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Comments on GEOS
In light of the comments rumours here about GEOS's troubles or impending doom, I'll start a thread here to entertain those concerns. If you want to talk GEOS, do it in comments here. I have no idea whether the claims about GEOS teachers not getting paid are true or not. Judging by the lack of information and outrage in other forums around the internet, I assume that it's nothing more than a rumour.
I have no idea how GEOS is doing financially, but a reader noticed last October that . The page is back online, but now states that GEOS is hiring only within Japan:
Kita Nihon Region looks after Hokkaido, Tohoku, Tochigi.At this time GEOS is only hiring from within Japan.
Applicants MUST be currently living in Japan.
Interviews take place in Japan. All applicants are REQUIRED to have a bachelor's degree, be a native English speaker and have a proper work visa. Sorry there are no exceptions.
I'm going to make a wild guess and say that they are trying to cut costs. It's a lot cheaper and faster to hire people already in Japan and get them working than it is to find new teachers abroad and hold their hands every step of the way.
The end of recruiting overseas means that it's become more difficult to come to Japan and work. Many moons ago, I was hired by GEOS in Vancouver and they of course took care of everything from some basic "training" to helping arrange my flight and visa. If I never had this support, I'm certain I never would have made it to Japan.
There you have it. I can't say if GEOS is in any dire financial trouble, but the change in their hiring practices suggests they are cutting costs. What's the word in GEOS?
- Shawn's blog
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Comments
Here we go again with this so
Here we go again with this so called THORN. He has completely nothing to say about anything. It is always the same repetitive posts that he puts up with the same content and ideas. Nothing constructive or engaging. Simply just rashing things over and over and over again. If he has nothing but that to say then please don't waste space here. It is sooooo boring to read what he says.
Enough already with
Enough already with thepersonal insults.
Is GEOS EIKAIWA about to finally tank or what? Will there be several hundred angry gaijin on the streets and in the parks soon, ala NOVA?
Word on the Eikaiwa streets is that many GEOS teachers are abandoning ship as we speak, fearing the inevitable.
Any GEOS people want to come on here and confirm or deny these mounting rumours?
Best wishes to all the GEOS crew, peace out to you all.
Why...
is it that gaijin need to be negative,bitter and spiteful ?
Though we don't know if the GEOS situation is for real
or not,destructive comments on here serves no purpose,
aside from revealing how you were brought up by your
parents.
Maybe that is why some many foreigners need to be in
Japan to hide.
THORN - honest answers, please....
a) What's your job?
b) Have you ever worked in Eikaiwa?
c) Can you outline some reasons, why you feel especially suited/qualified to speak, in depth, about Eikaiwa/it's students/staff/owners/teachers?
d) are you seeing anyone?
Thanks, in advance,
Your friend Jack
About this Thorn guy - he's
About this Thorn guy - he's been posting on Eikaiwa-related forums for years now. I've seen him over on Nova Teachers United under a variety of guises. He's a very bitter individual and seems to be particularly stressed out at the minute.
When you read into what he says though, he has valid points to make. Most eikaiwa don't have anything "engaging or constructive" about them, it's a case of using whatever tricks they can to lure customers in and get them to hand over their money, and make sure they're given a "minimum standard" of some sort of English "lesson" to keep them happy.
The whole "industry" is based on the idea of "meet a gaijin", and there's very little educational value in it for students. On top of which, as he says, eikaiwa owners are generally in it for the money and use and exploit their staff and instructors to that end.
Can anyone name an eikaiwa where this ISN'T the case? An eikaiwa that manages its finances properly, trains instructors properly to actually teach students how to converse in English, looks out for the welfare of its staff, and doesn't sell itself on the "meet a gaijin" thing, but can genuinely sell itself on being well-managed, and of having a track-record of genuinely improving people's ability to speak English?
I bet your bottom dollar nobody can name one. The reason being that, when you think about it, it's pretty much an impossible situation to achieve.
True enough...
"When you read into what he says though, he has valid points to make. "
yes, but they're truisms. And he repeats them, again, and again.
I think his most distinctive trait though, is his nastiness. Horrible, bitter person.
Still it's only his online persona - might he be slightly less revolting, and pathetic, in real life?
What's the latest...?
Right then, so no-one has heard any news about GEOS...?
