Let's Japan.org Debunking Eikaiwa and Ramblings in Japan

Hopefully this will open a few eyes amongst the Japanese students (and public in general). Kind of doubt it though...
Especially the way G-Comm's dressing it up by giving the impression that they were simply weeding out the teachers who were no good. Blatantly not true. People were told contracts would not be renewed regardless of ability, popularity, experience...
Interesting to see what happens next.

the justification for the refusal to renew contracts is deceitful. it's very hard to detect any principled basis on which they have made their decisions. i cannot know what happens in other schools ofcourse,and maybe some people were inexcusably 'sick', some people, but that wasn't the rational they used for sacking people. its the easiest cop-out, set up a nonexisting strawman and blame everything on him. i can't see any logic, only number worshipping morons who insist on eliminating a fixed number from each area. it is a numbers' game folks, make no mistake. i work in a thriving school which needs all the teachers it has, and will soon need more, yet i was told i might be able to continue working if i were willing to move to another part of the country where they were lower on teachers, just to balance things up. yet i'm needed precisely where i am, looked at from their 40-1 principle. g-comm are just amateur jugglers trying to balance things up, not caring to realize the balls they are clumbsily juggling are people's lives.

I am not here to defend g spot, but what do you expect? Do you think any company, especially a little crappy one like g, is going to keep dumping money into a losing enterprise to keep some foreign barbarian/losers employed?

Those in G spot were simply miscalculating idiots. They thought they could milk what was left of the Nova cow. There may be a few parts left worth a little, but they seem to have expected a lot more students to return than actually have.

They are just trying to fix their #$#$#up now before it destroys g spot too. Do not expect any kind of charity from them.

The question here is not whether or not the non-renewal of a contract is unlawful, of course is not. I am one of the fired instructors who will file a complaint with the Labour Standard Office in about an hours from now. We'll file a complaint not because G-shit hasn't renewed our old nova contract (that was legally terminate at the end of November) but because they never gave us one in the first place. We have been fired by g-shit, this is our point, and we have been fired in an unlawful manner. No reason and written notice 30 days notice. In addition, g-shit had a clear agreement with the court to guarantee everyone a job. They were given the green light by the court because on this point.

I also think that g-shit are a bunch of idiots (intelligent people would have gone to a consulting agency to get a feasibility study for this operation) and I never trusted them from the beginning, in particular when I read that its CEO was a former juku teacher. The same old story of amatorial Japan. Anyway, I don't wanna work for them, but I just want to get the month salary I believe they own me, after that they can all go to fuck themselves.

Scratch that last question. I just heard the ratio is now 60:1 and will increase to 100:1 from April.
Here we go again...

Yeah, from what I've been told, the ratio is currently 70:1 in parts of Tokyo, but it really seems like they aren't using their heads when they come up with these numbers. 100:1 doesn't seem surprising if you figure they want the business to fail before the 6 month mark. Will this company ever be able to hire any new instructors after all this?

The sad thing is, as much as we loath the decietful conduct of the company we're now employed by, raising media and public awareness of problems now in the eikaiwa peak season will surely sink the ship with us on it again like it did last year. I wondered if the media weren't leaving them alone to give the business a chance at this important time. G.ilovesexploitinghaplessemployees have been so stupid... they only understand rationalisation - which stems from the fact that they got big by taking over other companies, not by creating or growing anything positive. They're experienced in exploiting hordes of casual/contractual japanese workers in juku and restaurant chains who probably don't offer much resistance to such a scary organisation ('cause they know what they're up against - dare I suggest Yakuza links?).

Everything that's happened was so predictable. I wish I was Inayoshi's advisor, i would've said DON'T promise to take everyone, and if the government-appointed trustees insisted on it I would have advised him to tell them to get fucked and forget about it.

But you know some are whispering that G.com went into it to earn a 'get out of jail (but not for free) card'. Remember the reports last year that the company was under investigation for some dodgy dealings? This could be their way of getting back into favour with the powers that be.

If Inayoshi hadn't promised to take everyone i think we would've accepted it, and they might've kept the best teachers, instead of losing those who had other options. They would've had appropriate numbers from the beginning making deception and devious methods of exclusion unnecessary, and if they needed more later they would've been able to bring others back.

One is about the General Union complaining to the Labor Office because G Ed dismissed a large number of instructors:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OdH3ljjAHc

Another piece of news is that a former Nova student has reopened one of the old Nova branches (Izumisano branch) himself and is running it as his own business. Called G-Tec its website is at http://gtecbeta.seesaa.net/ and the Asahi newspaper even featured an article on it at http://www.asahi.com/special/071027/OSK200802140097.html (in Japanese).

