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

When I received a call from GEOS in the beginning of July I was incredibly excited! At this point I was no longer concerned with which eikaiwa hired me, only that one did in fact hire me. I eventually had interviews scheduled with NOVA, GEOS, AEON, and ECC. However, after doing more research on all the schools, I decided to cancel the interview with NOVA as I was put off by 1) the no-socialization rule and 2) the idea of paying the same rent as with other companies to share an apartment with one or two other people. So I headed off to Toronto to interview with GEOS first.

This story is aimed at all of those motherfuckers who for some reason unbeknownst to mankind want to come to the land of the spewing sewers. Just in case some of you are slightly unsure as to what land I am in fact referring to, it's Japan.

"What the fuck is Skweekah up to?" you may ask yourself. Well, let's just say that I have a little story to divulge on the faithful audience of the LetsJapan Web site, the online presence that won some fucking award. "What award?" you may ask. Let's just say that you're asking the wrong piece of shit.

Well, if anyone has a contract horror story, tell me if mine doesn't stand next to the worst of the worst. I swear, I have never had any feelings of wanting to cause bodily injury to anyone, but after being put through the shit that my boss put me through, I was ready to put a weapon of mass destruction up this guys @ hole and have a whole slew of weapon inspectors follow. Even to this day, I think I would gladly give up a months salary for one shot at him "wanna know why"read on.

I used to work for an Eikaiwa in Sendai city. It is a medium sized school and Barten makes reference to it in his previous post. If any one cares to know its name I will gladly share it. This school on all appearances seems friendly and proffessional but I want to share with you its dark secrets...

The atmosphere in head office had descended to such depths that almost no-one spoke to me at all. Information dried up so I didn't know when or where to attend meetings. The sheets that got passed around the office with new policies for everyone's signature mysteriously bypassed my desk. Even more worrying for the long-term health of the company was the high turnover of staff. People were dropping like flies, and soon I didn't know half the staff working around me. Around this time, three incidents stick in my mind as particularly repellent.

The first warning I had that things were heading towards shit creek was on a random school visit. Having talked about the usual things, the teacher asked me why he had been interrogated by a couple of Japanese guys and pressed to make complaints about me and others in head office. From his description of the main guy, I surmised that he was one of the branch managers, whose face bore such a striking resemblance to that animal that he was known as "Fuguman."

What's your most embarrassing classroom experience? I can think of a few of my own.

Note: Anecdotes originally posted on the message board on January 14, 2002 and February 5, 2002.

What bad experiences have you had working in eikaiwa?

Note: Originally posted on the message board on September 22, 2001.

Guest post by barten

I came to Japan to teach English 6 years ago. I started in Sendai and thought I'd found my dream job. My first school was American Club, hallways bubbling with students, teachers' room full of banter and jokes. On a working holiday visa, I was started part-time for Y100,000 a month. I worked 12 to 6 and looked for evening classes elsewhere with no luck. They promised to make me full-time down the track, but they seemed to be hiring other people over me. Then the pay started drying up.

I've always had a fascination by Japan and visiting the place but I never thought that I'd actually consider doing it. But, get a guy to work in the same crappy job and live in the same old place for long enough and he begins to think some crazy shit. And have that same guy think about crazy shit for long enough and you never know, he may actually do it. Just take a look at Michael Jackson's face and you get the picture.