Teaching for food? Why this PR stunt is a bad idea

53 Responses to “Teaching for food? Why this PR stunt is a bad idea”

1. Gregg on November 20th, 2007 12:51 am

   Gaba, which is now the nation’s largest publicly listed English language school operator,

   I don’t know if that’s the most frightening or funniest thing I’ve read in a long time. How low can it go?

2. QED on November 20th, 2007 1:11 am

   Huth…are you completely insane? I don’t know where you get off saying that…I’m caught in the middle of this issue myself…I wouldn’t mind anything for free, but I really need a job and money…Even a place to live has taken back seat at this point, thanks to friends…I really don’t know where you get off with comments like that…especially when you’ve never walked a mile in someone’s shoes…

3. Ken Worsley on November 20th, 2007 1:32 am

   Don’t feed the troll. Huth, you’ve been given your one and only warning a few weeks ago. Comment removed, user banned.

   And now back to the actually scheduled programming.

4. novawhiz on November 20th, 2007 4:51 am

   Ken,

   I think you missed an important angle on the ‘food for work’ program, namely that it’s implementation is a direct result of the specific nature of the Nova -> G.comm migration from the standpoint of the laborer. Specifically, a current Nova teacher would have to resign to even have a shot at getting hired by G.comm with no guarantee they will be placed at a branch and working in the foreseeable future. G.comm has actually told people to “go back home to your country and we’ll call you when a position opens up”. Meanwhile, the saga of Nova’s bankruptcy continues to drag along in slow motion.

   The 4,000 yen per hour business English instruction you mentioned is a bit of a pie in the sky position.. that they exists has little tangible bearing to the vast majority of the masses employed at eikaiwa chains or the out of work Nova teachers.

   Gaba is a good representation of where most of the English language teaching jobs will go in terms of salaries (low) and benefits (none). They work as ’sub-contractors’ and the company carries little to no responsibility for the workers.

   My assessment is that Union is trying to leverage the current Nova collapse with the ‘food for work’ program to apply pressure on the government to address serious deficiencies in the way foreigners are employed in the eikaiwa industry. I have done a fairly detailed study of what teachers go through when an eikaiwa goes bankrupt, and they all share a nearly identical path in terms of financial damage done to teachers. The list is quite long… Toza, NCB, ABC, Lado, Mori, ASA, Britannica, Leap, Bi-lingual, HEDS….

   In truth, can we really say that this stunt will be responsible for further depressing English teaching wages that have been deteriorating over the past 15 years? We’re seeing a symptom and not a cause here. In fact, I was invited once to attend a ’social gathering’ where foreigners were compensated for an hour of just talking with Japanese in exchange for free food and drink in downtown Tokyo (the Japanese paid a 3,000 yen entrance fee) and that was back in May of 2003.

   This isn’t the first time foreigners have been compensated for language exchange with food, and it won’t be the last, but it is the first time it was reported as a symptom of the real market conditions. There is an over supply of labor here, and even the Japanese government took notice that many Nova teachers continued to go to work even though they weren’t getting paid…. the governments response? They setup a home-stay program for teachers that were willing to work for free in various areas of Japan, and are quoted as saying “if people are willing to work for free then we should take advantage of this”.

   It’s deceptively easy to let the problem get swept under the carpet, I just find it confusing why so many people fail to see what’s really at stake here, that there isn’t a free market here as far as eikaiwa teachers go as there are real costs to get to into the market and also costs to extricate oneself from the market. There needs to a great deal of pressure applied to the government to step up and intervene and I would hope the Unions ‘food for work’ program has enough publicity to provide the incentive to do so.

5. Ken Worsley on November 20th, 2007 5:33 am

   Novawhiz, I think we’re very much in agreement here. I agree that the Nova/GComm situation is specific, but as you say, this is the first time that the media has picked up on a teach-for-food type of program. That’s important because ultimately, this is about perception.

   When consumers see the value of a service reduced so low, it confirms what you say about Gaba’s conditions being the future of English teaching in Japan. I agree with this, and have said so publicly. I don’t see the job as one that will provide people with the means to survive and prosper in Japan, let alone a career. Of course the 4,000 yen an hour positions are a ‘pie in the sky’ - nonetheless, they do exist, and represent the upper-level of this market’s employment opportunities, even if they are by and large part time positions.

   The reason this gets to me is because eikaiwa is actually a powerful conduit for people from overseas to come to Japan, live in Japan, work in Japan and become interested and involved in the country. Often this leads to positive results. Many former eikaiwa teachers have started companies in Japan, or gone on to study the country in graduate school and contribute to research on Japan. I even know a few working at very prestigious financial firms, making use of the language and cross-cultural skills they gained. It would be unfortunate for Japan if such a position were to turn into nothing more than a service-level job. It’s not good for Japan for so many people to be left with bitter tastes in their mouthes.

   Unfortunately, I don’t think the government much cares about “serious deficiencies in the way foreigners are employed in the eikaiwa industry.” As we know, they are much worse in other industries - whether or not the employees are foreign - and there have hardly been any significant changes over the past few years.

   the governments response? They setup a home-stay program for teachers that were willing to work for free in various areas of Japan, and are quoted as saying “if people are willing to work for free then we should take advantage of this”.

   Could you let me know where you saw this?

6. sod on November 20th, 2007 7:57 am

   this might be the article.
   http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=3038
   filed under satire!

7. Jim D on November 20th, 2007 8:30 am

   With the news of a former taxi driver who literally starved to death ‘craving an onigiri’ still in people’s minds, the union’s ‘food for work’ stunt is ill advised.

   The Japanese national genuinely fell through the meagre welfare net and died in pitiful conditions, whereas the ex-Nova teachers are seen as priviledged (with foreign travel) graduates simply extending and captalizing on the celebrity status they enjoyed as eikaiwa instructors. For the few involved in this activity it will provide a few juicy stories for the people back home.

   Most people would conclude that the best course of action for those who really are in dire straits would be to take advantage of assistance offered by their embassy and arrange to go home.

