Student Frustration Ready to Boil Over

Well, we already know that the Japanese consumer will put up with almost any amount of bullshit, so what are they going to do? Boil over? How do Japanese consumers 'boil over'? I'll keep watching.

Good point! The concept of taking it to the streets just doesn't figure in the Japanese psyche.

If a Japanese is disenfranchised by the system, their only recourse is to become annoying in an anti-social way. For example pissing one's trousers (literally) and boarding a crowded commuter train...

I see Japanese put up with some weird things, but I cannot see Nova having so much loyalty they put up with this. All logic tells us that there will be a huge drop off in students once the 75% discount runs out. Does anyone know when this happens or have latest student or other numbers in this fiasco?

Of course, all logic does not always apply here. However, full-priced lessons are not cheap and there are plenty of English schools to choose from in Japan.

Gcum has painted itself into a real corner.

More people are killed by knives in America than by guns, same in Japan. The Japanese way... go on a stabbing spree, slash jr high school students with box cutters, or just mix some chemicals and kill yourself and anyone else in the vicinity. Great.

One teacher, and about six hundred students.

Absolutely awful.

As a joke I sent an email asking for my job back... and in minutes they emailed me back looking for my resume! Flood their lines with nice little emails!!!
They will have 60 000 students and soon no teachers. Long live NEO NOVA !

I'm teaching someone now who was going to Neo-NOVA just to burn tickets, but he's even given up on that because the teacher is atrocious and you have to book a month in advance for a private lessons. Apparently it's not even worth the trouble.

Why couldn't NOVA stay dead?

BTW in reply to that 'company employee' a lot of instructors, including myself and two Yamaguchi colleagues, left for alternative eikawa jobs offering slightly less pay to escape G.communications NOVA.

So... are you saying that Japanese people should all get guns and shoot each other?? And then they will have reached a boiling point?

That doesn't make any sense at all mate. You should be using that glue to stick things together.

The hiring drive is dated May 22th...
These fuckwits can't get anything right!

It's all nice and easy to point the finger at G-Comm these days but let's face it: students can also be innocent gits.

English instructors, not unlike the students they teach, are happiest when they can get a guaranteed monthly income (a bit like the old Nova use to provide) along with a few other extras (say healthcare and, god forbid, a pension). The students are keen to book cheap lessons on weekends and perhaps a few evenings.

TO THE STUDENTS: If you had your way, enough instructors would be hired to cover all those week-end lessons that you want to take. The evening lessons would hopefully be shared between all the instructors, and these poor people would end up making 150 to 200 000 yen a month. That will get you a bad instructor or a very bitter one (unfortunately, probably a combination).

But for all you unhappy students there is hope: take the unprecedented step of actually taking a little more responsibility. There are two options I'd recommend:
- Get your company to hire some corporate instructors. These are typically better qualified and better paid than your average eikaiwa people.
- Secondly, there nothing stopping you, in the age of the internet, from getting yourself an instructor. It will take you a bit of time and a few demo lessons before you find something you like, otherwise I recommend swimming (cheaper and far greater health benefits).

But then again, probably few students will ever read this so I'll simply add: Organic red wine is disappointing.

No wonder they asked us to transfer to Yamaguchi then. :)

While many of us working in the English conversation industry make it a habit (maybe out of sheer boredom) to criticize and/or deride super nova, justly or unjustly, we should realize and understand that it isn't only super nova, or even the English conversation industry, that is and has been guilty of exploiting the masses, but the vast majority of large, medium and small institutions, both public and private, from time immemorial. These corporate entities unabashedly manipulate and continue to manipulate consumer perceptions, thus behavior, with total disregard for any ethic. In fact, transnational/national/regional business intrests do so on a regular basis, systematically, without due consideration of any moral standards. The intentional neglect of the public trust, detrimental to society as a whole, is part and parcel of the entire system of global finance capital, in which super nova is just one small example. This type of corruption and willful negligence is endemical and, needless to say, destructive. Unfortunately, it is one of self-perpetuation grounded in extreme self-interest.

The question is then, can consumers find a way out of the dizzying labyrinth of hollow images and empty signifiers? Only with the passage of time can we know for sure, but don't expect the unexpected. As long as the ideological superstructure remains intact, the simulation of education and society will continue to dominate our collective consciousness unabated.

I am the only teacher at my branch. there are only 40 students dedicated for private lessons spread over my work week, but they never come to class and I have nothing to do all day but surf the internet, read, nod off a bit, and think of ways to spend my ill gotten gains... I am so blue! I often think I am going to kill myself...!

