn't have to cut out my own *LIVER* to pay my gas bill, but now it sounds just fuckin peachy.
What's my crime? Yes, I admit it, I'm an AT, or whatever we're called now. It used to mean I do the shit that needed doing whilst everyone else taught ... but now, despite the postings on these forums saying TIs are all in the clear, and we were all pricks all the way through, we sure as hell don't feel that way.
Bottom line, we're all fucked.
Time to go home and tell everyone "Don't do business in Japan". Hey, why not extend this burst bubble just that bit longer, eh? It's the least we can do for the 250,000 yen tax bill we all got last year.
Plans to sell-off NOVA?
After lying to and alienating all of their english teachers I've been wondering how G Com were planning to recruit down the track?
NOVA had a bad rep before and people still came, but it was seen as a safe venture. Future prospective teachers won't see G Com that way if we have anything to do with it.
With that in mind it might make sense if they were actually planning to sell NOVA off, and lose the stigma.
In response to the article
Many valid points I agree, many over simplifications and examples taken out of context too.
I give 100% every lesson, even when I have a fever and am losing my voice. There are teachers who do their job professionally just as there are people who give good service at McDonalds and others who don't.
I've been in Eikaiwa going on 4 years, I worked for a Gaba(if I may reference) and other smaller schools and also my own private office teaching for almost 2 years.
Unfortunately the Eikaiwa is a profit driven business in an industry that is supposed to be about people, it's most definitely about numbers.
It seems as though the Japanese owned companies truly are masters of their domain and experts at selling to their own culture.
If I am to be motivated as a 会社員 (company employee) then whose job is it to motivate me, I would normally look to my employer for that motivation but it is constantly absent. I'm currently working at a beautifully wrapped eikaiwa and unfortunately it's true, the absence of both mentoring, motivating and feeling of job security is becoming evident yet again.
I'm losing my motivation and I feel sad that my Japanese CEO more or less puts on a lying face as he really does not seem to care for anything else but sales results, and customer lifetime value.
It's a catch 22 for me, I'm a very successful trial lesson instructor with a closing rate of 60% and it doesn't matter. I'm still underpaid and undervalued by the same company which is driven by the results I produce.
It is a truly sad industry especially for a professional who takes his job seriously.
I wish the Japanese could understand, I think neither the public nor the industry truly understand their own dilemma.
Thank You for Reading,
Lost my motivation again!
shoulda used a condom
One side of me is glad that all ATS are no more, on the other hand however your situation is quite bad indeed. The job market is quite flooded at the mo so your best bet is to head home. Why on earth does your wife want to stay here?
i love people who quote how
i love people who quote how good they are at teaching. I am sure if we were to ask your students they would agree. too bad we cant do that ne.what does if i may reference mean anyway. From my experience most english teachers in japan are looking for a japanese lady or cant teach back home. maybe that is you in both counts. good luck with your motivation.
Newsweek gives a skewered view of eikaiwa teachers
Why didn't they just proclaim they were engaging in assassination of English teachers in Japan by slagging them off and writing them off as people who just want to get laid, don't understand their own language and can't write grammatically, and are lazy white trash?
Apart from Shawn's comments and one or two salient points, this article was revelling in stereotypes and blaming gaijin English teachers for the failures of the Japanese system - at school, college/university and in the way Japanese society trumpets 'internationalisation' while being too xenophobic to really understand what it means and follow it through.
The biggest point missed was - many Japanese who go to eikaiwa don't really have much of a social life and in some cases a life at all.
English conversation provides a social need as the Japanese are isolated people who can't make friends easily because of their society's inbuilt prejudice against the 'out group' whether that's the person not connected to you by blood/age/same school/ or whatever.
Given the intrinsically unfriendly nature of heirarchical societies like Japan's that actively discriminate in terms of seniority etc and which have strong continuing peasant/rural origin bias against those who are not part of their immediate communities, the Japanese cannot just make friends the way westeners can. That's why they flock to English conversation schools.
Newsweek showed zilch understanding of the reality that made English learning popular in Japan - it's to provide a social life for isolated people which most Japanese are given they can't make friends easily because they are obsessed by age/seniority/social status/blood ties etc.
NewsWEAK, Quick to Blame Employees, not Mis- Management
I have recently finished a Trinity CertTESOL in Prague and have 9 years teaching experience in the U.S., none of it in ESL.
So first hand knowledge of eikaiwas is not my reference. But what is, is the understanding that finding someone to blame in business fiascos takes a similar tactic no matter what the industry. Invariably, it is the lazy, careless, untrained, unmotivated, foolish employee who is at fault
What is proposed in the article is that the many accusations against teachers in the eikaiwas are the source of the failure of NOVA and the decline of the other large language businesses, when in fact it is terribly poor and criminal management.