Well, while we're on the topic of eikawa - has anyone heard anything about Gaba?
They have been doing a lot of cost-cutting, have fired their CEO and appointed a new CEO who's specialty is helping ailing companies turn things around.
What's the prognosis?
True, to the extent that many
True, to the extent that many people will not be able to name a good school. However, that does not mean there are not schools out there, only that they are few and far between.
The 'impossibility' of having a good school is only such to the extent that this is the way the economics of the industry have evolved. Quality comes at a cost, and if your competitors are not paying the price, charging lower fees and getting all the business, then that is a big disincentive towards raising quality.
Personally, I blame the
Personally, I blame the Cambridge guys who set up the EFL thing to allow people who are not interested in doing language teaching for more than a year or so to get jobs. The only reason for this is to allow for a low wage employee group. Sure, if you do it exactly the way they say, then maybe it will work out. The problem comes when you don't, then you get the Chernobyl effect.
Yes, about that THORN guy
I am familiar with his nasty work too. In Nova Teachers United, he used to post under the name “encarnacionjulia”, sometimes under “sushizuki”, and sometimes under “catpee”, just to name a few a few of his numerous puppet socks. He is a real pain in the neck. Just ignore him.
Jam, are you pulling our legs??
I did a google search "GABA" "CEO" "fired"
The only comments/info I found.... was YOURS!!!
Hmmmm Pffft, as Thorn would say....
Yes, that Thorn guy is a very
Yes, that Thorn guy is a very bitter individual. He seems to have very little to do with his time and spends it all getting it off his chest on forums like this.
As for eikaiwa, I think you're right about the disincentive towards raising quality. There was an article linked on here the other day that said basically, people don't really know what makes a good teacher, and if one school is offering less, then people will tend to go for that one, even if the quality is worse than places charging more.
I think that it's possible to set up a school with a proper teaching system and method, and everything I mentioned above. You'd have fewer customers and less money coming into the company, but happier, more loyal instructors and staff, and a steady base of students. I guarantee you.
You got that right
Bitter isn't even the half of it. Did you know he, his Japanese girlfriend, and a couple of his other Japanese friends (one of them working in Nova HQ) are the ones who gave all the information and hard evidence to METI? That's why the METI raid was actually so brief. They had all they needed already. The guy is a lunatic. All those people that lost their jobs, well, you can blame him. I am actually quite scared of him. I think he is capable of doing anything. I hope he and is buddies are proud of themselves now. How do people get to Japan, visa already in hand, with accomodation set up now?
Wow!
"Bitter isn't even the half of it. Did you know he, his Japanese girlfriend, and a couple of his other Japanese friends (one of them working in Nova HQ) are the ones who gave all the information and hard evidence to METI?"
No, I didn't know. Maybe the lynch mob should go after THORN too, after they've finished with Saruhashi.
Anyway.... the point is, as much as I'd like your story to be true, I don't believe a word of it. Nice try, though.
It's a well known fact that student complaints triggered the NOVA METI raid. Are you saying THORN is:
a) a student. And,
b) a man
?
Hmmm? Pffft? and all that.
Student Complaints
The key student (voicing the man complaints) was a man, and also happened to be one of THORN's J girlfriend's closest buddies, and it all went from there. The METI raid went for what seemed like 5 minutes, becuase they had already been given the hard evidence, to back up the students complaints (by THORN and his inside crew). So yes, the lynch mob should also go after THORN, but like I said, who knows what that sick asshole, crazy son of a bitch is capable of.
Thorn, you have suddenly gone quiet. How come buddy?
I was using reverse psychology.
Daisy,
I'm sorry I called you a fibber. Just needed to call your bluff, in order to wheedle more info.
But I can't do anything about this THORN character, until you give more concrete info. Anything would be good - preferably a name. I worked at NOVA for 5 years so even a hint would be good.
Cheers
Ernie.
Yeah Yeah Yeah Whatever!
I see, I am a man, and Nova’s demise can be attributed to me.
Whatever turns you on!
Even if that were true, who cares? Nova deserved to go, just like all of them. Exterminate Eikaiwa! Exterminate them all!
Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!
Meantime, is there any weight behind the rumour Aeon is up against the wall and ready to fold?
Morons!
Pfft!
