Let's Japan.org Debunking Eikaiwa and Ramblings in Japan

Why dont former teachers buy the franchises be a teacher at the school and pocket extra money.

No thanks,
I'll stick my branch in the local park in Ueno.
But I'd sure like to get my hands on the person responsible for urinating in my classroom (sic park bench) late last night!
God it stunk this morning!

Spread the word my first lessons are still free till March 31st..thanks

Why would teachers want to buy one of those franchises just to fork over 10% of sales to Nova? If you want a school, you would be better off finding a place and making your own advertising. With Nova, all you are getting from them is a crappy name.

I cannot see them getting many takers be it Japanese or foreigners. However, it has been my experience in life that sometimes the dumbest people can have the most money!!

noy that i don't belive you sir, but please tell us your sources. how did you get absolute confirmation?

check out the G. Comm thread in Eikaiwa - forced transfers are already happening in MM. Loads of people have been given 30 days. In a months time, that place, along with many branches, are going to become black holes.

I am not about to post my identity.
The info comes from G-com e-mails
that are sent out to staff in branches.
Don't even think it is a big secret as
staff have no problem showing them to us
teachers and giving opinions on content.
They are printed out and left lying
around. Staff down here aren't exactly
pro-G so maybe they are just a bit more
willing to share??

But listen, if you want to doubt then go
ahead. Next Friday is my Last day and
I got what I needed out of G-com. Time enough
to sort myself out. All I am saying is that
if you are not doing that then you are your
own worst enemy. After all that has happened
with old Nova and the ridiculous shit with
g-com if you need more proof then no one is ever
going to be able to help you.

IT IS TIME TO JUMP

Yeah it might be true. Teachers who were transferred to Nagoya from my branch have been hearing lots of similar rumours all the time in their schools, and of course that's where the company is based. Maybe they aren't doing well in the big cities, but they are in the outer regions. The problem is they can't keep teachers in those regions.

My school has grown to 300 plus students but is well and truly on the ropes because of the 4 teachers who survived until feb, 3 have just quit, including yours truly. Students are complaining because they can't book lessons for the next few weeks, and although two help-stay teachers are coming for a couple of weeks, I don't think anyone would be stupid enough to be transferred to a remote area like this.

It says, "Expense to be paid by the franchise owner".

That's the kind of open-ended statement you have to get pinned down, isn't it! Here's your new teacher; please pay

overseas recruitment fee: xxxx
airfare: xxxx
meeting upon arrival: xxxx
one week "training" xxxx
transportation to branch xxxx
TOTAL: more than you can imagine!

Now does that 500,000 yen franchise fee mean that they will supply you with all the manuals, forms, books, kids materials etc. etc. you will need? I don't think so! You will be billed an exhorbitant amount for those and you will have to buy in large quantities you don't need. and on and on!

You can get the best prices for your stuff if you put it on Yahoo action (the ebay of Japan). You can sometimes get surprising good prices-especially on electronics. You have to do it all in Japanese though.

>>There are more and more teachers discovering they were not registered at the Koyohoken (employment insurance) although they are paying it on their pay slip.<<

If that's true isn't that serious fraud? And someone (or people) should seriously fry for that? It sounds like a serious crime!! Seriously!

Dont really know what Interac are to do with this thread, yeah they cream off a healthy profit but thats just what recruitment companies do, its how they make money!
Anyway I work for this lot now, money isnt great but its dam site better than the 40 lessons a week at nova (pro-rata pay is exceptional) and I get paid vacation time, just not full pay unlike some others with another company.

Wouldnt touch a nova franchise with Shawn's but maybe an Interac style one would be a nice deal!!

I am rich thanks so money don't matter to me, I have a laugh at school and enjoy it, so for now why go home. Sorry if this really upsets you.
I am sure that your parents are proud to know that you spend your freetime insulting random strangers on the web, under some cool name!! Well done son.

Intercrap is a dodgy company so WTF, they give me something to do, it's my hobby.
For those who work there for a living the pro-rata would be pay to actual lessons taught in comparison to Nova etc. why you are spouting 500,000 pro-rata I am lost, but yeah it is a piss poor wage.