   Does ‘food for work’ have political clout? The best results would be obtained from negotiating from a position of power, not from self- proclaimed weakness. I understand that the union has tremendous difficulty eliciting the involvemnet of instructors who are only in Japan for short spells of time. But the ‘Food for Work’ program re-inforces the idea in some folk’s minds that these foreigners are a bunch of ninnies.

8. Garrett on November 20th, 2007 11:49 am

   the governments response? They setup a home-stay program for teachers that were willing to work for free in various areas of Japan, and are quoted as saying “if people are willing to work for free then we should take advantage of this”.

   I saw this, too - on Japan Probe, in article by David Markle labeled as “Satire.” The same article quoted the government as looking forward to being able to engage in slavery.

   I’m with you, Ken. “Teach for Food” is boneheaded. Even given Nova’s situation, there is no reason teachers with the time to teach couldn’t do it for cash, which is, in reality, what most are doing or did.

   Teach for Food is a PR stunt that sends the message that English instruction is something inherently value-less and that those who teach it are unskilled, subsistence workers.

9. Eddie Liddle on November 20th, 2007 1:08 pm

   This is a very interesting topic. What is English Conversation Teaching ? I struggle with this daily. I try to frame it as a professional teaching situation sometimes. Then sometimes its like international exchange which I should just charge for expenses and time. Yes, teaching for food is not good in the situation since it isn’t framed as an international exchange but as “a English Conversation Lesson”. A lesson fee would be more appropriate. Then one could buy food.

10. Ken Worsley on November 20th, 2007 1:09 pm

    The satire article is what I was thinking of. After posting the comment, I realized others would put it up before the original commenter discovered it himself. So be it. I don’t think it takes away from the comment aside from the one paragraph that bases itself on the satire piece.

11. Alatriste on November 20th, 2007 1:31 pm

    “a current Nova teacher would have to resign to even have a shot at getting hired by G.comm with no guarantee they will be placed at a branch and working in the foreseeable future. G.comm has actually told people to “go back home to your country and we’ll call you when a position opens up..”

    Well, I do not think so, we resign from Old Nova the day before we are re-hired or transferred by the new company. So we are still at old nova :( and we have just signed some requesting papers.

    “if people are willing to work for free then we should take advantage of this..” hehe, fortunately for us, this is not true : http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=3058
    (Nova Teacher’s ‘Volunteer Spirit’ Doesn’t Fall On Blind Eyes November 3, 2007 by David Markle Filed Under News Satire)

    In my opinion “Teaching for food” is just not serious or it does not look serious. It looks like something more about the media and using teachers image to get attention. General Union has been useful so far, but they need to be much more professional if they want to represent anybody. It would be very useful to know the content of the Agreement for the taking over of Nova, for example.

12. QED on November 20th, 2007 5:06 pm

    The best results would be obtained from negotiating from a position of power, not from self- proclaimed weakness.

    Agreed. Once GComm sees this as being the labor position, they know they don’t have to take them seriously.

13. Garrett on November 20th, 2007 5:48 pm

    To pick on NovaWhiz one more time:

    “go back home to your country and we’ll call you when a position opens up..”

    I saw a statement asking Nova teachers to “wait at home,” but not one specifying “home country.” Was such a request actually made of Nova teachers? If so, G.comm was clearly thinking most would not come back, which would help them with their impossible goal of hiring back all former Nova employees who wanted a job.

    Eddie Liddle, you pose an interesting question. I’d say that there are two types of English-teaching: “professional” teaching, based on a methodology known to the teacher and carried out with a specific goal in mind, and chatting in English, which is what Nova engaged in. For the first, there are certification criteria in place, job oversight, and, generally speaking, an established market value. The second is, of course, much more vague. There is nothing inherently wrong or useless about giving students an environment in which they can talk with a native speaker of the language they are studying, but it does raise the question of where the line between talking with an acquaintance and taking a lesson is, which is why it is all the more important for people in such a line of work to establish that they are offering lessons, as a job.

    I myself no longer teach privates or deal with the business side of teaching in which I am involved, but I, like all teachers, had to draw lines and make things abundantly clear in order to be able to make a living teaching. This meant that, when I was still rather green, I had to engage in the unpleasantness of reminding acquaintances of mine that, while I would be happy to meet with them and speak English, asking me out for a couple of drinks as a way of getting me to teach them English or proofread their essays or whatnot was out of bounds - teaching English was my job, not my hobby and asking me to do it for free or for a pittance was every bit as much of an imposition as asking an accountant friend to do your taxes for free. I found that the people who made the biggest fuss about wanting to help me out were those that were essentially, perhaps without realizing it, taking advantage.

    If Nova teachers need food, they should ask for food. If students need English lessons, they should ask for English lessons. Doing a favor for someone by teaching him in exchange for dinner is fine, but making such an exchange explicit and systematic is decidedly to the teacher’s disadvantage and devalues what he does.

    More important, though, is that a union is supposed to be increasing, not undercutting the value of its members’ skills and labor. I would ask one question: were any of the relevant unions able to do anything more than give sound advice to their long-term members? Was there any safety net set up? Did the union help its members out financially? Did the union achieve any of its big, overarching goals for employment conditions while Nova was in business? If the answer to any of these questions is “No,” then it’s hard to see the unions as effective. Cheers to them for the good that they do, but there’s a long way to go and “teaching for food” is a sign of having not thought things through.

