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The Blame Game
G.communication has limped along since it scraped up the remains of NOVA in 2007 and tried to put it back together. Sales have not been good and complaints have been piling up, so management apparently decided to write a memo about it. Mr. X in the forums provides a copy of the .
Recently a number of complaints have been received by Head Office from students regarding their lessons. They feel no sense of progress and that their lessons are monotonous and failing to support their advancement. They claim that instructors seem to lack a sense of responsibility towards their own self-improvement, and as a result make little or no effort to increase the quality of their lessons. They will not re-sign if such a situation continues.
As you are all aware, student motivation is closely tied to a sense of progress in their learning. The current level up rate is very low, reflecting a very slow rate of progress. This means that expectations are not being met. In order to reverse the trend and address the negative impact it is having on students' decisions to continue learning at our schools, instructors need to be more conscious of student progress, and more conscientious and resourceful in regards to facilitating level up, and in developing their own professional skills and ability to keep students motivated and improving.
Instructor responsibilities include:
Lesson preparation - instructors should consider past records and study histories as much as possible in order to identify the specific needs of each student and make the best choice of lesson material and lesson objectives based on this.
Lesson quality - lesson stages should be tailored to meet student needs. Techniques and focuses should be selected and adapted throughout the lesson to maximise the benefit to the students' communicative competence as they progress through the unit.
Direct feedback - specific feedback should be given at all appropriate stages of the lesson, and in addition specific advice for improvement should be given verbally to students at the end of every lesson. Students should be aware of their own progress through the feedback they receive, and be able to recognize the efforts of the instructor to help them raise their level of performance.
Lesson records - entries in student files must be complete. This includes a recommendation, in the form of one or more checked boxes, or ideally a written comment. Written comments should be professional, objective and useful. They should be written in clear, simple English.
All of the above must be observed in order to motivate learners and most effectively assist and enable student progress towards the most tangible form of advancement - Level Up.
Level Ups - at every stage in a student's Nova career instructors need to be assessing and responding to the development of student proficiency in relation to the requirements of the next level so that timely Level Up recommendations can be made.
Thank you for your continued efforts,
Human Resource Enhancement Headquarters.
Got that? Business is bad, so the instructors are to blame. Give better lessons, give more feedback, submit neatly-written paperwork. What's missing is any recognition by management of what problems it's facing--aside from those ubiquitous "complaints"--and what plan they have for addressing those problems. It would be nice if management actually told its employees what is plans to do instead of squashing morale by telling instructors to be better.
Despite Sahashi scamming hundreds of thousands of his customers and staff and instructors out of their money, and running the company into the ground, G.communication president, Masaki Inayoshi, seems to believe that the NOVA brand is still salvageable. As far as I can tell, since taking over NOVA, G.communication hasn't put any effort into rebuilding the brand. Neo-NOVA's first and only TV commercial this year recycles the same old NOVA logo and bunny. What could possibly go wrong with reusing the logo and character from a company associated with fraud on a massive scale? At most, G.communication has taken the old NOVA system and its textbooks, slapped a thin coat of paint on it, and hoped for the best. They should have dumped the logo and bunny long ago.
But there's more! Another reader provides more hilarity:
In addition to that sad, morale-degrading fax, theres [sic] other news: `apparently`, staff now will be required TO PAY electricity bills that are in excess!! No joke!! Explains now why theyve [sic] been turning the lights off during lessons.
I don't know what "excess" means here, but if they're turning off the lights to cut costs, this should save NOVA hundreds of yen annually! G.communication has done things on the cheap from the beginning, and now they're scraping the bottom of the barrel for ways to save money. It's a bad sign when you have to pinch your pennies this tightly. Is this what's happening in neo-NOVA? Has G.communication realized that taking over the smoldering wreck of NOVA was a bad idea?
Comments
Either they got paid to take on the Nova “brand”, or this G Communication bunch is run by a bunch of blithering retards.
I feel so sorry for the few lost souls still working in that repulsive charlatan of an outfit, practicing nothing more and nothing less than linguistic quackery.
