A Precarious Profession

Many's the would be efl teacher who've been lured by Nova's fancy website into going to Japan to have an adventure. You don't even need to have any teaching qulaifications, just an English medium education up to a degree. Friends who've taught in Japan tell me that nobody lasted long at Nova, but that it acted as a conduit into the wider efl Japanese sub-culture.

No more: it seems to have gone tits-up. The teacher's are in a predicament. Skint, dodging the landlord, needing to borrow cash for your air-fare home from people you hardly know... Happy memories!

EDIT: thanks to Michael for this link (from 2004) which give a straightforward view of working at Nova.

Comments

  1. MichaelSat Oct 27, 12:49:00 pm BST

    The plug-in-and-go school of TEFL teaching. You could usually spot a NOVA teacher in Japan, or at least the ones who'd stayed too long. Truth be told, it's been coming for a long while.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Garry NixonSat Oct 27, 01:52:00 pm BST

    'I feel betrayed,' said Richard Naish, 25, from Bath, whose Nova branch is in remote Tochigi prefecture. 'The managers and teachers have all resigned and for the last few weeks I’ve had no boss at all.'

    One has to admire this lad: no wages, no other teachers or managers, and he still kept going into work! Clearly in the wrong job.

    ReplyDelete
  3. MichaelSat Oct 27, 02:15:00 pm BST

    I used to work in "remote" Tochigi Prefecture. You'd go to tiny little towns and see a branch of Nova opposite the train station. Except for a few Chinese and Brazilian factory workers they were probably the only foreigners in town. If Richard's got the nous to go with his work ethic, he'll pick up another job soon enough. There are plenty of chains just across the water in Korea that would welcome him with the same shitty holidays and pay that Nova was famous for. What a fucking industry this is, eh?

    ReplyDelete
  4. MichaelSat Oct 27, 02:19:00 pm BST

    http://www.jref.com/practical/teaching_at_nova.shtml

    I think this is broadly accurate.

    ReplyDelete

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