14. Guy on November 21st, 2007 1:00 am

    Alatriste: “General Union has been useful so far, but they need to be much more professional if they want to represent anybody. It would be very useful to know the content of the Agreement for the taking over of Nova, for example”

    Look here:

    http://www.generalunion.org/news/?id=212

    “Questions from the Union and Answers from the Trustee

    Q: What kind of company is the New Company? Is it certain that the all the teachers and staff will be re-employed?
    A: The New Company is a “young” company grown rapidly through mergers and aquisitions, under a 38-year-old chairman, yet it is a big business with annual turnover of \50 billion and two companies listed at the 2nd section of the TSE in the group. In principal, “employment of all those who wish to stay on the same or better conditions than at NOVA,” is clearly stated in the “Memorandum of the Basic Agreements” signed by the interim trustees and the New Company, approved by the District Court. This has been announced at the press conference not only by the trustees, but also by the representative of the New Company, and also at the meetings held on the 9th and the 10th of November. If, ever, these agreements were not followed through in good faith, the New Company, as well as the District Court, will come under a severe public criticism. Such a thing is not plausible, and we think this condition is sufficiently trustworthy.

    Q: Is full employment really possible with only 30 schools to start with, then up to 200 schools in a year?

    A: The agreement is 30 schools within this month, and 200 schools within one year. At this stage, payment of wages shall be started to “those who applied for employment” even if they were not posted to a school and standing by at home. Transportation for explanation meetings will be provided, too. It is possible to provide emergency assistance for living expenses – please consult the new company. Those who resigned against their wishes to return home or to receive unemployment benefit because of delayed wages can apply for re-employment. On the other hand, we expect that the number of teachers and staff that actually do NOT wish to be employed by the New Company will not be so small”

    I think they have already broken the promise of what was promised in te Memorandom of Basic Agreements, or they are very close to doing so.

15. Kraig on November 21st, 2007 4:41 am

    Holy Cow…has anyone seen this from the Yomiuri:

    Ramona Coulson Watanabe, an instructor at the International Language Service (ILS) school, is concerned about the welfare of foreign instructors left in the lurch by Nova’s demise.

    “We’ll help the troubled Nova teachers,” the 48-year-old woman shouted as she handed out flyers in front of JR Hachioji Station in Tokyo on Friday evening. “We can’t abandon the people who came with dreams to Japan.”

    ILS has opened up empty classrooms for Nova teachers and students. The students will pay teachers 500 yen for 40-minute lessons. ILS has produced 3,000 flyers to spread the word about the lessons and has already received inquiries from potential students.

    http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20071111TDY02302.htm

16. Garrett on November 21st, 2007 11:00 am

    Just like teaching for food, teaching for 500 yen is a bad idea. Ms. Watanabe’s heart might be in the right place, but her gesture shows a fair amount of condescension - not considering that what English teachers do is of any actual value. I’d hope that no one who wasn’t in need of that very day’s bread accepted the offer.

    Of course students took her up on the offer and made inquiries - it’s a steal consideringwhat they’d usually pay.

17. Trev on November 21st, 2007 11:50 am

    I think what the Nova collapse has made obvious is that English teachers need to be realistic and that the “good old days” are gone. I started out at Nova in the mid 90s, and moved on to teaching business English, then university teaching. A

    t a place like Nova, where minimally trained teachers can teach 40 lessons per week without needing to do any real preparation, 1400 yen per lesson is really what their service is worth. It’s an entry level job, it pays enough to live, and it’s a good opportunity to gain experience and skills.

    Teaching business English is a different game. If you do it as a part-time thing (I had a guaranteed salary), you need to make 4000 yen/hour for it to be worth it. You need a lot more prep time, and students take classes to suit their work schedules, so it’s difficult to average billable hours of more than 60 hours per month. Nobody I know would take part-time work for less than 4000/hour, so that seems to be the market rate for experienced part-time teachers.

    If you want to make a comfortable secure living as an English teacher, you need to have real qualifications and experience, that’s simply the reality of the job market- oversupply and underdemand. There are still good jobs around, it’s just that there are a lot of well qualified people chasing them, so ex-eikaiwa teachers just don’t have any choice but to take minimum wage jobs.

    Teaching for food is a publicity stunt, it’ll get attention, but it’s not going to fix the underlying problem- there are too many teachers and not enough demand for lessons. The Nova teachers are in a very tough short-term situation, and it’s perfectly understandable that they’ll try anything to get help, but the only long-term solution is to have the qualifications and experience that employers demand. Teaching for food seems to assume that someone will wave a magic wand and make all the problems go away, which isn’t going to happen.

18. Bob on November 21st, 2007 12:13 pm

    Wages are a result of the economy and basic supply and demand. Gaba can pay 1400 because there is a large supply of teachers who are willing to work at that pay level (students pay something like 8000 for that hour). As Nova got bigger and bigger, it brought over more and more teachers, about 3,500 a year. Many of those teachers would quickly move on to different companies. Now, with Nova gone, there is a huge supply of teachers at one time, about 4000. Most of these people will go home before New Year. Many more will leave Japan because they had already planned to do so.

    So, by next April or June, I wonder what wages Gaba will be able to pay. 1400 won’t cut it because the labor supply will be so small. Remember, without Nova bringing in about 80% (my guess) of the new teachers to Japan, there will be a shortage. It takes 3 to 6 months for new recruits to get Visas from the government.

    Of course, demand will be lower and many people who studied English have been turned off from it. Also, internet English will grow.

    By the end of next year, if you want to speak face to face with a Native English ‘instructor,’ it will cost more… basic economics.

19. billy shears on November 21st, 2007 5:02 pm

    Trev…you have to be careful when making statements like:
    “where minimally trained teachers can teach 40 lessons per week without needing to do any real preparation, 1400 yen per lesson is really what their service is worth” because the assumption is that all Nova teachers were “minimally” trained. While that was true for many teachers, I was a part-time Nova teacher with a teaching degree and an RSA CELTA. Also, some of those instructors who were minimally trained, ended up as pretty good teachers after a few months, especially with kids.
    What mustn’t be forgotten is that many students at Nova paid the equivalent of around 6,400 yen for a 40-minute man-to-man lesson. Therefore, if the middle man were left out of the equation, their “service” must be worth more than 1,400 yen to the paying student.
    I myself have a private student who pays 6,000 yen an hour and groups who pay 7,500 yen an hour. These kinds of fees are not excessive in the “katei kyoshi” (teachers who go to students’ homes at the students’ convenience) market.
    However, with all the media attention given to teaching for food or gohyakuen, what we are in danger of ending up with in Japan is the “100-yen shop” mentality for English lessons. The unions here are actually doing their best to debase the acceptable salaries for English teachers.