What are those mountebank bastards in eikaiwa going to come up with next?
Selling snake oil tonic perhaps?
It makes me feel like vomiting reading that swindler waffle, quite reminiscent of the old Nova actually – Novaesque dictatorial prattle designed to hoodwink mystified newbies, who have no language teaching or work experience, into having faith that Nova is an its toes professional outfit, when really, their entire modus operandi is to hoax and purloin what is not rightfully theirs to take, if the laws of common decency are to apply.
G Communications – YOU MAKE ME WANNA PUKE !
I can’t wait to see what Mr. Ripper has to say about this latest Eikaiwa upchuck, I really can’t wait. This is an outrage !
THORN
These memo's positively reek of the handywork of the former Nova Minister for Propaganda, Flemming Lord. It seems the creep has invented a new department: "Human Resource Enhancement Headquarters"
If you are reading this, Lord, are you still looking over your shoulder every time you walk down the street? Been to any Gaijin bars in Osaka lately, my Lord? And how is your best mate, Anders "Werewolf" Lundqvist? Did he join you at the laughing stock that is known as G. Con?
Everyone knows that G.Con/NOVA is purely for the lowest of the low, bottom feeders who are unable to find any work elsewhere because they are, well, unemployable outside of G.Con/NOVA. And that includes everyone from Flemming, Anders and Masaya Ino-shishi down...
It's only a matter of time, you G.Con/NOVA morons. Only a matter of time.
Perhaps those people who stuck on with G.Com "just for a few months" or "just until the big March/April hiring season" need to be reminded that it's been over a year and the March April hiring season has just passed a second time since the big crash.
Anyone who went back to G.Com was supposed to poach as many students as possible and organize private lessons or even found their own schools, then bail.
Anyone STILL there has no right to bitch, although please keep letting us know how much it sucks, because it's good for a laugh. Now, buckle down, find some kind of place you can run lesson on your own, and start recruting your students before you find yourselves not getting paid AGAIN.
Umm. First you start with a
Umm. First you start with a 'group' that is possibly quite small in number. The exact number of which is impossible to know: Namely people who decided to stick with GComm just for a few months or until the next hiring season, but then stayed on anyway.
Then you move on to the statement that anyone who who stayed with GComm was 'supposed to poach students'. Supposed to by whom?
Finally, you close with: ANYONE still there has no right to bitch.
Great logic.
LOL! Right, right, NOVA
LOL!
Right, right, NOVA still doesn't provide the instructors with the right tools or effective materials, nor do they help to change the mindsets of customers stuck in their jr. highschool ways of learning Engrish, and it's the instructors' fault? BullShyt
The customers/students themselves don't know what they need. A more effective system for addressing the learners needs using new technologies would be smarter than putting all the stress on the instructors. Do some research G.Comm you stupid shyts, and put your home-made-Nova-Engrish text books where they belong--In the trash!
Well there's quite a bit to rip here. Jesus, what a bunch of clowns. Sending out a memo giving a whole bunch of very generalized advice that sounds like they gleaned from some sort of employees/employers "self-help manual".
They're clearly not doing this to motivate people or improve standards, it's just another thing they can use against people at contract evaluation time to either give them a lower, or zero, pay raise, or not renew their contract.
That's what eikaiwa hiring "policy" is, like a kaiten-zushi conveyor belt. In you come, out you go, etc etc etc
The Rip-rip-rippin Ripper
The Rip in Nova's Butt
Ripster/Thorn
Just a quick question. It's been asked before, but you were too rude (spineless?) to respond....
Why have you got such a bug up your botty about Eikaiwa? We all know it's not like you were previously a Wall Street broker, or aid worker in Chad, or something, but suddenly had a road to Damascus moment, and decided to dedicate your life to destroying evil Eikaiwa. We ALL know it's because you didn't have your contract renewed at GCom renewed because you have personal hygiene issues, no personality, and were spotted giving out your phone number in Kid's classes.
Anyway, could you just fill us in with the EXACT details??? What's your story, ripthorn???