THORN
I've heard all kinds of
I've heard all kinds of rumours floating around. Last year I heard ECC was up against the wall and about to fold.
Adult classes are generally way down from what I hear, so it wouldn't surprise me if schools close down, and the wages just keep dropping. I see G Con Nova is advertising for new part-timers for 1,800 yen an hour.
If this doesn't persuade anyone with half a brain to get some proper qualifications and experience and get a real job, then they deserve 1,800 yen an hour!
The Ripper.
Another thing to note is just
Another thing to note is just how many people are looking for work at the minute. It seems like there's a huge over-supply of teachers out there, and I doubt many have got qualifications and experience in actual teaching, as opposed to talking.
Hence the quality of lessons on offer isn't high. But who cares anyway, as long as there's a comedy/kakkoi gaijin at the front of class, a few hot sales staff, and a nice, sleek, glossy "learning environment", all promoted with high-profile advertising, then there's still a fair few people who will hand over their money for that.
The Ripper
Taking stock.
Give the people what they want.Not everyone wants the
highly educated,highly skilled,ultra professional,but dry
sensei.
Some people just want to be able to communicate and share a laugh.
And if you don't like the chain schools around and how they
operate..... Man up and show how it should be done,by opening
your own establishment,rather than wallowing as a working poor.
Fortune favors the brave,even in these times of economic uncertainty.
Exactly - put up or shut up
Exactly - put up or shut up so to speak. I've seen several talented people carry on working in chain schools when they could open up their own schools themselves and, I'm sure, run a much better, more professional and decent operation. I guess they've built up a sizeable wage over the years, have family commitments, and are reluctant to take that risk.
I agree that different students want different things - some want to actually study and practice the language, others want to just practice talking, some people want a laugh, other people don't really know what they want, and yes, you've got to cater to all of those things. Unfortunately, schools that I've seen generally don't do that, they just throw you in there without any idea of what's going on.
In a way, I think the lowering of wages to somewhere near that of bartending and waitering work has one good effect, and that is that it brings home the reality that eikaiwa is an unskilled job. In future, people will think twice before committing themselves to it and not waste themselves in shoddy, sleazy operations like Nova, et al.
The Ripper
Too many words Ripper
You have chosen to use a lot of words Ripper, to say what can be said in once sentence, and that sentence is:
“EIKAIWA IS FOR LOSERS, END OF”
Too many words Ripper
You have chosen to use a lot of words Ripper, to say what can be said in one sentence, and that sentence is:
“EIKAIWA IS FOR LOSERS, END OF”
Eikaiwa is for losers
Given the number of times you have repeated that message, I'd say that the amount of words that you use exceeds Ripper's by a long margin. This world is full of people who could be doing better, but don't. So what?
Too few words asswindgaseous
I think eikaiwa suits losers. People who've got nothing else they can do, and aren't interested in much else; misfits who can't get on back home; or else the money is, or at least was, very good, very easy, and they're too lazy to move on.
Some people stay in it for more genuine reasons, maybe they're using it to fund some other pursuit. And these people tend to move on from it.
The Ripper
The True Losers....
are asswipe and ripshit.You both in your diatribes show
you need a boy,a girl, or both. Make a decision.
With the bile coming out of your mouths,I'd suggest
you both need to leave.Pronto.
Bitter mofos like you two,can only be detrimental in
any field of gainful employment.
Thanks for that Stealth,
Thanks for that Stealth, really enlightening.
The Ripper
Steatlh knows what he is
Not bile at all Stealth, but rather, FACT, and you don't like that.
I don't blame you really, for not liking that.
I don’t blame you at all Stealth, because it is a tough assignment, accepting:
(a) You work in a notorious swindler's industry, full to the rafters with repugnant scam artists
(b) A dribbling idiot can do your job, as long as they are a native English speaker, and a fresh one, straight of the boat, is in higher demand than an experienced veteran
(c) Your job and job conditions are now compared with casually waiting tables, working in a bar, or working as a casual golf caddie (because your job is a joke)
(d) Your job has no value outside of Japan (in the language industry), and actually, in the most part, it is laughed at, and frowned upon
(e) Because you are a foreigner, labour laws are pretty much ignored by your employer
So, you enjoy your bile job is just about all I have left to say, Stealth, other than "EIKAIWA IS FOR LOSERS, END OF "
AWG
Not all think Eikaiwa is for Losers
People don’t necessarily view Eikaiwa workers as losers. I flew back home recently during a 10 day break, having saved up my annual vacation time. Anyway, when I was home, I went to a dinner party at an old school friend’s house. To my surprise, there were four of my other old friends there, all from the same class. Boy did we have fun !