    On another note, this is your last week to become a Nova shareholder before they are delisted. It’ll cost you around 3,000 yen (for 1,000 shares) but think of the memorabilia value of your share certificate!!!

20. J on November 21st, 2007 9:48 pm

    Trev,

    Thanks for your resume and letting everyone know how qualified
    you are. much appreciated.

21. Billyclyde on November 22nd, 2007 4:39 am

    Leaving J’s snark aside, the issue of certification matters in the eikaiwa market because employers and customers basically ignored qualifications. You could show up an an eikaiwa, or for an ALT job, with an MA and a CELTA and be underutilized and underpaid; most big employers _prefer_ underqualified, because then they don’t have to take flack for their failed methodologies. Even if you want to be professional, the market doesn’t care, and will not reward you for doing so.

    It’s the same with uni posts– many English teachers there do not have PhDs, and some don’t have MAs in the right field. Networking rules, which makes for an unfair market that affects students and institutions badly, and Japanese language education terribly.

    After all, it’s been 20 years and how many billions of yen, can anyone in Japan speak functional English? Compare it to SK or China, where students actually stand a chance to learn something. JET’s a good example of how language ed in Japan has always been all about face. Spend the money, everybody smile, no results.

22. Trev on November 22nd, 2007 11:15 am

    “because the assumption is that all Nova teachers were “minimally” trained.”

    I certainly didn’t say that. What I said was that a minimally trained teacher can do the job. There were many trained teachers who worked there, but they were overqualified for the job and underpaid for their qualifications, so they tended to move on. Companies aren’t going to pay 6000 yen/hour for someone with a M.A. if someone with a B.A. can do the job and will accept 2000 yen/hour (remember that a Nova lesson isn’t one hour). If you work eikaiwa, you have to accept the market rate, which reflects that the job requires minimal training.

    Nearly everyone I know started out as eikaiwa teachers, including me. Some of us put in the years of hard work it takes to get formal qualifications and moved on to more satisfying jobs. Others decided that they were happy with what Nova offered and stayed there.

    In the short term, the Nova teachers had it easier- when they went home after work, they didn’t have to deal with prepping lesson material, grading tests, or admin work, as well as having to fit study around work schedules. I understand why many of them made that choice, but with hindsight, it turns out to have been a long-term mistake.

    Many of the people I worked with at Nova never left and now are middle aged, have no professional qualifications, and are trapped in a dying industry. They are very good at the eikaiwa lesson thing, no question, but that’s a dead end job that a bright-eyed twenty-somethinger can do. Their market value is, apparently, 1400 yen/lesson, and there’s a lot of people chasing those jobs, so if they want to do better than minimum wage, they have no choice but to bite the bullet and get some professional qualifications. Begging for food will get a bit of sympathy, but it won’t do anything to resurrect the eikaiwa industry.

23. Ken Worsley on November 22nd, 2007 5:43 pm

    Billyclyde,

    After all, it’s been 20 years and how many billions of yen, can anyone in Japan speak functional English?

    Anyone? Yeah, of course. Lots of people do. Tons of people do. Because of eikaiwa? Probably not.

24. Billyclyde on November 23rd, 2007 3:02 am

    Ken,

    yeah, I admit some people can speak English but compared to the outlay of money, results are minimal to say the least, and I include public school instruction in there with eikaiwa. “Tons of people do,” I’m not so sure, but regardless, compared to other countries, the results are nonexistent.

25. Ken Worsley on November 23rd, 2007 5:47 am

    Billyclyde,

    We’re differing in matter of degree, I suppose. The government set up the Kyufukin program in the late 90s to pay 80% of eikaiwa tuition for adults who qualified. In 2003, that subsidy was cut to 40%. Last month, it was cut to 20%.

    I agree, after 20 years of this ‘internationalization’ and ‘eikaiwa’ nonsense, not much progress has been made. I think that’s a big reason why the government has cut back the subsidies. Of course, cutting back the subsidies has killed the industry. The industry failed to deliver on a promise. Their systems and methods could not boost language skills. Costs had to be kept low because of the refund/subsidy - METI advised on costs. When it was realized that the system was not working, the government started cutting it, and we saw more than a few firms go bust.

    Japan has to look at its contradictory policies. While METI set up subsidies to study foreign languages, the National Police Agency began a “Anti-Internationalization Campaign.” Which one are we to believe is the true intent of the government? Study foreign languages and cultures but always keep in mind that they do not belong in Japan? In other words - learn nothing about them. Japan needs to decide which route it will take.

26. J on November 23rd, 2007 7:54 am

    Trev,

    You continue to think you are better than everyone else and
    assume that everyone wants what you want out of life.

    “Many of the people I worked with at Nova never left and now are middle aged, have no professional qualifications, and are trapped in a dying industry. They are very good at the eikaiwa lesson thing, no question, but that’s a dead end job that a bright-eyed twenty-somethinger can do. Their market value is, apparently, 1400 yen/lesson, and there’s a lot of people chasing those jobs, so if they want to do better than minimum wage, they have no choice but to bite the bullet and get some professional qualifications. Begging for food will get a bit of sympathy, but it won’t do anything to resurrect the eikaiwa industry.”

    Some of these people do not want to work in other industries and are happy to accept
    what they are worth. They don’t want other qualifications. Don’t assume happiness of
    being fulfilled in your work is the same for everyone.

27. J on November 23rd, 2007 8:01 am

    “Leaving J’s snark aside, the issue of certification matters in the eikaiwa market because employers and customers basically ignored qualifications. You could show up an an eikaiwa, or for an ALT job, with an MA and a CELTA and be underutilized and underpaid; most big employers _prefer_ underqualified, because then they don’t have to take flack for their failed methodologies. Even if you want to be professional, the market doesn’t care, and will not reward you for doing so.