You'll have to ask Thorn
You'll have to ask Thorn about that. I'm not Thorn, I worked for Nova years ago and decided to quit because it was time to go home.
I've recently been working in other purported "language school" and have had to suffer some absolutely disgusting managerial decisions (nothing to do with personal hygiene I might add). That's why I've created this "Ripper" persona to try and say it like it is about eikaiwa and, hopefully, help anyone reading to see through the bullshit.
The Ripper
My reply to this post is
My reply to this post is simply is for all posters to be very careful, because, if you post anything negative about Eikaiwa, you will be labelled:
(a) As having been fired, and wanting your job back
(b) As not having your contract renewed, and thus feeling bitter
(c) As having personal hygiene issues
The very surprising thing is, that the above accusations make Eikaiwa positions look like they are to be sort after, and that if you are lucky enough to secure a job in Eikaiwa, you can expect not to have to tolerate offensive body odours for terribly long, if at all.
As everyone knows, it is basically IMPOSSIBLE to get fired from Eikaiwa (when they are not closing branches due to mismanagement, or the particular group of concern is not being liquidated), unless you do something entirely despicable, like defecating on the carpet in front of everyone.
Pretty much the same goes with getting your contract renewed, and half of Eikaiwa’s work force, at any given point in time, stinks of the night before (so much for the personal hygiene bit).
However, the Lord Flem’s of The Scam that is Eikaiwa, do love to cultivate the feeling that you are skating on thin ice, when nothing further could be from the truth.
The only thin ice that actually exists in Eikaiwa is recognition of your job being full-time, and recognition of your human rights.
THORN
Ohh really, so sitting in a cubicle with a foreigner having an inane one sided conversation doesn't lead to fluency in 3 months. The passivity of the students is the main culprit I m afraid. It doesn t matter what material or what kind of brilliant teacher they have. Until the student looks in the mirror one day and says 'I'm gonna get this crap into my head' nobodies got a show in hell of dragging them towards fluency. Despite all the time they waste half asleep in a cubicle or all the cash they drop.
Eikaiwa companies don't care
Eikaiwa companies don't care about student fluency, in fact they don't care for much to do with speaking English, as long as people keep handing over their money. It doesn't matter what happens in the cubicle - as long as there's no complaints from the students, complaints which could lead to them asking for a refund, not re-signing, or saying bad things about the company to other people - then ANYTHING GOES, quite literally.
There was a story, and I'm reasonably sure it was true, of a girl who shaved her nether regions for an instructor, and lifted her skirt up under the desk to show him. She obviously hung out at the school with the prime intention of getting laid by as many foreign teachers as she could. The said instructor also apparently penetrated another student on the roof during lunch break.
Another satisfied pair of eikaiwa customers.
The Eikaiwa Minge Ripper
As you won't answer the question I'll answer it for you
You worked for Nova. Noboby liked you. Your self important attitude and lack of competence meant you were frequently disciplined (any one who gets a telling off, working at an eikaiwa really DOES need a kick in the pants), and left/were fired ignominiously. You have NEVER gotten over it, and you never will.
I'd like to thank Rip, for at least answering the question, but I never really suspected that you would, Thorn. Enjoy the deluded, blameless, gnawing existence you have chosen for yourself.
Oh dear Oh dear Oh dear Oh me……..
Please see below up dated list I recently posted, warning of what you will be labelled, if you post anything negative about Eikaiwa:
(a) As having been fired, and wanting your job back
(b) As not having your contract renewed, and thus feeling bitter
(c) As having personal hygiene issues
(d) No-one at Eikaiwa liked you
(e) You were frequently disciplined at Eikaiwa due to self important attitude and lack of competence
(f) You were fired from or left Eikaiwa ignominiously
(g) Your existence is deluded, blameless, gnawing, and self chosen
(h) You are unable to get over any of the above, and never will
I was quite amused by “G” above in fact, as it is actually an extremely accurate description of the optionless Eikaiwa long term geek (ELTG).