It was a great catch up. Andy described how exciting it was, to have delivered his first baby at the Rawson’s Memorial Hospital, and it was so great to hear Sally had recently won an award for her part in the design of the recently completed and highly regarded Nelson River Bridge. Paul had finally got the job he was wanting as a sports journalist for the National Tribune, and Mack had recently been nominated for young architect of the year, following the launch of his environmentally friendly “Mediterranean Series” of house designs. Tommy was still working in the family business, but his Dad had recently retired, and he was slowly but surely taking over the reigns.
Anyway, it was great to see everyone doing so well (even if in such a self-limiting way).
I told them the usual about Japan, but they couldn’t really relate to it (kind of to be expected), so thank God I had prepared in advance!
Just as the conversation was getting a bit dull, I reached under the table, and pulled from my satchel my emergency copy of Diplomat, and put it the centre of the dining room table! You should have seen their eyes light up!
Boy did the interest spark after that. I went through role plays, listen and repeat, you name it. I gave them a complete run through of what my career involves.
By the end of the night, everyone was so envious of my fascinating career in Japan, I couldn’t believe it. They all look so astonished.
To me, well really, even though they are doing well, in a stereo-typical sense, I think they are the losers, not me. I have an international career, teaching Diplomat, in a far away land, in an ancient culture, and they are just doing what people do, back home.
I am blessed.
You are obviously spouting
You are obviously spouting off about your
own inner frustrations, since you don't know
what I or others do.How presumptious and
ignorant.
But I can say this with assurety:I am happier
and feel sorry for your lame noise.
"Another thing to note is
"Another thing to note is just how many people are looking for work at the minute."
What, in Eikaiwa? I find that very hard to believe!
Or do you mean looking for work in general?
<<insert eikaiwa name here>> is close to bankruptcy
Yeah, it's true. My wages weren't in the bank, this morning.
O.K. I don't actually work in Eikaiwa, but even so, my wages weren't there.
And that is a fact. Anyone who disagrees is a BIG FAT LOSER's period.
More wind from the Ripper
Well, a lot of the better-paid jobs - business classes basically - seem to have a lot of people going after them, although that's to be expected. As for the bog-standard G Con/Gaba stuff, I don't know. I can't imagine who would go for part-time work at 1,500-2,000 per hour except as top-up to their other jobs maybe.
As has been said, you'd have to be a real loser to want to make a "career" of that, unless you think that sitting in a room getting paid to talk crap to Japanese people, pretending to teach, staring into space, being a gaijin entertainer/super-star, and looking after fresh-off-the-boat newbies etc etc is your divine calling.
The Ripper
The Ripper blows more gas out his ass
All fair comments AWG. The question is how to go about sorting these problems. Certainly there needs to be more investigation from the authorities - the Labor Standards Board for instance - into the running of these schools. And ideally, laws brought in to protect employees against unscrupulous behaviour from their employer.
I can't see any of that happening. Look at Sahashi, he's got away scot-free so far. This being Japan, you're up against a lot of behind the scenes shenanigans going on, and entrenched attitudes towards foreigners. A feeling that foreigners don't matter, they don't really belong here anyway, they'll be going home sooner or later, therefore it doesn't matter what treatment is meted out to them.
Don't bother with anything
Don't bother with anything asswind say, or should I say Thorn. It ia the same stuff he has posted before over and over and over again.
GEOS SHANGHAI PROBLEM
I am a former teacher in Geos Shanghai, my name is Mae. I have resigned nicely from the company 1 week ago, and then since i am a foreigner in China, as the Chinese government said, I need a former letter from my employer, which is GEOS, that confirmed yes, i have worked there from...to....and i am no longer working there, in order to be able to apply my working visa with the new employer. But GEOS Shanghai's manager, mindy chen, refused to provide me with that letter. She is very unprofessional and unable to separate personal feelings with work. Deliberately cause difficulties for me as a former employee.
