Open Thread: GEOS Scuttlebutt

lol. You are full of it, Johnny Gigolo. But, yes, sure. If anyone is pissed off about the V-chats, just up and quit and go home. What's so complicated? Don't like GEOS much? Why wait for the obituary? Leave now.

Dude, GEOS is the easiest Ekaiwa out there. Most ekaiwa's over-work you and under-pay you. In my years at GEOS. I always got paid the right amount, on time. The most classes I have ever had in one day is 6. Taking holiday's is fucking easy and you get more with every year you work. Can you find another ekaiwa with a working situation this easy? Aeon, Gabba, ECC? NO way! My friends that work for Aeon complain 24/7 about how many hours they work. Gabba teachers get fucked on wages all the time. In "comparison" Geos isn't that bad.

Incredible! So the filthy-rich parasite didn't get out of the Australian market entirely after all, he was just looking to re-distribute his money into something he feels a bit more comfortable with (as English certainly isn't his forte):

http://sydney.gumtree.com.au/c-Business-Services-other-i-want-to-buy-bro...

Looks like Thorn's been reading the manual of Internet trolling. Very clever.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2064125_become-internet-troll.html

Come on "Thorn" - troll me.

that's the news. g-com has bought geos. classes cancelled today and tomorrow, with meetings in regional centers for teachers to meet their new overlords. (for those of you who didn't make the v-chat)

don't think they did much for work conditions at nova, but we will get paid.

Wow, managers trying to be cool and blasting their teachers...Damn, you guys and girls have sunk to a knew level.

So if (big IF) they are buying GEOS, then what is up with the NA schools?

"
So if (big IF) they are buying GEOS, then what is up with the NA schools?
"

the previous poster was making a sarcastic joke. what on earth would GCom, or any company for that matter, want with GEOS' sorry-ass teachers, schools, or materials??

......and NO one in Japan gives a rat's arse about the NA schools.

Offiically bankrupt. We got an email from head office then got kicked out of our school!

GONE!!! Bankrupt....!!

http://www.japantoday.com/category/business/view/english-school-operator...

"I want to contact anyone who works at a Geos school, especially in Osaka area, to learn what he or she has known.
"

because you're a sicko who lives for inside information???

You are completely right.
In fact anyone who is in the country and happy about this should really be looking at their own company and wondering how viable it still is.

One question (and I know it's almost the same thing) - is it bankrupt or a take over?

A take over is marginally better for teachers who's school isn't closing right?

For those of you who can read Japanese, here is the news per Asashi Shimbun.

http://www.asahi.com/national/update/0421/TKY201004210222.html

Basically, it reported that GEOS has filed for bankruptcy. However, G-Communications, the same entity that purchased Nova is going to purchase the "Eikaiwa" part of GEOS. This includes the kodomo schools. No mention was made of the impact, or purchase of any international schools. However, the fact that GEOS had international schools was reported.

I have read the article a bit more thoroughly. Some more pertinent facts:

1. GEOS filed for bankruptcy and reported debt to be 75 Billion yen
2. G-Communications will only purchase the eikaiwa business
3. GEOS will retain the "Business Communications" division
4. 99 schools have been earmarked for closure
5. ALL schools will be closed on the 21st and 22nd
6. Schools that will remain open will reopen on the 23rd
7. GEOS said that it tried to remain open, but that the "stagnant" economy, and the NOVA bankruptcy had caused distrust of the eikaiwa industry ultimately resulting in fewer and fewer enrollments.

I believe that "S" in the emails could have been Mr. Suhara, the GEOS Director who announced the bankruptcy proceedings (again reported in the Asahi Shimbun).

Sure is quiet here now.

If you are a GEOS teacher and your school is closing, consider collecting student contact details and approaching a local private school with the list.
The local private school may make an arrangement whereby you can teach your students out of that school.
For example, the students will pay a monthly 8,000yen fee to the private school. They will have a 50 minute lesson at a fixed time each week. You will teach the lesson in the private school. The private school will provide accommodation administration and a school environment-not a cafe or etc. The school will share the fee with you 50-50.
If you teach kids classes this could be a useful proposition as the kids will most likely be unable to relocate to a distant venue.

I advised this approach a month or two ago. I hope you collected the details.