You don’t realise it, do you anon? No-one really gives a rat’s about the paper tiger discipline threat at Eikaiwa – the pathetic management front that is put up is laughed at – Eikaiwa managers and ELTG’s are the laughing stock of gaigin Japan.
No-one respects you, which is why you self project what it is about yourself you hate so much (particularly in your latest post), onto anyone who challenges your life in a specimen jar existence.
In closing, however, I have good news for you. There are options in life for you beyond Eikaiwa. After all your years of turning up to read from the same book, I know it doesn’t feel like it, but that’s all in your head. There is a whole world out, even for ELTG’s.
THORN
ELTG's and Eikaiwa Manager's continued.........
Oops, I forgot to add point (i) If you do not deny any accusation made by an ELTG (and let’s face it, why would you deny or confirm any inquisition thrown at you by an ELTG), then that accusation is no longer and accusation, but rather, is a universal FACT.
I have thus inserted point (i) below:
Oh dear Oh dear Oh dear Oh me……..
Please see below up dated list I recently posted, warning of what you will be labelled, and what to look out for, if you post anything negative about Eikaiwa:
(a) As having been fired, and wanting your job back
(b) As not having your contract renewed, and thus feeling bitter
(c) As having personal hygiene issues
(d) No-one at Eikaiwa liked you
(e) You were frequently disciplined at Eikaiwa due to self important attitude and lack of competence
(f) You were fired from or left Eikaiwa ignominiously
(g) Your existence is deluded, blameless, gnawing, and self chosen
(h) You are unable to get over any of the above, and never will
(i) If you do not deny any accusation made by an ELTG (and let’s face it, why would you deny or confirm any inquisition thrown at you by an ELTG), then that accusation is no longer and accusation, but rather, is a FACT.
I was quite amused by “G” above in fact, as it is actually an extremely accurate description of the optionless Eikaiwa Long Term Geek (ELTG).
You don’t realise it, do you anon? No-one really gives a rat’s about the paper tiger discipline threat at Eikaiwa – the pathetic management front that is put up is laughed at – Eikaiwa managers and ELTG’s are the laughing stock of gaigin Japan.
No-one respects you, which is why you self project what it is about yourself you hate so much (particularly in your latest post), onto anyone who challenges your life in a specimen jar existence.
In closing, however, I have good news for you. There are options in life for you beyond Eikaiwa. After all your years of turning up to read from the same book, I know it doesn’t feel like it, but that’s all in your head. There is a whole world out there, even for ELTG’s.
THORN
I don't work in Eikaiwa, although I'm happy to admit that I once did. It was a laugh. Crap company, but I got out in one piece.
But you, you live on these boards, insinuating that you are far too good to have ever been tainted by an acquaintance with Eikaiwa, and your mission is some divinely inspired crusade.
I'd have at least a modicum of respect for you if you'd admit you once suckled at the tears of Eikaiwa too. But you never will, because you're a coward. This is not about the merits/faults of Eikaiwa, Thorn. This is about YOU, being honest with us, and yourself. You haven't got the guts to tell us your story, have you? Who did you work for? Why are you so bitter? Just tell us, and I'll shut up.
"(g) Your existence is deluded, blameless, gnawing, and self chosen"
You forgot to mention "enjoyable". I said "enjoy", and you certainly do seem to be enjoying the deluded, blameless, gnawing existence, which you have chosen.
It's probably your take on humor, Thorn, to make a list, trying to turn my accusations back at me. Anyone who disagrees with you is Eikaiwa secret service. And you say you're NOT deluded??? You really have no idea how sick you've become, do you?
I am sure that you and I both hold Eikaiwa in contempt, but the difference is I've put it behind me, while you are letting your obsession rule your life. I truly pity you, and hope you get a grip, at some point in the future.
Well I can’t keep my adoring public waiting can I? Especially THORN.