I haven't gossip or create bad publicity according to my own imagination. What i said above is all true thus i cannot be blamed for it.
Mae
Take a look at the Miti spreadsheet data from THEIR site!
You want to know the real numbers here they are from MITI.
Saw this link today on Japantoday.com Nice bit of info.
Link to Govt Site
http://www.meti.go.jp/interface/honsho/Search/Japanese/search?btnG=%8C%9...
Or download the spreadsheet directly:
http://www.meti.go.jp/statistics/tyo/tokusabido/result/result_1/xls/hv15...
Quick Summary:
Hard Facts:
Revenues
2006 - 126,000,000,000 yen (billion)
2007 - 84,490,000,000 yen
2008 - 78,435,000,000 yen
#’s of Students Studying at Language schools.
2006 - 9,370,902 students
2007 - 6,250,613
2008 - 4,501,958
Full time instructors vs Part time instructors.
FULL TIME PART TIME
2006 - 8207 5342
2007 - 4163 6065
2008 - 3687 5772
Number of Schools operating
2006 - 4304 Schools
2007 - 3584
2008 - 3669
Summary. More than 50% drop in students studying 3 years.
Full time jobs have been cut by nearly 60%
Part time jobs are increasing.
Number of schools has not changed as much as you would anticipate considering the incredible drop in students.
ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT WHETHER OR NOT GEOS, GABA, and AEON might be struggling right now are cleary answered. Yes yes yes they are. Not my assumptions... MITI Data.
This aught to bring a shit storm of comments. have at it and enjoy folks!
Interesting Data from their site
Interesting data. One could be forgiven for thinking Eikaiwa is in the process of being flushed down the toilet. Clockwise, or anti-clockwise? That is the sixty million dollar question.
THORN
Geos is a 'prestigious and
Geos is a 'prestigious and professional' school but this is how they treat their employee and former employee. Deliberately cause difficulties when that person do not want to work in GEOS anymore. very childish, very unprofessional.
GEOS is pretty lousy
At GEOS there are some major loser types working in the company. The Japanese staff are border line retarded with with severe emotional and mental issues......real poor quality. A real lousy company overall.
I work for Geos. If you point
I work for Geos. If you point your web browser to their international hiring website now, you'll see that another company in Germany owns it. Our international schools are hiring independently and keeping the company afloat for the moment, but things are bad. For one thing, our teachers are spread thin. It's common now for NETs to teach 8 classes on Saturday, and the company has been merging schedules to cut back on staff as teachers leave or fulfill their contracts. Geos has also cut corners wherever it can. If you're a traveling teacher, you'll no longer receive a monthly bonus, but they got rid of that nearly a year ago. We've also merged our codomo schools with the larger domestic enterprise.
I think that Geos has a bit of life in it, but if the company doesn't resume its hires abroad, I don't think it will survive in the long run. The quality of teachers has severely diminished because we're only hiring teachers within Japan. Most people who already live in Japan know about eikaiwas and avoid schools like Geos for good reason. So, any teachers worth their salt leave our school for better ones as soon as they get their visas renewed. What's left are the awkward otakus who scare off visitors and coworkers, and those are the only people we can seem to hire to replace the normal people.
Before, Geos was able to get some quality teachers in its doors because they could hire naïve college grads from the other side of the world. Now it's completely different. I'm just glad that I've been saving my money so I can buy a plane ticket home when this monster finally keels over.
That's what eikaiwa was built
That's what eikaiwa was built on - naive college grads from the other side of the world who know nothing about eikaiwa or Japan, together with naive Japanese who know nothing about English, English lessons or foreigners.
If they can't hire those sorts of people any more, then as you said, it's a downward spiral.
Naive
Anyone who graduates from a University is Naive once they land a job in there respective fields. Don't tell me that every teacher out there was not NAIVE when they graduated? And by NAIVE, I mean unexperienced. As far as GEOS goes, they do hire overseas, via SKYPE! hhahahaa
GEOS will not tank anytime
GEOS will not tank anytime soon. Right now due to the recession they are cutting costs, like any other company in the world. Can it tank? Of course it can. Can it succeed? Of course it can. And it all depends whether the GEOS President changes his 1970's-80's business methodologies. Instiling fear on those who work below him and in turn those below him instiling fear on the rest of the company, is not goin to work. In order for a company to progress, especially during these difficult financial times...a company has to alter its old methodologies and be more creative and sensitive to the present society. Something of which I don't see GEOS doing.