David

That is a very good idea when it comes to kids students. No one wants to risk teaching them in their home and a cafe is not a viable place to teach a preschooler.
For adults I would simply go make up some professional looking business cards and give one to each student next week after it reopens. Further to that if your school is one that is closing, try to make a bilingual letter explaining that:
a) it is closing;
b) you are not supposed to tell them;
Staple your business card in the top corner, sign it, place it in an envelope and hand them out during the lessons. Even if it is "just temporarily until G-comm comes to the rescue"

Actually, it is much more than GEOS. And it is much more than GEOS executives and managers. As I said in my "Why GEOS Is Dysfunctional" post, it is also the teaching methodology, materials and the teachers who have helped take GEOS down. These same factors will, if allowed to go unabated, also have severe if not catastrophic effect on other eikaiwa schools regardless of their size. You can dress up the ugly eikaiwa beast in new clothing and give it a new name, but it will make little difference to the consumer. The consumer can see right through that charade.

"Ni chaneru" is fraught with people talking about GEOS right now. And, perhaps surprising to some here, they are not talking a whole lot about GEOS management; they are saving their most severe criticism for the charlatans that call themselves teachers. There is no doubt in their minds that the product in the classroom was bankrupt well before anyone in the GEOS boardroom determined to file for bankruptcy.

If you cannot teach, then taking Mr. Price's advice will not sway anyone any more. The distrust of gaijin teachers is at an all-time low right now. And that distrust will not likely go away for a very long time. Just today, before the GEOS announcement, a Japanese educator advised Japanese students not to seek ESL lessons with any native speaker of English. The reason, right or wrong, was that native speakers did not know English; they only spoke it. Of course, this is false, but the seeds of doubt have been planted deep, and for good reason.

The fall of GEOS reminds me of a massive stock market crash. There will be of necessity a long recovery cycle up ahead. But just as we are talking about financial reforms in the US, there must be educational reforms in Japan's language schools for the recovery to have a chance. Regulations requiring all English teachers to have at least a TESL certificate, a complete overall of the curriculum, materials and methodology and responsible management are vital if eikaiwa is to have a future in Japan.

It's interesting that the gaijin teachers are getting the blame: a lot easier to do that than to rubbish Japanese companies: those bloody foriegners - it's all their fault.

Sorry, but I don't think that being able to teach or getting qualifications will make a blind bit of difference if you can't find a decent place to work in. A good environment will nurture good educational practices, whereas a bad one will not.

C'mon though.. how many of you guys and girls REALLY came to Japan to teach? Most guys I know, if they're honest, came to Japan on the promise of a good root and some beery nights out. Or failing that, something equally despicable like Manga or Karate or some shite.

What on earth is in it for a 'real' ELT teacher? 250k a month? pfff. You can make 3 or 4 times that a month in the middle east. The culture? 12 months of being asked if you can use chopsticks? The hours? Most teachers I know are out the door at 4 if not earlier...

"
So if (big IF) they are buying GEOS, then what is up with the NA schools?
"

the previous poster was making a sarcastic joke. what on earth would GCom, or any company for that matter, want with GEOS' sorry-ass teachers, schools, or materials??

......and NO one in Japan gives a rat's arse about the NA schools.

hahaahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahaaha! Don't you look like an a*s now!!!!!! hahahahaahahahahahaha!

You couldn't have been more WRONG! GEOS BANKRUPT AND GCOM PICKING UP THE PIECES!!! And you have no job in Japan anymore!!!

Still trying to get that foot out of your mouth? :-)

P.S. Must have been a GEOS manager stooge. Ha, ha!

16:13 You are an idiot of the highest degree. Must be a GEOS manager stooge/ Mr. K a$s-kisser...

THOS TEACHERS were hired by, trained by, and employed by GEOS! So whose fault is it for hiring useless, in your words, gaijin teachers? Since you seem very simple-minder, GEOS management is responsible...Their system and that system failed, No one forced them to hire them...Oh, and all the BS books and other crap GEOS thought was golden.

Japanese will always blame a foreigner before themselves, but reality is their country has sunken to a new low...Say hello to China, your new master.

I just wanna say it's been a long strange ride on the GEOS train. Some fun times and some shitty times. Best of luck to all the jobless people out there. When all else fails turn to crime. =)

happening in NA?

There are a lot of quiet managers today in Canada. We as teachers here need your help to know what is going on. Thank you.