    It’s the same with uni posts– many English teachers there do not have PhDs, and some don’t have MAs in the right field. Networking rules, which makes for an unfair market that affects students and institutions badly, and Japanese language education terribly.”

    You are absolutely right, networking rules and many of the Uni. jobs are filled
    with people that way rather than their qualifications. However, the RSA/CELTA
    certificate is not worth crap. At the Uni. where I am the teachers who have them
    are not better than the teachers who do not have them. Same with the MA, it does
    not make the teacher better at all better than the ones of who do not have it.

28. Tom on November 23rd, 2007 12:15 pm

    Hi-
    Just a quick note.
    As a Nova/G-Communication employee, I agree that the work for food “campaign” is a mistake. Not only does it disempower those of us who are in a difficult situation, but it could set up further market retributions in the future.
    I’ve only lived in Japan for two months, however, thanks to many kind people I have 3 private weekly classes. If they were to ask me to teach for food, I would immediately stop teaching and demand an apology.
    BTW, I have heard nothing of the “go to your home country we will call you for a job” rumor. I was contacted for a position in my city yesterday.

29. Kraig on November 24th, 2007 12:42 am

    Japan has to look at its contradictory policies. While METI set up subsidies to study foreign languages, the National Police Agency began a “Anti-Internationalization Campaign.”

    This hits the nail directly on the head. Boost tourism but treat all incoming tourists like terrorists? How is that supposed to work? Talk about how Japan wants to become more friendly for international business but talk about hiking capital gains tax and make life difficult for international business people? It won’t work, and the people in charge just must not care. Their tatemae/honne division is cracking and falling apart.

30. Billyclyde on November 24th, 2007 5:44 am

    Ken– I didn’t realize the extent of the subsidies, or the recent cuts. Thanks for the fascinating info, as always.

    J– no degree or certification anywhere makes a good teacher, I agree. That comes only with continued dedication and self-criticism. But a CELTA (an entry-level cert. for sure), or a good MA do at least ensure everyone is speaking the same pedagogical language, and is aware of the issues surrounding their job. Such industry-wide barriers to entry can also serve to raise the overall level of instruction by filtering out working-holiday drunks & philanderers. To put it another way, sensitivity training may not make someone stop being sexist, but it can make them less of a jerk. That’s worth crap, I think.

    Besides, Japanese foreign language instruction in general suffers from lousy pedagogy. I suspect giving those MA-and-CELTA-holding instructors free reign, without the sophistry of bureaucratic “experts” guiding curricula, and things could improve countrywide.

    Just as important, those certifications go a long way to improving working conditions and employer responsibility, by restricting supply. I think media coverage would have been different if all those poor NOVA workers had had MAs and agreed-upon standards of professionalism. Somewhere in the last 20 years English became a commodity and not a skill; I can’t imagine 7000 foreign web designers, or engineers or whatever being dumped so unceremoniously. (Or Brazillian machinists, without mass panic and a police roundup.)

31. W. Anthony Malcolm on November 26th, 2007 12:10 pm

    Billyclyde,

    Your commentary about certifications, degrees, and standards is a great point. That’s what the eikawa industry really needs. Unfortunately for that to happen the Japanese government needs to recognize that and institute something. That would also mean a great deal of foreigners would need to be in power of such a standards board. Could Japan handle that? My heart wants to say yes because I actually believe that sometimes humanity can take the front court and rationality will play out. This means qualified foreigners would set up the standards and the Japanese government back them. My realistic side says, no way in hell would the Japanese government let an accreditation body be operated by foreigners. Not in a million years. Just not within the Japanese mindset to do so. I of course hope that changes.

    That said, I just came back from the JALT (Japanese Association of Language Teachers) conference in Tokyo and witnessed some amazing things. One thing I heard came from the lips of a first year Sophia University student who lived in the England for four years. She spoke fluent English and did her speech from a what looked like a simple outline. She was responding to and interacting with crowd reactions quite naturally. She said that she used to be a NOVA student and that she went to NOVA because she couldn’t get any conversation practice from her high school classes (all the young panelists commented that high school english classes just were not up to par and that something needs to be done). She even crapped on Sophia a bit that she wished it had some more general conversation programs.

    I make this comment because after the whole weekend I realized that eikawas are very much necessary in Japan. They offer what the government education system isn’t adequately offering - real foreigner interaction on a conversational level. Unis teach classes using content like global warming or cross cultural communication and so on. I gather most students really want to be able to just talk about movies, music, and various other things like that (adults probably just want to be active somehow and learn something new). I think they want to be able to travel and not feel scared to speak with foreigner in a cafe. Eikawas allow a student like I described the opportunity to, if not anything, maintain her English ability, as she will be able to speak English on a regular basis. Eikawas like NOVA offer students (and many others) an outlet for actually using their English. The output isn’t immediate, but then again learning a language, using a language, and being able to overcome cultural barriers between the L1 to the L2 are all very different and challenging.

    I’m sure this student isn’t the exception. She probably had friends who went to eikawas. I know I’ve taught Japanese who lived abroad and had some really advanced English skills. Standards are definitely needed to accommodate these people as well as give the eikawa community of teachers more legitimacy within the whole ESL industry.

32. Smithers on November 26th, 2007 3:20 pm

    W. Anthony Malcolm, you have some good points about eikawas. One of the reasons many students said they chose Nova was because of the “Voice” conversation classes. In many parts of Japan there is little or no possibility of being able to communicate with foreigners unless you have the confidence to approach them in cafes or izakayas etc. Few Japanese people are this confident, so the eikawas provide an opportunity to practice their English conversation skills in a safe environment. It is noteable that G Comm appear to have instituted the Voice classes in their former EC schools. Many students used the Voice classes like you say to maintain their level in English for use at work or for travel or some volunteered at the local tourist office.

    Also, due to large Japanese class sizes many high school pupils complained that they had little opportunity to speak much with their ALTs. Nova gave them the opportunity to at least have something of a conversation with a foreigner in English.