It would help if they learned
It would help if they learned something about language acquisition and applied it as well. Also, unlikely to occur.
Reply to the previous two posts...
Berlitz hasn't changed its basic business model, or teaching methodology, in over a century. Why should GEOS feel any urge to change?
And about language acquistion... It's a 'hypothesis', developed by Krashen among others, and is not necessarily a) true, or b) suitable for Eikaiwa methodology (an hour of English a week). It just outlines how a language is (hypothetically) acquired, it doesn't lay out an Eikaiwa friendly blueprint, regarding how to apply it.
Absolutely agree
Well said, Tom
Good post, although I
Good post, although I disagree with the premises (unstated):
1 If you are talking about busniess survival, then you have an excellent point about Berlitz. Although GEOS branding has a long way to go before getting to where the Berlitz name is. Nova spent most of what it had on branding and were bought by GCom for just that reason. Doesn't seem to be working too well for them at the moment, however. If you are talking about educational validity, then the fact that Berlitz has not changed it's educational methodologies in 100 years is every reason to avoid it like the plague.
2 Language acuisition theory has an applied corollory that is indeed not eikaiwa friendly. Does this justify the existence of eikaiwa? Hardly. To justify it's existence, eikaiwa would need to develop it's own theoretical model, publicise it, do research and publise the results. It is precisely because eikaiwa schools have no interest whatsoever in this kind of thing that they cannot claim to be real educational institutions.
It would be wrong to say that
It would be wrong to say that GEOS methodologies are free of a language acquisition theory. Actually, one cannot teach without one. Problem with the GEOS one, as with the ones used in most Eikaiwas is that, theirs doesn't work well enough in practice to justify the expense and time spent by the student. That is what most Japenese people now realise, and this together with a distaste for seedy sales tactics is the real reason that eikaiwa schools have lost ground (this process began before the recession started).
There's a post-Nova bounce
Thanks for the link!
You might want to look over the data while focusing on the Nova crash, and the
bounce in the data.
Sept. 2007 13,311 teachers (7449 FT/ 5862 PT) pre-crash numbers (though they ain't getting paid)
Oct. 2007 9046 teachers (3091 FT/ 5955 PT) post-Nova crash, huge drops in all data
Jan 2008 10506 teachers (4525 FT/ 5981 PT) peak of the bounce, but probably skewed by G-Com's bullshit claims of full time employment which weren't actually true
Oct. 2008 9697 teachers (3807 FT/ 5890 PT) 1 year later, still some after effects of the bounce
May 2009 9460 teachers (3716 FT/ 5744 PT) most recent data, still dropping, not yet the second bounce, if there will ever be a second bounce, though the drop is slowing so maybe the second bounce is near.
Most of the other data follows the same pattern, huge post-Nova crash, then a bounce, maybe partly from students changing to other "legit" schools, and partly from G-Com's bullshit and funny accounting.
And now the slow steady decline after the bounce, with no second bounce.
Sales and student numbers have actually dropped worse than the post-Nova crash!
lol
everyone go home now!
Is Geo's Hiring?
Hi everybody,
Is it possible to get hired by Geos in America? I'm really interested in going to Japan to teach English. I know the economy is not doing so well over there now, but I'd like to give it a shot.
"Thorn" has told me that it's nothing but cougars and stds. Does anybody have a second opinion?
I would appreciate all and any advice.
Best,
Willie
Advice
My advice is simple, go to South Korea or maybe China if you`re not money hungry. Japan`s a been there done that place now. I have seen as many as 85 applicants for 1 job from people already here and with experience. Salaries are definately on the decline and not expected to get any better.