Good luck here. I work under the damn VP / school manager everyone is talking about. He is a control freak and will talk his way out of it. the guy is in denial and is a major Mr. K ass-kisser. Remember those letter with him and Wendy? F-----!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How is YOUR job now, GEOS Manager??!?!?

Too funny. You are in the unemployment line with that teacher, I guess. :-)

Oh and while I'm in bitchy mode with this whole thing, I really MUST refute Craig Ryan from the first page.
I was the preceding teacher at Miki, for two years. Sure GEOS sucked, but the school was a lovely warm place to work if he'd just have given everyone a chance. He was surly and non-communicative from the get-go. The manager made a lot of efforts to talk to him, but he just turned away or ran away to Lawson. He never even tried contacting other teachers for help. His classrooms were stripped bare of any decoration after I left, bleaker than anything. He was never friendly, and didn't even smile. We once joined him for lunch and you'd think we'd kicked puppies and stabbed babies to get there.
I admit, Miki is out in the freakin' boondocks of Hyogo. Finding other foreigners to talk to is difficult. You have to be able to adapt to survive out there.

As for Stephen, well the man is doing all he can to help right now. I'm really glad I had him as a boss. I had to thank him on my way out of the meeting, even if it did appear to baffle him as to WHY I was doing it.

I love those students I left at Miki when I transferred and my heart really aches for them. So many of them were kids and they were all adorable little monsters. I'm still in contact with some of the students. Just last week I got a picture of some of those kids and it made me so damn happy to see them.
I've been wanting to defend the school since I saw Craig's post but I didn't want to out myself then. This still might come bite me in the arse later, but at least I feel better about defending the school he trashed.
Do I blame Craig for being bitter about GEOS? No...I am too. I really don't blame him for reacting when Australia went down. But...
Do I think Craig made his own situation worse? Suuuuure do!

Do you guys know that the GEOS overseas hires (back when they had overseas hiring offices) used to get graded A, B and C? 'A' hires used to get placed in the big schools, usually to replace popular outgoing teachers. B's were better than average. C's would get stuck out in the middle of nowhere. I wonder if they still did that once they started only hiring within Japan? Usually you'd get a little comment from whoever did the interview where they'd try to tell you about the person's 'weak points' (i.e. personality flaws) as politely as possible. "can be a little quiet at times" = "is a surly uncommunicative muppet who will quit or have to be fired within 6 months".

The newsletter might be datelined 2 May 2010 but that's good 'ol GEOS newspeak for 2 May 2011. Anyway, off to the news u might not really want to know about....(sorry about the English standard, but it's a direct copy, y'know)

" STAFFING NEWS
In our school, we had some changes. Yasu still has 4 weeks before he leaves us. May 20th is supposed to be is the last day at school as he will take some vacation before going back to school in order to become a graphic designer. Naoko is going to replace him. She will become our new registrar and visa expert. Rita, our Regional Marketing Coordinator came back from South Korea and will stay in GEOS Montreal. Our beloved Billy is also not working in the school anymore. Our lovely teachers Ian and Mark came back to school to teach, whereas our teacher Peter will finish at the end of the month and will return to the USA."

Smart move. Yasu.

See it all in glowing technicolour:

http://geosmontreal.com/geos_montreal_newsletter_may2011

Anyway, off to the news u might not really want to know about....

You're right, I don't. A bunch of staff changes, that could be happening in any company, anywhere. So what?

Uh? Anyway, I just think the post originally being replied to, was pretty lacking.

I was looking for “fun stuff” – but really, it’s just a cut and paste of a “wish you well” message.

Because things are getting rather boring, and that generates a feeling of restlessness, I was hoping for some real substance, but as usual, just a cut and paste from a public website, was all that came forward.

Is there any gutsy stuff out there, that really drives the dagger in (if that is at all necessary to begin with), or has the previous assassination campaign really come to a halt?

Specifically, has anyone got any hard evidence of the ownership of GEOS NA – who are the shareholders / who are the shareholding companies?

By what avenue, are funds transferred from NA to JP, or vice-versa (if at all)?

From what accounts, to what accounts?

Do any insiders out there, in the know, actually know this kind of stuff?

How long are the possible Japanese octopus tentacles?

How far do they reach?

Who is the main beneficiary, of income generated by GEOS NA, and what evidence exists to support any such claim?

I think I did read somewhere that this guy was Sahashi's friend. Was it on a lolly ice stick, or the back of a cornflake packet?