    Standards and improved on-the-job training would be an advantage. The lack of training was one of the big drawbacks to Nova, it didn`t really allow instructors to improve their skills. This was bad for the instructors and for the pupils.

33. Ken Worsley on November 26th, 2007 9:42 pm

    W. Anthony,

    Your commentary about certifications, degrees, and standards is a great point. That’s what the eikawa industry really needs. Unfortunately for that to happen the Japanese government needs to recognize that and institute something.

    The government would also need to stimulate demand. Is there demand for a service that would be provided by qualified teachers at the cost it would carry? The ‘cost up, demand down’ mantra for inessential services will hold true here. No one has effectively branded a ‘luxury’ eikaiwa yet, and I don’t think it’s going to happen. Eikaiwa is pretty firmly set in the cost side of the commodity continuum at this point, and cost is what purchasing decisions have been based on for the last decade. Nova grabbed a 50% market share because they were cheap and convenient.

    Maybe the Michelin people would like to visit some schools…

34. W. Anthony Malcolm on November 26th, 2007 11:57 pm

    Ken (and others),

    This comment will be fairly short-winded compared to my previous comment. A ‘luxury’ eikawa must mean max on the choice of services. Quality service as well, for the price.

    The teachers are gonna get paid, and over 5 years with NOVA I was making fairly okay money. Not professor money, or not what some might have been making 20 years ago, but we have to just accept that people aren’t going to spend money like 20 years ago (the sales staff just need to see the same salary treatment).

    That said, increase class times to an hour minimum; increase training to two weeks (Peppy’s Kids Club does this extensive training as well as other adult eikawa’s) and get qualified trainers; use accredited materials from known names (NOVA used the Oxford TOEIC test guide which was a big plus. Inhouse is great but get it accredited.); give the students more choice from business classes to travel classes to newspaper reading classes to presentation classes and so on (don’t overload but give more meaningful options); and so on.

    Put these things in place and I think students will pay the price that it demands. Don’t blow the doors off with upping the price, but make it competitive, and the rest is left to the market. I think there could be a market resurgence for eikawas. The Japanese people I talk with want it - why can’t the government and industry give it to them?

35. Tski on November 27th, 2007 12:08 am

    One very important point here,the “Teach for Food” thing is only in Kanto&has nothing to do with the GU(General Union) in Kansai&Chubu;& whilst some people look down on nova teachers,(including the televised media,how surprising),the fact is that nova was THE most successful Eikaiwa,so what does that say about it’s consumers,who many (foolishly) believe are always right?..Said consumers are now publicly known to include actors,politicians&the children of GComs. President.

36. Where is Wayne Malcolm? « Ueno Murakami Incorporated on November 27th, 2007 1:09 am

    […] 1 and General Miscellaneous uenomurakami 4:29 pm Some people wonder, “Where is Wayne Malcolm?” � Every now and again he peaks his head out from the vastness of his 14 inch IBook G4 computer to breathe the fresh air of life going on around him. � But while he remains in the abyss of his thoughts and inspirations he is creating some varying degrees of interesting stuff (for lack of a better verbial). � Here is an update on some scribblings from him that have appeared in cyberspace, and actual print media:1)� The Japan Times Online� printed these two letter’s to the editor (they appeared online and in print) -The first is,� “‘Cultural Tradition’ Is No Excuse”� � - This is about Japan’s recent efforts to give a big F!@K YOU to the world regarding murdering whales for nothing (oops I meant to write - for scientific research that primarily utilizes lethal methods). � The second is, � “NOVA System Could Still Work”� - This is about NOVA and how its system of management could still function given some slight tweaking.2) Wayne is also an official contributing author to the blog site� Japan Probe. � See his most recent article -� “Will NOVA Rise as G Education?”. � You can see other posts by clicking on W. Anthony Malcolm at the bottom of the aforementioned article, or� just click here.3) Finally, you can see some of Wayne’s commentary on a blog entitled� JapanEconomyNews� by Ken Worsely. � It’s a great blog for all things related to the Japanese business scene. � It’s fairly objective and gives it to you straight. � Also, the blog commentary is fairly educated, engaging, and intelligent. � Check out some of Wayne’s recent commentary as� W. Anthony Malcolm. � You can scroll through the various stories pertaining to NOVA and will see W. Anthony Malcolm all over (I will catalogue his comments and post them right here in the coming days). � 4) And of course he is contributing author to Ueno Murakami Incorporated. � See him right here all the time. � Never hesitate to send us feedback and commentary on what you think of his stuff (for lack of a better verbial). � 5) Lastly check him out via� YouTube under my UenoMurakami handle, and via� Facebook under his own name, Wayne Malcolm� (guess which one he is…).� Thanks for your continued support. � If he could actually speak he would say he loves you all. � Here’s to Jimmy and Julietta. � Peace. � �   […]

37. Billyclyde on November 27th, 2007 7:57 am

    W. Anthony Malcolm,

    I’m not so sure it has to be a government panel– there are precedents of industries self-regulating, often as more than mere gestures to make themselves accountable in the public eye. Clearly eikaiwa has lost face, and the industry needs to respond in a positive way. It might take the smaller schools forming a loose network to promote their services as better than the Big 4(?), or to start a small, inexpensive licensing program. Even a general statement of best industry practices goes some way to improving overall quality and rebuilding consumer trust. Think fair trade for eikaiwa.

    And what Ken says is quite to the point– eikaiwa is in serious need of rebranding as a quality product. I’ve never worked in eikaiwa myself, but friends and acquaintances have, and to this interested observer it seems like a bloated market is now just contracting. It didn’t have to be Nova (though Sahashi helped it along for sure). I’m not so sure eikaiwas are necessary (compared to a total reform of English education), but they do meet a consumer desire. The question is how to meet that desire honestly and also get good conditions and wages for workers. Nova seems like a case study for how not to do any of those things (though I freely admit the dedication and skills of many Nova teachers, that corporation apparently neither fostered nor required those skills).