GEOS in the wonder years
Just have to say this forum makes me sad, nostalgic, whatever. I worked for AMVIC, the original of GEOS, in 1980, not fresh out of college, but I was young, sincere (not naive) and eager to go abroad. I think I hit it about right. Eikaiwa had been around long enough work out the worst practices and to provide some actual educational benefit, but people were not totally jaded. I knew Mr. Kusonoki and his brother, the boss of my area of Japan, personally and even stayed in one of their homes when I first arrived in Japan. I worked hard, did not cheat by working on the side, and since I was actually a trained teacher who knew that teaching is damn hard work, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. It was easier to get AMVIC to buy some decent teaching materials than any public school district I worked for in the States, we could leave the office when we weren't teaching, we got our days off though we had to fight for them, but the students were wonderful--polite, punctual, hardworking, and they participated. If a foreign teacher did their job and lived up to their contract they were treated well, better than any other eikaiwa company treated their employees. I will say that AMVIC was mean and bullying to their Japanese office staff and even in those days they did make them work a lot of unpaid overtime. That said, eikaiwa was at that time almost the only place a woman, especially a divorced woman or an older single woman, could have any type of meaningful, challenging career. All my bosses were women and they were damn good at their jobs. One was a single mom. She would never have made the kind of money she did at AMVIC in any other job, and they gave her some accomodations to care for her child.
Yes, they were in it for the money. So were we teachers. We wanted to live abroad and make money. Teaching jobs were scarce at home. I taught abroad in two different countries and both times got better pay and better treatment than in the USA.
AMVIC was one of the better jobs I ever had. Our boss took us out and paid for everything and sent us home in a taxi several times a year. We got a bonus if students re-upped, which they usually did because we were doing our jobs.
We had nice apartments and our office ladies took good care of us. The school secretary, dressed in full kimono, delivered boxed traditional New Year's foods to our door, all home-made by her and her mother, on New Year's Day. Our students invited us to their homes and took us out to all kinds of cultural and recreational activities.
But we did have to do those horrible children's Christmas parties. We called them "see a gaijin-touch a gaijin" shows.
Aah, the good old-bad old-real old days....
Suck it up kids, life's not perfect!
RE: GEOS in the wonder years
Thanks for sharing old timer. I'm sure teaching English during the bubble was quite the good time. Back then you could probably still get an erection and maybe bagged a couple of broads that weren't too shabby looking. Your post reminds me of one of my Grandpappy's ol' fishin stories.
"AMVIC was one of the better jobs I ever had." I certainly hope things were much better back then, or you have lived a very sad life indeed.
If you don't mind me asking, did you ever move on to real career, or have you been teaching English abroad, bussing tables and doing telemarketing all these years?
Luke
Sounds great. And it must
Sounds great. And it must have done wonders for your career, and your life in general. Please tell us more, I'm sure plenty of people out there want to hear!!
Eikaiwa in the wonder years
I know all you all are too cool for school nowadays and that's why you don't enjoy anything or learn from it, apparently. Most of the people I worked with at AMVIC [now GEOS] went on to have great careers in TESOL and one went to work for a highly respected publishing company. Yeah, there is one still doing shit jobs. AMVIC was no bed of roses and I have no doubt things are worse now, but back then we really believed in peace, love and international understanding. It's a sad commentary on what shitty parents my generation was that folks your age are so jaded and negative about everything.
I came back from vacation once at AMVIC and they had cut our barely adequately sized classroom in two and of course the half left for me was the half without the air conditioner or the window. The first day back I was in there with 12 junior high girls who were falling asleep. I marched out, told the secretary I wasn't going back in to teach until they provided a fan. An hour later I got a threatening phone call from the big boss asking why I was refusing to work and demanding an air conditioner. I explained the temperature, the effect on the students and that I demanded a fan. He promplty authorized the secretary to go down the street and buy a large fan, which she did, and a week later I had an air conditioner. We supported our Japanese office staff (and it's true we lucked out, not all were as good) and tried to make them look good because it benefited us. When we asked for stuff we did so on the basis that students would re-up if we were professional and gave good value for money.
I am only saying that yeah, lots of stuff in eikaiwa sucks, it did then and it does now, maybe more so. But try being sincere, doing your job and being positive about something. It won't make things any worse. When you poop all over yourself and the work you're doing and everything everyone else is doing or ever did, you're just showing you're afraid to try and not get a perfect result, and I think that's really sad.
P. S. Old bag refers to females, so I wan't banging any broads.
It would NOT be wrong
>It would be wrong to say that GEOS methodologies are free of a language acquisition theory.
No it wouldn't be wrong, as 'language acquisition theory' doesn't actually exist. It's merely a hypothesis, numbnuts.