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

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

LTPTP XXV: We Shall Overcome

Image
We shall indeed.  It's a lovely wee tune to learn.  I've almost memorized it this morning, the idea being, when I encounter a piano, I want something to sit down and play on the bugger.  I've a feeling that my keyboard's keys are lighter than a proper piano's, and there'll be a bit of effort transferring the skills I've gotten so far.  Probably, at some point this year, I'll be in workplace with a piano.  I'll print off some simple music and scales, and work at it, but it's likely to be in a public place so I want something to avoid making a twat of myself initially. It feels right that this should be the first tune I learn by heart.
Read more

Leech or flatworm? Ants and Swiss Chard

Image
For the 2nd time in a week or so, (1st time regarding dwarf beans ), I'm following Alys Fowler's advice, this time with regard to Swiss chard .  Long story short, after midsummer plants which often bolt if planted in spring will resist the impulse to do so, probably because of shortening days; (I say shortening, but in Glasgow, in July, we're still getting 18 hours of daylight).   I got a packet of Bright Lights , at a good price, (another reason to wait until July before sowing, lots of bargains, I've noticed). But where to sow them? Most of the 2nd bed is under a tarpaulin, but it wasn't quite big enough to cover the whole bed, so the last 5ft or so went under a sheet of plastic, (in the background of the photo in this post, here .) Transparent plastic was a foolish idea, weeds were growing underneath it, so I covered most of it with sheets of metal from the old shed. I decided to leave the tarp, but use the area beneath the plastic for the chard. Who-ah there
Read more

VINEGAR!

That wine I started a while back has turned to vinegar. Well, that answered questions I was asking myself back then, viz., 'Do we get vinegar flies around here?' And, 'Are all these little flies vinegar flies?' The fuckers. I thought I was being a clever recycler, not buying proper air-locks and using the old plastic-and-lacky-band method. Ah well, another step up another learning curve. Anybody need three gallons of white wine vinegar and two gallons of the impossibly exotic strawberry wine vinegar? It's been a 'business day', dealing with officials and filling out forms. Don't get me started! Alex came over tonight. He gave me the Aphonic CD (he's been in touch with them and they sent him several copies). I thoroughly approve of this new trend of bands getting their work known over the internet, by-passing (initially at least) the poisonous attentions of the music industry. Come to think of it, some of the people in that business are rat
Read more