Off Topic

Time to pop some champagne as this past weekend marked the tenth year for the domain letsjapan.org. It's hard to believe this site has been up for a decade now.

The kanji for 2010 was "sho"（暑）meaning hot. Looking back on the year, as far as this blog is concerned, the word of the year is probably "GEOS" owing to the closure of its schools in Australia and then its bankruptcy in Japan. On the other hand, if you worked for Nova when it collapsed in 2007, the fact that the trustees have started paying unpaid wages probably came as a pleasant surprise. For what it's worth, here's a recap of the issues covered on Let's Japan.

Part II of my interview on My TEFL Journey.

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

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?

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.

It's a slow news day at ELT News:

Language school owner condemns websites that allow anonymous posting

March 01, 2009

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of time in getting the wiki back up and running, but since it has been offline for a while, some of the content may be out of date or in need of expanding.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.

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.