Now THAT'S an intelligent approach. Maybe some of these whiners sitting around on "standby" ought to take a page from that book, form a little company or two, and cut a few deals to rent out some of the many currently closed and idle locations. Of course, it does take some ambition and smarts to maintain a business, which leaves out about 90% of the whingers who came for the beer and the women. . .

The only excuse they gave was that some teachers refused to be transferred. I know of about 4 teachers in the chugoku region who were offered transfers, and they were each given one or two days to start work in new locations like Nagoya and Aichi. If they didn't accept they were going to be put on standby and eventually cut. Surely if they haven't given reasonable notice they can't make that an excuse for dismissal.

I never called sick, always stuck to the rules and did my best but I'm fired anyway.

You hit the nail on the head. G.Comm are a business. They have decided to break their promise (or obligation) to hire all instructors because they think it is the best possible business decision to make. They have to look at the cost of employing everyone vs the cost of the bad publicity and lawsuits. Personally, I think they have shot themselves in the foot.

If G-Comm were cutthroat and cunning, I would be inclined to agree with one of the above posters. The rub is that they have done nothing but bumble from that get go. The branch that I work at is losing money hand over fist in expensive overhead, but the numbers are coming in which would be great if there were sufficient staff numbers to handle the students...but there aren't. If a sick call could be covered so that there aren't dozens of students denied classes every weekend that would be great...but it's not the case. If G-Comm could replace the instructors that will be quitting in the next several months, students might renew past their discounted tickets...but G-Comm has no recruitment strategy and 'standbys' are gone. The students are already groaning... and this at a supposedly 'good' branch.

You will always find a dickhead in Eikaiwa who (a) does not know how to teach, (b) has a primitive grasp of Japan and Japanese language, and (c) compensates for his/her extreme deficits by jumping on the “this is business” bandwagon (which is usually just an excuse to be a pompus, arrogant c%nt, in a pathetic attempt to disguise one's ignorance). Nova was chocker block full of them (from AT position and above), and they all ended up on the scrap heap, just like everyone else.

There are laws that govern business, but eikaiwa is famous for spitting in the face of those laws, and the main reason for that, is because the Japanese and their governing bodies don’t give a shit about what is essentially a gaigin issue, and the yakusa style business people that run eikaiwa don’t mind dicking people over, on mass. They have their own rules and laws - and fuck everyone and everything, as long as a very thin surface spray maintains an appearances of "professionalism".

The only reasonable point abstractly made by the jerk who posted “People seem to forget that Gcom is a business & is trying to make money” is that people really should have known better.

However, not because eikaiwa is about making money, but, because, eikaiwa owners and managers are notoriously lawless, low life, who would sell their grandmothers, in the name of making money – hence the reality today.

They weren't expecting to make a lot of money quickly. They were offering 75% discounts for former NOVA students, and they were opening at the wrong time of year when many people are too busy to think about taking english lessons. They've made mistakes but they aren't that bloody stupid. They were planning to start shedding teachers and costs from the very beginning.

Okay .. you know, I usually wouldn't make any comments about someone's spelling ... but that was just terrible. "By by G-shit"? That's not just a missed keystroke, or a drunken error.
I hope you're not actually a teacher, as you apparently can't spell three-letter words. It says alot about various companies and their quality control.

I apologise to everyone as I know grammar/spelling issues should be ignored here ... but c'mon!? You can't spell "bye bye" !?

Something doesn't match here. On one hand, they are canning instructors, on the other, some of the posters say they do not have enough to cover the classes??!!

I am not part of this so I am just asking. What in the world??

From what I see though, it appears to be nothing more than pure incompetence on the part of g cum. No plan at all. No need to look for conspiracies.

Toppatsu covers are to be found by the teachers who toppatsu apparently?
Anyone aware of this?
If a cover cannot be found, then it is your obligation to work.
Japanese staff work when they are sick, why can't gaijin is the logic behind this.
If you won't work, then you obviously aren't interested in keeping a job and stand-by/firing procedures will commence.

Again, this is all rumors and I don't believe that anyone has confirmed it yet.
But, I doubt that they have thought this one through.

I'm not implying that instructors are necessary or god's gift to japan, but the reality is that the instructors are the product and the more they keep opening new branches and burning instructors, the more they are making their grave deeper.

