You are here
Rakuten and Fast Retailing Boost Eikaiwa
With Rakuten and Fast Retailing making English the first language in their offices, the says that it has given English conversation schools a much needed boost:
During the April-June period, Berlitz Japan, Inc., an operator of foreign language schools, saw the number of its corporate customers and individual regular students who are company employees jump 50 percent from a year earlier. Its summer short program also has attracted about 2-1/2 times as many students as in the previous year.
Another English school operator, Gaba Corp., enjoyed a similar boost, with corporate contracts up 12 percent year on year in the first half of 2010.
Well, that's good news for two schools, but what about the rest? The article notes that Fast Retailing plans on hiring non-Japanese staff. If they can already speak English, then it won't translate into new business for the eikaiwas. So, are things looking good in eikaiwa or is this article seeing things through rose-colored glasses?
- Shawn's blog
- to post comments
Comments
Great! Does that mean everyone at Berlitz will get a raise?
Yeah, I've seen a lot of these guys at Gaba recently. Funny how with corporate contracts up 12 percent employee conditions have continued to deteriorate. Nice to know the executives are fattening themselves up on the fruits of our labor. They also lied on their shareholder statement about the presence of a union. Wonder if Rakuten knows about that.
Oh, know...here comes the socialist, corporate-hating, union propaganda. Just makes me want to be one of those "fatcat" CEOs. At least they do not whine and bitch all the time.
I don't think Rakuten knows about Gaba and union troubles. What I don't understand is why the other language schools (who are clearly being threatened by Gaba's dominance) don't campaign against Gaba's clearly unfair work practices.... Sure, they are all pretty bad, but Gaba takes the cake and with some real publicity, pushed by the other eikaiwas, Gaba would go down the toilet.
ALL THIS ENDLESS BS DEBATE. IF YOU WORK FOR AN EIKAIWA OR YOUR WORK FOR A DESPATCH COMPANY, THEN YOU WORK FOR CROOKS. SIMPLE SOLUTION: DON'T WORK FOR CROOKS = DON'T WORK FOR EIKAIWA OR DESPATCH COMPANY. SIMPLE. ALL VERY SIMPLE. DO YOU IDIOTS SERIOUSLY THINK THAT IF YOU SIGN UP FOR THE MOB, THAT ONE DAY, THE BOOKS ARE GOING TO OPEN? IT IS AN ESTABLISHED FACT THAT EIKAIWA AND DESPATCH COMPANIES DON'T OPERATE WITH IN THE LAW. SO, DON'T WORK FOR THEM. EASY. THANK YOU.
are things looking good in eikaiwa or is this article seeing things through rose-colored glasses?
You say "that's good news for two schools, but what about the rest," Shawn. But Shawn, the article never says that this new "tailwind" is benefiting only two schools.
The article never says that Rakuten and Fast Retailing are the ONLY Japanese companies lining up English schools, nor does it say that Berlitz and Gaba are the ONLY ones being lined up.
Read the article again. It says that Japanese companies INCLUDING Rakuten and Fast Retailing are doing this sort of thing.
In English, the use of "including" here basically means "for example." It means that these two companies are among several others, at least presumably, that are engaging in this practice.
And that, presumably, they are obtaining the services of other companies besides Berlitz and Gaba.
Thanks for the English lesson. Including is a tricky word. But you're missing the larger point, which is me wondering if this really has given eikaiwa a boost. I'm doubtful of that.
Shawn