Drum roll
I never said I supported Nova I just offered support to a friend of mine who still works there. I then suggested that some people might either A. enjoy working there or B. have no choice. A realize that some of you still have a lot of repressed anger over the old Nova and you are really desperate to beat up some poor unsuspecting troll or Nova serf that stumbles into the wrong forum. I am not that troll or serf. I paid my pound of flesh to the old Nova and they will never get another piece. I just hope none of you who are complaining are still working for Nova because you are your own worst enemy.
OMG – here we go again
Please see below updated list I recently posted, warning of what you will be labelled, and what to look out for, if you post anything negative about Eikaiwa:
(a) As having been fired, and wanting your job back
(b) As not having your contract renewed, and thus feeling bitter
(c) As having personal hygiene issues
(d) No-one at Eikaiwa liked you
(e) You were frequently disciplined at Eikaiwa due to self important attitude and lack of competence
(f) You were fired from or left Eikaiwa ignominiously
(g) Your existence is deluded, blameless, gnawing, and self chosen
(h) You are unable to get over any of the above, and never will
(i) If you do not deny any accusation made by an ELTG (and let’s face it, why would you deny or confirm any accusation excreted from an inquisition thrown at you by an ELTG), then that accusation is no longer an accusation, but rather, is a FACT.
(j) You live on Eikaiwa notice boards, posting away, day in, day out, as if on a divinely inspired crusade
(k) You are a coward
(l) You are not honest with yourself
(m) You are not honest with others on the boards
(n) You don’t have guts
(o) You enjoy living a life that is deluded, blameless, and a gnawing existence, which you have chosen
(p) You are sick
(q) Your sick obsession is ruling your life
(r) You are to be pitied
Well, whatever tickles your fancy anon, whatever tickles your fancy.
At the end of the day, however, one is simply faced with reality, and that reality is, as we all know:
“Eikaiwa is for LOSERS, END OF”
A simple sentence, and short sentence, but such a powerful sentence
You have a nice day now, you hear, anon, won’t you?
He he he he he
Pfft!
THORN
s) the reason you are not ELTG is because you couldn't get off your probationary period. You're a ESTG
t) you have neither the wit or strength to realise that even when Eikaiwa does eventually crash and burn, baby burn, it will have had nothing to do with your actions, or opinions, so your incessant rantings show perfectly how futile your behavior is.
u) you believe everyone who calls you out is an Eikaiwa fifth columnist
v) all this is just a conduit for your self destructive behavior
Well personally I don't think there's anything wrong with complaining about eikaiwa, or anything else for that matter, SO LONG AS you're trying to do something about it, and not just sitting there stewing behind your computer.
The best courses of action are to either
a) Do something about the cause of the complaint - hassle your manager, join the Union, post details on this board maybe; or
b) Get away from the cause of the complaint - in this case, get another job, do a course and learn another skill/trade
If you follow these simple, easy-to-follow steps, you need never get bitter, twisted or angry ever again.
The Ripper
Hypocrisy
Damn right - nothing wrong with complaining. IF you're honest enough to admit you worked there, sucked at the teat, etc.
But Thorn has no right to condemn those involved with Eikaiwa, when it's blindingly obvious that he was/is an Eikaiwa employee, but has not the moral fiber to admit it it.
Thorn needs to face up to his wicked past/present. My guess is he was a Nova trainer, who got bounced down due to Shakai Hoken.
Thorn/General Ripper/Eikawa Ripper, all of you, who are the same bloody person have really got to get a life and get out of the little shell of an apartment or Internet cafe that you live in. It is pretty pathetic that you have to use several alias' to repeatedly post the same damn bloody things day in and day out. I guess you are still getting rejected by the females like you were at NOVA when you worked there, that you have nothing better to do.
Ummm, if it is so obvious, then why admit anything Anon? Hmm? Hmm?
Sorry, but I am not going to give you one inch, since you are nothing more to me than what a student in elementary school is, who runs around pointing his finger in people’s chests, and saying “you stink”. That is how you started on your latest rant, you insignificant, raving ant.
The reality is, you know yourself what an entirely sick and plastic place Eikaiwa is, with the communal and governmental defined role of native English speakers, relative to other foreigners, being spit in the fact of humanity.