Is this the truth? I pulled this off a discussion group board, and I reckon it quite possible hits the nail right on the head:

“How much did Saruhashi and his LDP mates pay G Comm to put on this façade of a “rescue” mission? It’s a diversionary tactic, keeping all eyes of what has really gone down in China town. This will never be over, until Saruhashi and his criminal mates are arrested, charged, put before the courts, convicted, and jailed. The J government is trying to appear as if it put an end to the Nova story, but that is all just show, they let Nova do what it did for years on end, and they were part of it. Saruhashi and his political allies are simply looking for an out, and an out that will be swallowed by the Japanese public, with Saruhashi’s political allies trying to make it appear that the government did its level best all the while.”

Ha Ha nice one. Surprised you went to all the effort but hey a jokes a joke. I laughed!

maybe because they are a bunch of morons who make all their decisions arbitrarily without any thought for what happens next. who the fuck do they think they are? they said they won't renew my contract, refused to explain why, and when i pressed them for an answer they said it was because they had to keep things balanced, morons, meaning they had to appear to be fair by screwing around with a more or less equal number of people in all their respective areas. if anyone thinks this is not what's happening, sleep on.... i was also told they might reconsider if i were willing to move from my school near tokyo to the middle of the country, despite the fact that i work in a very busy school, which, if you looked at the incredibly busy daily schedule, you would have to conclude is understaffed. go figure...these g-clowns obviously haven't. they need their little dreams of corporate empire shaken up. and to those self-satisfied cretins who think teachers had it coming to them for not showing up to work, stop your puerile comments, people ARE going to work. the men from g-scum have bamboozled you with the strawman of pretending teachers are slacking off just to justify their misdeeds to their students and the public. they sent an email to the branches today blaming absentee teachers for not getting their contracts renewed. i for one had a perfect attendance record. g-flop won't survive like this. ijo de gozaimasu

A joke? I would not be too sure about that. Winners turn up to work, and work hard, and follow the dream. Losers, losers turn up to work late, drink too much, and can’t smell the sweet smell of big business bucks and a career, right when it is in front of their noses.

Love it or hate it, the fact is eikaiwa is a massive success story, with big bucks changing hands, and big monies being made, and big business heavy weights trading blows, and taking it up to the best of them. It is where the action is at. Awesome stuff. Big Japanese major corporate action. What an experience !

Sure, there are some casualties, but that’s big business. That's the game. Plenty of action. Bring it on !

If you can’t see what the heavy weights at G Comm are trying to build, and don’t want to be part of that success story, then quit. It is easy.

You are not a quitter? Then muscle up with some samurai business title holders in Japan, and go home when you want, not when you have to, and say, “Hey, I was part of that big business success story, I built it from the ground floor up”.

No-one can take that away from you, no way !

The key is, you have to accept you are not simply an “instructor”, but rather, an executive living abroad giving it all in the coal face of a damn big thing !

Do that, and the world is your oyster. Eikaiwa is a business career, and the stupid people that can’t see that, go home with their tails between their legs !

I have never understood why people just can’t see it. It is all there, for the taking.

It all depends on your attitude. In life, you are either a winner, or a loser, and that is all up to you.

Eikaiwa is a BUSINESS career?

Calling Eikaiwa a business career is quite a stretch. Talking to japanese housewives about their delicious hobbies is not exactly big business experience.

... sorry, I meant to say "he didn't like the answer" and not "it ..."

Why did anyone go to Gcom in the first place? Not having your contract renewed is a blessing, no?

I was smart enough to quit early and now I'm raking the cash in at Shane. I've got great working conditions, a very understanding management group, career prospects, and the best students in the Tokyo area.

Life was looking pretty grim for me back in October, but now the sky is the limit! No thank you G Com. I made a pivotal decision in my life. When I go back to Canada and visit my friends, I'll be able to say "Life in Tokyo is good. Very good."

Don't forget that at the MMC there are also people from Italy, Spain, Germany, France and China. They all came back because they had no choice, job opportunities for these people are extremely limited compared to English native-speakers.

The real question is why would anyone whose English is his/her first language want to work for this scum. I still see quite a lot of fired English instructors fighting to get their jobs back, why? wouldn't be more constructive to devote one's energies to find a new and better job? Even if they got it back, how long would it last?

I was in a non-English team at the MMC and was fired at the end of January. I am looking for a new job and managed to get a few interviews, and still fight g-crap through the GU, not because I want my job back but because I want a month salary as compensation for being fired without notice. If I don't find another job, I am ready to go back to Europe, but as for g-crap, no thank you, NEVER AGAIN!!!!!!!

