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

Part II of my interview on My TEFL Journey.

Where do you see the English teaching industry in Japan heading?

I think it will continue to contract largely because the aftershock of Nova’s collapse still resonates with consumers. A lot of schools still don’t seem to have learned from the lessons of Nova and continue to abuse and rip-off their customers. Students, on the other hand, are voting with their feet and seeking out other venues such as Skype-based lessons, which are incredibly cheap.

There’s also Japan’s rapidly graying population to consider. The market for students is shrinking. All of this is putting downward pressure on the job itself. Salaries may remain depressed, but eikaiwa will trundle on with a steady supply of instructors willing to work for low pay thanks to the popularity of cosplay, manga, and anime abroad. That said, it would not surprise me if one of the large eikiwas failed in the near future.

Part 1 of a two-part interview with yours truly on My TEFL Journey.

Although you once taught at an Eikaiwa, you don’t anymore. Why did you choose to leave?

A mixture of disillusionment and boredom with the job. The disillusionment came from the realization that being a salesman was more important than the teaching itself. During the hiring process in Vancouver, GEOS played up how I was beginning a career while casually throwing in, “You’re OK with approaching students and asking them to renew their contracts, right?” I wanted the job so of course I said yes.

But once in Japan, teachers and managers came and went every few months or so. There was even a stretch of at least 3 months where my school didn’t even have a manager. The weekly meetings consisted of the manager (when I had one) telling us how much we needed to make that month in terms of new student signups and contract renewals. During renewal campaigns, head office would send faxes excoriating under-performing schools, demanding that they do better. This wasn’t anything like the picture painted for me in Vancouver.

02/09 Correction: In the first interview, I wrote: Nova’s rivals, such as GEOS and AEON, quietly switched over their fee schedules to monthly schemes to avoid the wrath of their customers and avoid any potential lawsuits over lesson refunds. A reader pointed out that this was incorrect for AEON (and I believe GEOS, too). Both AEON and GEOS still charge everything up front.

I stand corrected. Don’t know where I got the notion from. Probably got it confused with children’s lessons, which are charged on a monthly basis. Thanks for the clarification.

The eco-point program is now officially underway with the government accepting applications:

Under the Eco-point system, those who buy designated energy-saving appliances between May 15 and March 31 will be eligible for the points, with one Eco-point worth roughly ¥1.

Points given vary between 6,000 and 9,000 for air conditioners, depending on cooling power, 3,000 and 10,000 for refrigerators depending on capacity and 7,000 and 36,000 for televisions for terrestrial broadcasting depending on the size of screen.

Starting Wednesday, purchasers of these appliances may register Eco-points by mailing applications along with documents such as receipts and copies of product warranties to the Eco-point secretariat. These points may be exchanged for merchandise coupons, electronic money and other items of choice.

For instance, 13,500 Eco-points may be exchanged for ¥12,000 stored in a Suica electronic money card issued by East Japan Railway Co., while 5,000 points are exchangeable for ¥5,000 worth of department store coupons.

So, how can I help the environment by purchasing newer appliances? This is how the points are awarded for refrigerators and TVs:

• Refrigerators
  • 501L or more: 10,000
  • 401L to 500L: 9,000
  • 251Lto 400L: 6,000
  • 250 or less: 3,000
• Digital terrestrial TVs (LCD and plasma)
  • 46-inch or larger: 36,000
  • 40 to 42 inch: 23,000
  • 37-inch: 17,000
  • 26 to 32-inch: 12,000
  • 26-inch or smaller: 7,000

The list of refrigerators eligible for the eco-points program is here [PDF]. TVs are here [PDF].

Note: The links to the lists of eligible appliances seem to have died. They were working a few days ago, but somebody seems to have removed them from this page on the eco-point website.

I currently own a 28-inch Sony TV that is rated at 125W and a 401L Hitachi refrigerator rated at 140W, or 260kWhr/year. Both are 6 years old and in good working order. I want to maximize my points, so that means buying a larger TV and fridge.

Let's go for a Sony 52-inch KDL-52X5050. According to Sony, it consumes 315W, more than double the consumption of my current TV. How about a 46-inch Sharp LC-46AE6? 150 watts. A 40-inch Sharp LC-40AE6? 120W, so I'm better off in terms of consumption, plus I end up with a larger screen although I'm going to have to pay over 100,000 yen for it.

The same goes for refrigerators. The one I have has consumes 260kWhr/year. Let's look at the Hitachi R-SF50YM, which has a capacity of 501L. It consumes approximately 400 kWh/year. How about Panasonic's 470L NR-F473TM? It consumes roughly 390kWh/year. A quick look at the offerings from Panasonic and Hitachi shows that I need to buy a significantly smaller refrigerator if I'm to reduce my energy consumption.

Can you reduce your energy consumption by upgrading to newer appliances? Yes, but only if you pay attention. But when was the last time you thought about power consumption when shopping for an appliance? Sadly, the way the eco-point scheme is structured, consumers are "rewarded" for purchasing larger and more expensive appliances, which also consume more electricity. If you fall into the trap of maximizing your eco-points, you will likely increase your overall electricity consumption instead of reduce it. As I said before, like the 12,000 yen kickback, it's a ploy to boost consumption in the short term under the guise of "being green."