You don’t like me, because you don’t like facing reality – that being, life in Eikaiwa is the life of an insect in a collection jar.
Just move along. It is one thing being hooked on Eikaiwa (because you are a geek), but being hooked on THORN as well – your life really does have no meaning.
Really, the time has finally come. It is time for Eikaiwa to be shut down, once and for all.
THORN
Is Eikaiwa just a show case, a freak show?
I couldn’t agree more Mr. Ripper, but to simply take out your frustrations on anyone who criticizes Eikaiwa with ye olde school yard “ink, pink, you stink” technique, with a view to steering conversations away from actual facts, to distorting reality with “bury your head in the sand” positivity is simply not my cup of tea.
I have no desire to talk about Eikaiwa in any positive sense at all. I think Eikaiwa should be outlawed. I have said it before – total extermination is what I desire. I think Eikaiwa is a fundamentally sick business.
Meantime, I found interesting the topic raised in here early about the conditions of Brazilians, and other foreign workers, who are treated even more appallingly than native English speakers, peddling their native tongue to various audiences in Japan, in order to get by.
That got me thinking again about the topic of “Japanese Society’s Defined Roles for Various Ethnic Origins”, and “Japanese Society’s Social Tolerance of Various Ethnic Classes According to Defined Role”.
I think those topics are worthy of considerable debate.
Really, what is Eikaiwa all about?
Is Eikaiwa just a show case, a freak show, based on some pretty weird, twisted, and sick shit?
Hmmm. Let the debate begin.
THORN
Yahright, I note that your opinions are as follows:
(a) Thorn, General Ripper, and Eikaiwa Ripper, are the same bloody person
(b) That one person needs to get a life
(c) That one person meeds to get out of the little shell of an apartment, or internet café, that they live in
(d) That one person is pathetic for using several identities, posting the same bloody things, day in, day out
(e) That one person is still getting rejected by females, just like when they were at Nova
(f) That one person has nothing better to do
I have no comment regarding the above Yahright. Where do you get all that weird shit from? I think you really are quite nuts.
Mr. General Ripper or Mr. Eikaiwa Ripper may have a few words to say, but I am afraid I am going to have to pass – NO COMMENT
THORN
I think Nova, and probably other eikaiwa as well, pandered to the strange attitude that Japanese tend to have towards gaijin. They attracted people to sign up on the basis that they were going to get 40 minutes in a cubicle with a gaijin "zoo animal" entertaining them. They played up to all the stereo types of foreigners basically, knowing that they could make money off it.
I wouldn't have so much of a problem with it if they were straight up with instructors about what they were doing, but the way they try to bluff you into thinking that it's all about teaching and education, and how you're going to experience the wonder of Japan to boot, was just exploitative.
The Ripper
Are Eikaiwa Cubicles Incubation Chambers for Viruses?
Well, at least in Japan, when there is a flu going around, people tend to wear face masks (particular older generations).
But even so, I always found the very confined and rather infamous “Nova Cubicles” to be incubation chambers for whatever was going around.
Sure enough, whatever it was, the poor old Nova teacher would get infected with it, and end up having to turn up to work day after day feeling very sick, because their employer refused to pay sick pay.
I think now really is the time to put the focus on Eikaiwa who don’t pay sick pay, since they create incentive for unwell instructors with flu symptoms to turn up to work, and sit in close confines to/with Japanese citizens.
In the interests of preventing any pandemic in Japan, the Japanese government has a responsibility to intervene, and make sure Eikaiwa who do not pay sick pay, now immediately do so.
It is in the public interest, and a public safety and health related necessity, that every measure be taken to make certain that the very confined booths of Eikaiwa do not become incubation chambers for H1N1 virus.
THORN
fear mongering again
Here we go again with Thorn trying to scare everyone. Swine Flu!!!! Again, this is an example of a fear of something that really doesn't exist. about half a million people die of the flu every year!!! About 100 Americans everyday!!! This is just another bug. But, hey, it has a scary name. ooooh!
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