I was surprised too by how many of the long-termers at Nova have carried on working for G-com. I heard of some trainers who basically "sat tight" until they got their job back, and didn't seem to have any inclination at all to find another job.

I suppose they've built up a bigger salary over the years which they don't want to lose, especially if they're now settled in Japan and some of them with families, mortgages etc.

Plus a lot of them probably don't have any other skills, qualifications or experience they could use. Or if they do have those things and did manage to get another job, they'd have to work much harder than they would at Nova, and/or have a lower salary than they have now.

However, with all the BS that's going on with this new lot, it smacks of desperation to want to keep working for them.

And what are they building? a hot air balloon? dummy
Take care of that inflated head of yours or it might burst like the eikaiwa bubble ;-)

No sympathy for the slackers is fine with me, but the Nova story smells, experienced hard working winner like you were let go without a good reason and hollow promises were made (yes orally, but with so many witnesses it would be a crime in my country) and not honored. That's not big business boys play, that's lowlife conmen play!

I am not sure they even planned it, I bet my money on sheer greed and stupidity ...

You can say a lot of bad things about g spot. However, I think it is really silly to get all upset at them for doing things electronically. You look at the year on a calender recently? Lots of things do not get sent my snail mail anymore!

Certainly there is not a problem with emailing documents in a business but payslips are confidential and shouldn't be emailed over the internet where anyone has access on it. Did they even ask us whether we wanted our information emailed?

And also, I do believe it is illegal due to the confidentiality of the information.

(although if someone doesn't care they should have the option for the payslip to be emailed and printed on the back of those pink flyers that weren't handed out)

Wow, you sound like you believe your own bullshit. Cutting out dead wood and firing slack teachers is one thing, but a lot of very good people who were neither of the above were cut in the meanest, most dishonourable fashion. You seem to be saying that you came to Japan to be a corporate lackey first, and an english teacher second.
Right now, you need to get your soul back from the devil who bought it. The cash he bought it with was counterfiet.

Don't bite!! This person is just another loser fishing to get a rise out of people.

I heard about booking lessons on line and, as far as I can gather, it's true. But can students really specify a teacher?!

right, nova has a lot of pricks working for them but i doubt anyone is really that retarded. the dude's just writing that silly crap to wind people up.

on the one hand, no Nova cunt can try to tell you youre not a good or popular teacher at contract time when students have been breaking their faces smiling when you enter the room, or giving you a mountain of chocolate and gifts, cuz obviously YOU SUCK as a teacher, and thats why they are gonna be cheap motherfuckers and not give you a raise.

(and as a reult..everyones company spirit rating dropped...way to keep us motivated..idiots..seems there wasnt a bottom-less well of gaijin labour AFTER all!)

ATS will probably have MORE free lessons cuz usually an AT is an AT cuz they are a suck-up or a brown-noser, NOT cuz they are good teachers..who wants to sit through a class boring fucking Nicky, or watching the paint dry in Daves class..or try to hear Karen mumble, when you could have Golden Boy's sexually hyper-charged flirt-class, or Wacky Irishmans laugh-riot class?

Nova was bool-sheet...everyone is better off out of there, except the chumps and lazy titled cunts who get to keep their salaries, but now have to carry sandals like real folk if they wanna keep them...you know who I am talking about you fucking soulless assholes...cunts like YOU fucked the company and whatever good people they had left to the last fucking day...heres hoping you drown in shit at fates earliest convenience....tell me...has someone fragged that tub of shit Edo Fackler yet back in the States?...I hear that in America if you are cunt, you are just as likely as not to get shot at work...couldnt happen to a nicer pile of micro-managing faggotry.)

Does G-COM/Zombie Nova Use that horrible Diplomat book still?...FUCK the drawings in that were SHITE!!! I could stick a crayon up my ass and do a better job than the idiot in-house History Undergrad they hired on the cheap to do it.

Ah Catharsis!

Why do you still bother to stay with this g.scum, zombie-nova or whatever you wanna call it? how many times do you need to be screwed before you realize how shit they are and leave?