It's a slow news day at ELT News:

Language school owner condemns websites that allow anonymous posting

March 01, 2009

Kevin Burns, who runs the greenlist of schools in Japan, a list of English schools that come up to certain standards and are considered good to work for, has condemned forums and websites that allow anonymous postings. Kevin says, 'I think if people are going to publish negative reports about schools, they should be willing to stand by what they say. They should have the guts to publish their real name.'

He went on to say that, 'If they (hide behind a pseudonym), then it is just slander and websites that allow that slander are not worth your time. In fact, they really should be sued,' and added, 'I think it is time for many websites to mature and have some integrity about what they will allow...I suppose this will occur after some school goes after and sues a website.'

Kevin has been fighting to present language schools in Japan in a more positive light for some years, arguing that most are family-run businesses with conscientious owners.

You can see the full text of Kevin Burns' statement on his greenlist blog.

Not this shit again. We've been down this road before.

What forums and websites is Kevin condemning? What websites is he calling on to mature and why? Kevin might gain some credibility if he had the "guts" to give his readers some actual information instead of randomly poopooing some people out there...somewhere...who have websites that he doesn't like.

Just before NOVA began to implode, there was a wiki floating about focused solely on all things eikaiwa. Sadly, it went offline before NOVA collapsed and has been offline for at least a year.

The Eikaiwa Wiki is the product of long-time LJ reader Novawhiz, and I am happy to say that he has graciously allowed LetsJapan to host it.

Novawhiz has spent a fair amount of time in getting the wiki back up and running, but since it has been offline for a while, some of the content may be out of date or in need of expanding. This is where you, the reader, come in.

The wiki needs your input. What are the good schools to work for and the ones to avoid? What should you do when you aren't paid or are fired for no apparent reason? Who can you turn to for help about labour issues? Or advice on planning lessons? What should you do when you want to quit and change jobs?

Contribute and help make it a resource for people already teaching English in Japan and for those who are thinking of coming to teach in Japan. This is an experiment for LJ and a work in progress. Don't see a page you think should be here? Make one!

To access the wiki, click the Eikaiwa Wiki link at the top of the page or in the sidebar, or click here.

Let's Japan seeks to debunk the beast known as eikaiwa, or English conversation in Japan. Our experience at GEOS left us disillusioned with the job. We were hungry for an opportunity to live and work and Japan, so we jumped through all the hoops and said the things we thought our employers wanted to hear.

Working in Japan was nothing close to the image presented to us back home. The reality was that we were salesmen, doing our best to keep students happy enough so that they would gladly keep paying for the privilege of speaking to us a few times a week.

We found the weakest link in the chain to be head office. Support, advice, training, leadership, all of these qualities that were scant to begin with evaporated near the end of our time there. Chris asked his so-called teacher trainer about the president of the company. He wanted to know where he was taking the company, what was his vision of the future of the school? The trainer answered, "I don't know. I've never met him. He's not at all interested in the educational aspects of the school. He likes to do the real estate stuff. He told us all to shut up once. The office staff were talking too loudly and occasionally laughing. I guess it's a cultural thing. You can't seem to be happy or else it looks like you're not really working."

Leaving GEOS was an eye opener because we discovered that there was a new world outside of eikaiwa. We met people who weren't over-the-top-gung-ho-suit-wearing-types. Just regular folks teaching and living. They weren't "fresh outta college kids" willing to make head office happy. They were people who taught according to their own styles- not some formula concocted by a bunch of twerps at head office.

When Chris and I would get together for beers, the conversation invariably turned to our experience at GEOS and all of the bitterness, anger, and humor that went with it.

We knew we wanted to write this down and share it, and maybe warn others of the dupe GEOS and eikaiwa as a whole is, so we set up a meager web page on GeoCities in 2000. It all grew from there. Instead of angry rants about the injustices of the job, our stories begat more stories, and others generously contributed their own experiences.

We have exorcised our eikaiwa demons, and our eikaiwa days are far behind us. This website is here to encourage a dialogue on the subject of teaching English in Japan and act as a soapbox for whatever else is on our mind.

We hope the stories we've contributed inspire you to write or respond or whatever. You can get in touch with LJ by commenting on posts or emailing us via the Email Let's Japan link.

Let's Japan has been pretty dormant for a while with only a handful of articles posted in the past year or two. The forums have been the main source of activity. The reason is simple: I have moved on. I've been out of eikaiwa for 10 years now and I cannot honestly say I know much about the industry any more. I've purged my eikaiwa demons. It's time for someone else to carry the torch.

LJ isn't going away. The site has been given a faceift and I hope to write more about Japan also want to invite other LJ users to blog here as well.

Happy New Year! If you live in the Tokyo area, have the Tokyo Metro Police got a surprise for you: Random ID checks!

According to the US Embassy in Tokyo website, police in Tokyo will be conducting random ID checks on foreigners.

http://japan.usembassy.gov/e/acs/tacs-newsletter20070101.html

Have you ever felt you were stranded on a desert island? On Friday, September the 2nd, the world lost an eikaiwa role model.