I don't knock others and don't care what your choosen career is, basically your comment insults your own inteligence rather than me. It is very original though, never read anything like that on here before.

lets go out and have a chat for real sometime I will pick you up in my merc.

laters.

And soon to take over Frano as well, darn hippies!

Its not the actual topic of this thread but .....
what do you mean "cheap wage?" The interac wage is about the same as most eikaiwa wages with a lot less work and stress and responsibilty. (and better hours?)
Of course if you can get a direct hire you will get more and I think you should try that but the simple truth is (sadly) THERE AREN'T ENOUGH DIRECT HIRE JOBS OUT THERE!

25man is not too bad (as a low end wage). Tell the guys working at Daiso that 25man is peanuts! they are getting about 800yen per hour!

Another thing, referring to the report of interac charging around 40man and paying 25man. Yes, on the surface it doesn't look good but when I think back about some of the jobs I have had it doesn't look so bad. I worked for a small school in Sapporo and got 2500yen per hour but I knew he was charging around 10,000yen. I suggest, this is very common.
So stop ya whinging

“Stop ya Whinging” you say? Interac illegally exploits the living daylights out of its employees. It is not just a case of an employment agency taking their cut – it is case of a merciless con-merchant of an outfit eating basic things, like your vacation allowances, almost entirely, and denying your legal enlightenments to national health insurance, you name it – add it all up – almost 50% of what the Board Of Education would have to pay you directly, gets consumed by those freaks.

I don’t know many recruitment agencies that operate on those enormous margins, that’s for sure.

There aren’t enough “direct hire” jobs out there because the Japanese government turns a blind eye to the illegal employment practices of companies like Interac, and because people like you are prepared to be exploited, because people working casually at Macca’s get paid less. Good old compare apples with pears and chalk with cheese logic.

If someone could please post a translated Interac contract, between Interac and a Board of Education, then please do so. You will be shocked at what they have you swallow, and what the reality is.

Just like Nova was stopped dead in its tracks, so should Interac be.

Hey all...as someone who has operated and owned my own English school here in Japan since September 2001, I can tell you for a fact, that the ESL business is still very much alive!!

Sure, NOVA's dead as a skeletal duck in a pond, and G.Comm is trying to pull them out of the water. Can they succeed?
Perhaps, but certainly not at the rate they are hoping for.
900 schools by March 2009? Think again. At the current rate of just 8 new branches a month, obviously they're a long way from reaching their goal.

I don't think it's altogether impossible though, and my advice to G.Comm/G.Ed or whatever they're going to call themselves next month, would be to completely ditch the NOVA name altogether.
They would also do well to ditch those damn cubicles, the crappy text books and continuation of illegal clauses within their teacher's contracts.

But, one can't help notice that the sinking ship (or duck) that was NOVA, seems to have come up for air again, albeit covered in seaweed (aka: G.Comm/G.Ed)...but as we all know, unless that ship is taken to dry dock (ie, put out of service until it's repaired) it's likely to sink again and a lot quicker given that it's already waterlogged.

On the surface, it would appear that G.Ed has been doing everything it can to repair the holes in the NOVA ship, but as any good sailor will tell you - once a boat has been sunk, to sail on it again after it's restoration would be bad luck.
Aaaarrrr!

Half a million yen for a franchise is not a bad price to pay if you live in a large city area like Tokyo, Osaka or Fukuoka for example, but out in the sticks, you'd do better to save your hard earned dosh. At least in the cities, you'll always find some dumb student willing to come back and continue showing their NOVA loyalty!

As for me...my school has been affected, as have all Eikaiwa's and private schools, by the NOVA collapse. Students have crawled back under their rocks in droves. My school has seen an 80% drop in business since November last year. Well, if anything positive can be taken from that, it's knowing I just got rid of 80% of the losers who will always jump from school to school, learning absolutely nothing. Least of all the fact that they could just as easily enjoy a 6 month or 1 year holiday in the USA, Australia or the UK for the same money they wasted at NOVA, AEON, GEOS, and dare I say it...yes, my school too!

Thank God for the internet and online business!