On the 20th I found an e-mail with a PDF attached, basically it gave me 3 days to "accept" an "offer" to transfer to a box in the sticks with no utilities connected, in the middle of winter, with a WHOLE fifty thousand yen to ease the pain. I had to reply by Saturday the 23rd. Unfortunately I wasnt able to reply via e-mail so I called them. They said a hard copy would be delivered that day, the day the reply was required. If I answered NO to the "offer" I will be "let go" from March 31st.
So far Im the only person I know who's received this around here, but I actually feel better now. There's light at the end of the tunnel. I consider my relationship with this.."company"..to be over as of yesterday. When they called me the next day and asked if I wanted to come in for ONE DAYS WORK...my girlfriend hit the roof. She called the Japanese area manager, but all she did was constantly say "What we are doing is not illegal." She wouldnt answer my girlfriends questions and instead kept asking for her name and what was our relationship.
For those who are going to say "You're still there?" don't bother please, we've heard it a thousand times. Yes that's right, some of us are/were still there. Mostly we7re not free 20 something singles who can just up stakes and blow. We have wives, children, houses, responsibilities. Maybe some of us started like you, drinking all night, showing up late, but we settled down. And despite what some people think, prior to last year Nova WAS a secure job. Unless you totally screwed up (I screwed up plenty the first 2 years), a new contract was virtually guaranteed.
For the those who arrived towards the end, you came to an almost entirely different job to the one we came to.
And no, we havent been sitting on our arses, praying to G Comm to save us. Everyone has been looking for another job. I applied for one recently...so did over 800 other people. We'll jump when we have somewhere to land, somewhere that will give us a chance to at least come CLOSE to getting enough money to support our families.

Well, if you have settle down and you have families, houses, children, responsibilities and children, these are extra reasons for you not only to leave this shit "company", but maybe to think about a better way of getting by here in Japan. If I had a family I wouldn't rely forever on a job in such a dodgy, shaky and unregulated business like the eikaiwa in Japan. I know it might be hard to digest but this the reality. Good luck.

I was a Nova student. I am not housewife but Nova was hobby. there are only Japanese around me, its so bore. I think there are so many people like me. but I lost hobby and money! no more school like nova. I paid 3000yen for one lesson. any instructor dont think to do private lesson? talk easy conversation one hour, you could get 3000yen . no more Nova, just want safe nice non japanese friends...

Keiko,
Firstly thanks for posting on here. You're the first student I know who has posted a message, and it would be good if more students could post on here.
Secondly, I'm also sorry you lost both your money and your hobby. I know a former student who wants to study again at Nova but can't because he still owes money to the credit company he was using to pay Nova with.
If your city has an International Center, they might have free English lessons, or you could exchange language with a foreigner for free.
Best of luck for the future.

Now G.con are going to fire all standby instructors who do not agree to a transfer. If we were put on standby and given no reason, then terminated because we've been on standby too long wouldn't that qualify as an illegal dismissal? Anybody wanyt to sue and see what we get?

Thanks for your comment Keiko. It's nice to know that students appreciate us. I'm sorry that Nova screwed you over and all the other students in fact. Some people don't seem to realise that it's not just teachers and staff who were f***ked but students too. Gambatte ne.

Did you notice I said I AM looking for work? Are you still in Japan? Do you have any idea how many people are applying for every job? Anything up to 800 for one, as I said.I was relating an incident. If I was complaining I was complaining about the lack of courtesy and answers to question. I can and AM surviving and will continue to do so. If you have nothing to offer beyond platitudes and condemnation, sod off.

Why do you say "i applied for one . .. ", as in a single job you applied for. So you enjoyed being a piece of crap, writing other teachers up for stupid reasons, taking all the free lessons, acting like a superior know it all, and now you have to find another job, a real job where you have to have some kind of social skills and the ability to work with others and treat others with respect . . .you cant do it, can you? No I think you reap what you sow. You are too lazy to find another job, or too scared to find another job. You dont have any excuses. You really dont. I think its hilarious. I have zero sympathy for you or the wankers I personally worked with, maybe you are one of them, who thought themselves so great but deep down must have a sick twisted hatred for themselves and want everybody to feel bad. Well I dont. Find another job. If its so bad at g-comm, which I am sure it is miserable, anything is better, and it soooo easy to find another job. I am a genius, everybody i know was able to find one. And we are all pretty stupid actually.

Once again you seem to feel you "know" about me but in fact you dont. I am/was not a titled teacher, therefore not in any position to write other teachers up, for stupid reasons or otherwise. I am/was not in any position to take all the frees. I dont/didnt act like a superior know it all. I do have social skills, I do treat others with respect (provided they deserve it that is). I have done no sowing for this reaping. I dont/didnt think I was so great, nor do/did I have a twisted hatred for myself. I neither want nor need your sympathy (though I suspect you were born minus a sympathy gland anyway).
If it makes it a little easier for you to understand however, Ill clarify..."one of the (many) jobs I applied for recently"...
Happier now? You really need to stop believing you know anything about anybodys life outside your own.