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

The white Hyundai Pony of Doom rolled to a noisy stop outside my house. The door slammed shut with it's characteristic crusty sound. I walked out to the street and met John by the car. We were soon hurtling down 104th avenue. The floor of the car was covered with the shards of broken cassette boxes. The covers of various Black Sabbath tapes were mashed into the floor and smeared with shoe prints.

Fairies were wearing boots in Ozzie's world. On the back seat of the car were cassettes and empty beer cans. The car smelled like cigarette smoke and gasoline.

I had to get a day off, which is not the easiest thing to do at Nova, with one week's notice. Of course I could have just called in and said 'not today I have suddenly found a great drinking buddy on the train last night so I won't be up to 7 seniles all day' (the first level at Nova is 7C and the students are rarely beginners so the lessons are frightfully boring for the students unless the teacher acts like a monkey or worse窶蚤 drunk lunatic desperately seeking intelligent interaction), which is what my schedule seemed to be full of at this point.

When I joined GEOS I was a very willing teacher. I would have done almost anything for the company. I thought being a teacher was a noble thing (still do), after all, you're not trying to convince somebody or sell something. I looked forward to a career in the company. The recruiting office in Vancouver had told us all about the wonderful opportunities in the other divisions of GEOS: travel, publishing, management. I figured I'd like to make a go of it. I thought I could be the kind of guy who works for a company. I thought I could get something marketable from the experience.

Many thanks to our Deep Throat for providing these documents. She tells me that these attendance sheets are nothing but a headache for managers when a student asks to see them. They are something that she would never show to a high level student and would use every excuse in the book to keep them from being read. For low level students, she would cover and read them, making up a BS story the whole time. Read them. They speak for themself.

In January of 2000, a contributing writer to the site wrote an article that would launch a personality to the forefront of the eikaiwa debate in this country. This man brought to light a question that at once crystallizes and clarifies the entire English Conversation industry dichotomy. The question: "Like, is eikaiwa a chill way to make a few bones and go on with your life or is it, like, some kind of job (career), man?"

I had just spent the day in Tokyo. I was really tired and a little depressed. I had just had an argument with a friend of mine, one of the only at the time, and I had to go home. Home was Odawara which is a little bit of a ways from Tokyo- if you take the local train it is a good two hours away. I was too tired for that.

I'm looking for a list of schools approved by otherpeople that work or have worked there in order to avoid falling in a shit hole.

Guest post by Kevin Burns

When I was teaching in Chiba, I found out that one of my students was an ex-GEOS manager. There was an instant connection when I told her that I used to work for GEOS as well. We talked about our experiences and this is the result.

Update. I've finally gotten around to putting this in a PDF for easier reading.

This is the contract Chris and I signed when we joined GEOS. The one below is Chris' one year renewal contract. In Vancouver, we initially signed 2 year contracts which GEOS does not offer any longer. We don't know if the contracts have changed over the years but when you look at the contract stipulations in AEON's page and the NOVA contract, they probably have not changed at all.