Unfortunately, many teachers are naive to business dealings. Teachers come from a background ripe with ideals, platitudes, goals, professionalism , integrity. They are very poor capitalists and a good thing for that.
I was at a meeting a few years ago regarding becoming an agent to help foreign students during their homestay in Wa. State. Many issues arose and one young woman teacher expressed that one point was "unfair."
I told her that her degree was showing. Fair applies to weather and baseball, not to business. I am not trying to make any excuses for what happened. I was never closer than my keyboard. Business is a dirty greedy past time. People are swindled , robbed and deceived regularly. If you expect something else and get it you are fortunate.
These language businessmen want primarily to make money. Just as Arthur Anderson set aside good judgement and honesty for profit, so do Japanese businessmen who take their model and morals from their American counterparts.
This type of attack is typical of the corporate press in fault finding with employees not fact finding of the truths in business demise.
Failure to respond to numerous warnings within the industry is usually the precursor to collapse. It can be doubtless that employees and managers alike had attempted to make corrective input to upper executives to alleviate the terrible treatment that many of these teachers and students went through over decades.
As far as some of the other points made in the article, hiring non native speakers is just a guise to reduce wages for the industry,. Non Native teachers can be paid less. The fellow who wrote earlier about intonation, pronunciation , diction and stress, the strengths of a native speaker could not be more correct. And speaking everyday phrases and conversation,"the communicative approach" is th only answer to developing good speech habits.
I have worked in several fields other than education and I support the position that employee performance is directly connected and proportional to how they are valued and treated by management. A good manager gets the most out of the staff not by threatening, but by developing a person's abilities and skills in a thoughtful mature process similar to how good teachers helps their students.
DavidSeattle
Thanks
You mentioned the existence of a female teacher.
How refreshing after all the other sexist drivel on this page.
I think you summed up the situation perfectly. As a female teacher who came to work for the Evil Empire that was NOVA, after six years of teaching in Australia, I was often disgusted at how NOVA's students/customers were just screwed over for their money. My professional opinions didn't matter at all compared to those of the sales staff. The company didn't care about what would actually help people LEARN. It was all about how they thought they could make the most money.
So I was glad when NOVA management's narrow mindedness led to the company's downfall. It's nice to maintain hope that the broader public won't put up with that kind of thinking, and can see through the lies.
blame the recuiting
I worked at Nova for 2 years and I only knew one teacher that came fpr the girls.
Another thing, I think a lot of the blame has to be put on the recuiting. If they recuited experienced qualified teachers there wouldn't have been such a problem. But just opening it up to any native speaker who has "a" degree, then its obvious that some not so serious people will end up being teachers! Thats not rocket science!
I'm glad you had a positive
I'm glad you had a positive experience, but I've been getting rejected over and over because the employers make huge assumptions just based on my name. I guess they think I have a horrible accent and hate all Japanese people, but I've lived in the states much longer than Korea and my English is superb... but what do they care? They just look at my name and toss my resumé in the garbage :(
There is still a use for GOOD eikaiwas
Good posting.
I would just like to add that as a person who taught at the NOVA eikaiwa I think there is still a use for GOOD eikaiwas. I know the branch I worked at, the students/customers achieved great things - from getting into university to higher TOEIC scores to advancements in their jobs to just simple enjoyment. I think our branch just gave the customers/students what they wanted. Luckily the teachers had the skills to follow up on what the students wanted. Some students wanted hard core grammar lessons, and we had the skills to do so. Maybe that meant instead of just coasting on, "Well, that's how native speakers say it," we actually used all those grammar books provided for us. Other students just wanted to talk and pass away the time (nothing wrong with that).
In my current experiences with private teaching it is amazing how well Japanese people can read and write (at least my students). I know I can't write nearly as well in Japanese (that may say more about me and my motivation to learning Japanese), but nonetheless my students can write at the basic level (some are really quite advanced), which means they have the tools to go further. Also, with the emphasis still being on reading and writing, a GOOD eikaiwa is a necessary supplement to education. Until Japanese schools really go for a more communicative approach things will stay the same.
Some students just need to talk and practice what they've learned. Eikaiwas can provide that. Unfortunately the good are overshadowed by low-quality cookie cutter ones. If the proper quality is put into the product the bottom line will take care of itself. If NOVA had not flubbed itself and put money into taking care of the teachers and the sales staff instead of trying to pain Japan pink things would be different. Will there be a day where a large eikaiwa abandons the gimmicks and goes after the substance? That would really change the industry and give it some legitimacy.
Peace
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