    Could an organization like JALT take steps to such a rebranding, or is something else needed? I for one don’t have a hard time imagining a Japan twenty years from now with no eikaiwas and no ALTs either, in which case English conversation would most assuredly become a luxury product.

38. Trev on November 27th, 2007 1:16 pm

    First, JALT is in decline, it’s been losing members the last few years. My guess is that’s because of a downturn in the language teaching business, rather than JALT actually doing anything badly.

    Secondly, there is no agreement among “experts” over how to teach languages (the current bandwagon is the “eclectic approach”, i.e. a bit of everything), so trying to get an organization like JALT to certify teachers isn’t practical. JALT tends to focus on university teaching and high-school to a lesser degree, so it’s far too focussed on theoretical issues for what eikaiwa do.

    What would be practical would be for the government to insist that all teachers in publicly regulated institutions (i.e. all primary, secondary, and tertiary education) have certification by a reputable institution, and set limits on the use of part-time and “dispatch” teachers. I also strongly support spending the JET money on sending Japanese teachers abroad for sabbaticals.

    The short-term effect of this would be that there wouldn’t be enough qualified English teachers, so the ridiculous policy of trying to teach English to everyone would have to end, and resources would be spent on those who actually have some motivation to study. It would also force the many experienced teachers without qualifications to get some, which is beneficial. The only people I know who think professional training isn’t beneficial are those who have never done it. In a job like Nova, where you’re just teaching the same highly restricted curriculum over and over and have support from other teachers, you don’t need a lot of formal training, but in other contexts you need a far broader understanding of the field.

    The private language teaching sector is impossible to regulate, unless you want to do raids on people’s living rooms to catch all the untrained people doing private lessons at home. However, if the high-school and university teaching was improved, students would be more aware of what good teachers do, so their choices about which school to choose should be better informed.

    Notwithstanding that, I don’t think eikaiwa do as bad a job as some critics say. They don’t aim to provide a comprehensive education, but they do provide access to an English speaking environment where students can meet and socialize in English, and that does have a lot of value, provided it’s used to supplement more formal study, not as a stand-alone program.

39. Ken Worsley on November 27th, 2007 3:08 pm

    Trev, all good points, though I think the HS/JHS problems are more structural than teacher-related - or perhaps both.

    The goal of studying English at those levels is to pass exams, not to communicate. This will always have the downside of giving English a bad ‘first impression’ with students.

    The question of whether or not to teach English everyone at the secondary level cannot even be raised with the current educational system, given that all students need it for uni entrance exams. Any student without a HS English class stands no chance at getting into university.

40. Billyclyde on November 27th, 2007 4:17 pm

    Trev,

    good points. Interesting about JALT– is this the only industry organization there is? I realize most English teachers leave Japan after a couple of years, so I can see how it would hurt such a group.

    But to clarify, my main point is not to wish that the government should step in– it clearly won’t. (I also think the JET money would end up somewhere else, but that’s another discussion.) That does not, however, preclude a step from within the industry to address those open secrets Nova’s collapse has made front page fodder. It doesn’t have to do so much with having an “expert” approved curriculum as educating consumers and providing them with a product that meets high standards. It could be a committment only to have native speakers, or people with MAs– something beyond the blue-eyed ideal that seems like the current standard. Whatever it is, start with 20 schools and put a stamp on the door, and educate and convince the students that they’re receiving a classier product. Or something like that. Mainly it’s about rebranding; I personally hate to hear the stories about how fly-by-night eikaiwa can be, and seeing schools like Gaba brand themselves so well but in such an awful way.

    It’s like the difference between being an architect– who (in the US at least) has a specific university degree and a rigid licensure procedure after an apprenticeship– and a housebuilder, who does not. They do the same work, but an architect’s less likely to pick up a hammer and can charge more. You can live in a house by either one, but the architect has an institutional backing that makes people willing to pay extra. The fact that English ed. in Japan has no such institutional backing behind it makes me wonder how long it will last.

41. Ken Worsley on November 27th, 2007 5:18 pm

    seeing schools like Gaba brand themselves so well but in such an awful way.

    The market’s not so impressed with Gaba’s branding and position:

    http://company.nikkei.co.jp/index.cfm?scode=2133

    IPO at 276,000 yen a year ago, closed at 98,800 today.

42. Trev on November 27th, 2007 7:11 pm

    JACET (Japan Association of College English Teachers) is much more influential with Japanese university professors than JALT. JALT seems to be perceived as for foreigners, JACET as for Japanese, although many people are members of both.

    ETJ is another group, but I don’t know so much about what it does. JALT and JACET have more focus on research and the theoretical issues, so for university teachers who need to publish research, those are important. I think ETJ is aimed more at classroom teachers- bookfairs, workshops, and so on, although JALT does a lot of workshops and so on too.

    There are other international groups, such as Asia TEFL and the Independent Learning Association, which have strong membership in Japan, but JALT is still the big group for foreign teachers in Japan.

43. Eddie Liddle on November 28th, 2007 2:20 pm

    Wow, I haven’t checked this thread for a while. Great job ! The most interesting reading I’ve read in a while ! Thank you ! Good News that GABA stock is going down. The business plan is flawed. Teaching at coffee shops ? Not paying for space to have lessons. Hmm, seems flawed to me. Also the premise for selling lessons to people with no ablility: That without studying or effort the customers will be able to develop conversational skills. But if the lessons are framed for social purposes and having a chance to speak with foreigners then maybe it’s not flawed. What’s the sales pitch ?

    About English Education in JHS and HS and Uni. Yep, spending money to develop Japanese English Teachers abilities with overseas studies. Seems to me that one of the purposes is to get students and teachers overseas to study. Oh well. Business seems to be the big reason. To read poetry in English ? But yeah the main purpose of English education is to the pass the Uni Entrance Exam. And then there’s no time for a year to study abroad in University if you want to get a good job. So… But yep that is the large picture. The small picture would be to get the students more chances to interact with foreigners is in comfortable, safe, and non-threatening learning, honest environments. Not in the classroom. Language schools can fill this role. Just language schools aren’t safe sometimes and aren’t honest.