....but then I remember those poor schmucks at Gnova and I begin to feel much better!!

Good Point, in reply to Good Point. Good Point I say. Good Point. What point was that again?

Oh stuff it, Nova Corporation is BANKRUPT, and that is just FANTASTIC, and soon, the ghost of Nova Corporation, G CUMM, will be gone too. The NOVA name will be obliterated from existence for enternity. The day cannot come soon enough.

Students, staff, teachers, anyone who got sucked in my G CUMM, is a fool.

I am amazed this is still going on.

How can they possibly survive with barely any teachers? They also aren't recruiting overseas, right? Few in Japan now would be fooled into working for them as they'd know the story. What a disaster.

A few companies wanted to have a taste of the Nova empire, maybe thinking if there's even a small chance of building it back up, it was worth the risk. This company was the most convenient for Nova and the government. I truly feel sorry for any teachers remaining. Maybe they're being worked so hard that they can't look for another job. Unless you're getting pay a crapload of money, I think even the shadiest private eikaiwa schools here would offer you a better deal. Also, you can possibly still land an ALT position. The pay may be lower, but you'll work far less and have more holidays. You just need to be thrifty and you can look for a better job from there. I'd apply for everything and cross your fingers.

Let's stop the jokes about suicide, alright? I have been battling clinical depression for years and ignorantly thought that going to Japan to teach English would be therapeutic for me, and would help me along in the gradual recovery process. However when the problems with Nova/G-Comm came around, I found myself in therapy and on medication there, provided by an English-speaking therapist. It was very expensive, but it reached a point at which my stability was the utmost priority, so it didn't matter to me how much it cost.

Let's give the people, who really need help on this blog, the benefit of the doubt and not mock their true pain. These poor people are probably too ashamed to tell someone face-to-face how painful their lives have become.

Seriously, if anyone's suicidal thoughts on this entire blog hold any merit, PLEASE find help. If you can't afford a therapist, find people who you trust and talk to them. My good friends in Japan were also my safety network when I needed them; confidants to whom I felt safe in speaking. And in a situation which requires people sticking together and helping each other out, it won't be difficult to find someone who will care and will listen to you.

To those who really feel in despair, hang in there. The person who posted this is thinking about you.

Must be 'cos they spend all their day under dark, damp bridges.

Seriously, if you're suffering from depression, stay the F*** off these boards. I'd say not depression, but stupidity is your definining character issue, otherwise.
Like fighting your kinky urges, by going to bondage clubs. No remedy there.

Or here.

But just for the record,

I think you're a troll

.....Let's give the people, who really need help on this blog, the benefit of the doubt and not mock their true pain. These poor people are probably too ashamed to tell someone face-to-face how painful their lives have become....

oh, come on!! Choice, Free will, Endless Resources in a long standing Industry. Any of these concepts come up in your therapy sessions??? Outstanding, higher paying jobs are STILL here, if you know where to look and are not a complete a-hole.

I had a US friend here in Japan under medication for clinical depression. When she took her meds, she had an appetite and gained weight. She made the decision to stop taking the meds, be miserable and depressed as hell, but still look slim!!! GO FRICKEN FIGURE!

Was that little personal attack on him really necessary for someone just making a few observations?

On another note, I have a friend who runs a bar popular with the gaijin. He said he noticed a significant drop off in younger gaijin customers since Nova crapped. Obviously, that is not exactly a scientific survey though.

seems to me that if the teacher to student ratio is in these ASTROnomical percentages, that a teacher with half a brain would say... "listen Bunny Master, for get the contract, either give me more money our I take a walk"!

then I remembered the kind of weak as water, Namby-pamby employees that stuck with GNova in the first place.

To the suicide thinkers....
If you take the jump, you will only make the situation worse for others! But then, thinking of others is something new to those pondering suicide! Jump, I say Jump!

Actually, the thought did cross my mind.It depends on which hand is used. Left might work, as I find it is quicker reaching the vinegar-stroke.

A BUNCH of unknown assailants...?

So it takes a BUNCH of people, to take this loser out?

Not impressed. Not impressed AT all.

Absolutely pathetic. What a bunch of cowards.

Dear Anon chan, Thanks for the shag in the wardrobe. We'll have to VISIT Narnia again soon. Just wanted to ask YOU, What do the 40 Nova Usagi's that are tattooed on your bum mean?