    I have found ETJ to be the most helpful org and JALT at times.
    Also http://www.englishconversations.org/ for some ideas on teaching converstation in Japan
    and http://www.almalang.com/about.html a publisher that has a group called The Research Group for Teaching Conversation in Japan (I hope it’s ok to post. I’m not trying to promote their textbooks.)

    Rambling here.. Thanks for the great discussion !

44. SRR on November 29th, 2007 2:09 am

    Here’s a good one:

    http://www.g-com.jp/documents/

    user: nova
    pass: documents_1122

    All the info from G Com to new employees. Not impressive. My favorite part: “Regarding employment under ‘Pattern A’: Your emloyment will not be the same as it was up until now, as an instructor, but rather as a NOVA staff member. The work you could be asked to do will include such things as moving, cleaning and perhaps some administration work. Please follow the instructions given to you by your supervisor.”

    Cleaning, great. That’s why I got that MA!

45. Guy on November 29th, 2007 2:42 pm

    The password has changed now, and the link says for instructors to ask their previous manager for the password - how many instructors do they think are in contact with their Japanese ex-managers, and how many managers do they think are left after subtracting the considerable number of staff who were so ticked off at the company they severed all ties? Maybe they mean Area Managers.

    Also, apparently those who sign up (a term loosely used, since no contract is involved yet) for the first option will only be getting 60% pay whilst they sit at home waiting to be called. The whole situation is such a mess - people came away from the November 10th meeting thinking they would be receiving pay from that date, but they weren’t and now people have signed more forms to be paid a ￥50,000 advance on some unspecified date, or to get a ￥150,000 golden goodbye handshake that will also be paid on an unspecified date - with the option to start working for the company from January 10th and not be paid until February 5th.

    A big mess.

46. Billyclyde on November 29th, 2007 3:20 pm

    Ken, about Gaba’s stock price, I would just point out that fluctuations in the chart don’t necessarily reflect company’s performance. Sure, they can, but it’s more about investor confidence in the future earnings of the company; I don’t know how many other conversation schools are publicly traded, but I would expect the whole sector’s down, and probably has been since the METI sanctions. Investors and markets are nothing if not fickle. (I also suspet Gaba’s fundamentals are pretty bad, and I don’t even know if any of these companies pay dividends, so I’ll shut up on that.)

    My (wholly undeveloped) point was that Gaba has taken an undercurrent of eikaiwa– “meet a dreamy foreign dish”– and made it their brand, apparently successfully enough to grow pretty large in the field. Maybe an enterprising young venture capitalist/eikaiwa owner could counter that, selling learning rather than sex, or making CELTA sexy somehow. Of course, I could be fantasizing that the “ethical consumption” fad in the West would ever matter in Japan, or that it even applies to eikaiwa. At least post-Nova, we all know ethics *should* apply to eikaiwa…

47. Ken Worsley on November 29th, 2007 4:35 pm

    Ken, about Gaba’s stock price, I would just point out that fluctuations in the chart don’t necessarily reflect company’s performance. Sure, they can, but it’s more about investor confidence in the future earnings of the company

    That was my point. The share value is down almost 70% in one year. That shows little confidence in the future.

48. Alatriste on November 29th, 2007 5:13 pm

    On Nov 15th I wrote:

    “I am a foreign employee from the Multimedia Center, bla bla bla..
    …
    Important Question: When will be re-hired?

    Answer: we actually do not know, but I think when Nova declares bankrupt
    could be the latest date to be re-hired. Nova will declare bankruptcy as soon as the government decides to end the process, and it should be soon
    as it is growing a very long bill (unpaid salaries)”
    …..

    On 26th of November Nova declared officially Bunckrupcy and the teachers were hired by G. Education :D

49. Guy on November 29th, 2007 11:52 pm

    I think the final hirings took place in 3 sign-up sessions held in Shinjuku today, but there may be more tomorrow. Those who signed up before today most likely have an assigned branch and are getting 100% pay from their sign on date, but those who signed on today are on standby rates of 60%.

    They seem to want to get all the hiring done by the end of November, re: tomorrow. The link to the forms to sign up have been linked to on this page.

50. W. Anthony Malcolm on December 3rd, 2007 9:40 am

    Guy (and others),

    As far as today is concerned, NOVA is officially off the market and in liquidation proceedings. From what I understand the teachers working right now will be receiving some form of payment on December 5th (I believe). In anycase they were promised to payment from G Education. As far as those of us who didn’t go back to G Education we are being shipped off to the government, and apparently NOVA is going to handle all the paperwork for that procedure. In order to get the back salary due to us we have to file like 4 or 5 forms with our local labor bureau and NOVA has to officially stamp like 3 or 4 of them before anything can happen. That is going to take a long time. I guess those who stayed with NOVA and are now G Education might be getting some kind of severence on top of the past due salary. Go figure on that one.

    Anyone have anything more to add to this…

    I do know that, at least in Akita anyway, students are really going back to G Education. They really liked what they had and see little issue with paying again for lessons. I’m at personal odds with that but I guess G Education has no responsibility to honor passed NOVA dealings. I just wish they took the high road on that one, but business is not charity, so I’ve been told.

51. GG on December 3rd, 2007 10:33 am

    Reports that teachers are being brought on to work at the new firm without contracts and pressured to work under what are essentially illegal conditions. Anyone in there see the situation? Are people working without contracts?

52. trev on June 24th, 2008 9:46 pm

    Saruhashi’s been arrested apparently, but denies wrongdoing. Unravelling this mess is going to take years.

53. Ken Worsley on June 24th, 2008 10:47 pm

    Did he actually get arrested? I saw that they were thinking of charging him on unpaid wages, but haven’t seen anything on an arrest yet…

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