Teaching English in Japan – Thoughts of a Nova Recruit
When I began my college career, I had a simple goal: I wanted to be a teacher. In high school, I was blessed to have teachers who took a shy kid with massive doubts about his abilities and helped him to become a confident young man who takes pride in his talents. I knew that at some point, I wanted to have such a positive impact on a person’s life. The question of where to teach is one I wondered about. And three years ago, the answer fell into my lap when I discovered about English language instruction in Japan.
I first learned of this through the JET Program, which employs foreigners (or gaijin) as assistant language teachers (ALTs) in the Japanese public school system. The application process for JET is not a simple one. It requires an application form, a statement of purpose, two letters of recommendation, medical information, transcripts from all colleges, and if you have not yet obtained a bachelor’s degree, a letter from your school with your intended date of graduation. In addition, the JET Program only accepts applications during a certain period. In America, when I applied, I had to have the application delivered to them by December. I received a notice at the end of January that I was not selected for an interview.
At first, I was crushed. This was a dream of mine, something I had strove to achieve. But I wouldn’t let it get me down. I spent the next several months working as a substitute teacher and assistant coach and in April, I applied to several different eikaiwa, or English conversation schools. The eikaiwa system is different from the JET Program — you are not part of the Japanese school system. Rather, you teach English to small classes through a private corporation. Because these are private institutions operated year-round, there is no specific time to apply and the required documentation is not as extensive as JET. The ones I applied to were Nova, AEON Amity (their children’s school), GEOS as well as Ota English School (OES). Of these three, Nova, Amity and GEOS all offered me interviews.
The Nova Group is Japan’s largest eikaiwa. I had read many things on the Internet about Nova, all of them conflicting, so I was nervous about the interview. I went to their Chicago recruiting office and what followed was a presentation to myself and a group of other applicants where a recruiter showed us slides of his time in Japan, told us about life in Japan, and talked a little with us about the job. Personal interviews followed the presentation. The interview was a disaster. The recruiter consistently asked questions about what sort of obstacles I faced and how I overcame them, and every answer I gave received a response of, “that sounds like it was resolved too easily. Do you have another example?” I felt extremely pressured in the interview, more so than any other interview I ever went through, and the questions asked of me had little to no relation to teaching.
As I left the Nova office, I kept thinking that I blew it. I wouldn’t get the position and now, I shifted my focus completely to Amity and GEOS. So imagine my surprised when a week later, I received an e-mail from Nova telling me they wanted to offer me a position pending a background check. To say I was shocked would be an understatement. But what really shocked me was when I spoke with my references. I gave two references — one was the owner of the office where I was employed part-time and the other was an ESL teacher who I assistant coached for in my volunteer work and was familiar with my teaching abilities. Of these two, Nova only contacted one of the references — and it wasn’t the teacher. I found it very strange that Nova had no interest in hearing what a certified TESL teacher had to say about my experience working in education.
At this point, Amity had sent me a rejection letter and I was two weeks away from an interview with GEOS, an interview that would require me to travel from Chicago to New York and stay for a weekend, all on my own dime. With no guarantee that GEOS would amount to anything, I canceled the interview. I was going to Japan as a Nova instructor.
The following three months consisted of arrangements for my impending departure. Purchasing a plane ticket, filling out paperwork, going to the Japanese consulate for my work visa, saving up money for my start-up funds as well as spending as much time with my friends and family as possible. About a week before I left, I discovered some disturbing news. On a Facebook group for Nova instructors, someone posted a link to this article on Japan Economy News: Is Nova as good as dead? New recruits, such as myself, were worried about what this meant. I called the recruiting office in Chicago and asked them what this meant for my position. The recruiter responded with, “there are some financial problems, but nothing you need to worry about. If anything, this just means we need teachers now more than ever, so you’ve picked a good time to join Nova.” Relief washed over me and I proceeded with my departure plans. There was some concern, but my desire to go to Japan and the reassurance of the recruiting office outweighed all that.
Until the night I arrived.
I stepped into my Kawaguchi apartment on August 29th at around 10:00 in the evening. I had finally done it, I was in Japan, excited at the prospect of beginning a new life. Unfortunately, jet lag set in on my first night and I couldn’t sleep. I was still on Chicago time, which was fourteen hours behind Japan. Since I couldn’t sleep, I took advantage of my roommate’s Internet connection and I hit the web. Curious about Japan Economy News and a site it linked to, Let’s Japan, I checked out both sites. On JEN, I found the following article: Big market moves for Nova: 29% drop in share price amidst huge sell-off on Wednesday, over 20 million shares change hands. At this point, the previous week’s concerns about Nova’s future returned in full force. I immediately sent an e-mail to a friend of mine, who has been trading stocks for the past ten years or so. I told him I had no idea what to make of this and he said, “don’t unpack. This company is on their way to a corporate graveyard.”
Compounding the problem was my financial situation. In total, I had around $1200 to last me through my first month in Japan, Nova’s recommended amount for initial start-up funds. I planned on accepting Nova’s salary advance as well, just in case I needed extra money, because I knew my first paycheck wouldn’t arrive until October 15th. During my stay in Japan, I discovered from another Nova recruit that Nova was going to delay salary advances. With only $1200 to my name, no one in Japan I could stay with if things went bad, and due to sign a contract with Nova that would require thirty days notice before I left the job and/or the apartment, I felt my options were extremely limited. Finding another job would be extremely difficult as it was already Thursday by this point and I had to sign a contract at orientation on Monday.
Discussion boards on Facebook and Let’s Japan were abuzz with rumors and theories. With Japanese staff yet to be paid, Nova’s stock in flux, delay of salary advances and rumors of eviction notices, some wondered if Nova would even be able to pay their instructors on September 15th. I evaluated my options: I could quit Nova and immediately try to find another job, one that would provide me with an apartment; I could stay with Nova for the immediate future and skimp and save; or I could return home to Chicago and treat my time in Japan as a vacation and just have a blast.
Ultimately I chose the third option. I had planned to eventually return to America so I could pursue a PhD in film, and this seemed like the best opportunity. I knew once I quit Nova, I would have to immediately find another apartment and with my funds, that would prove difficult. And if I chose to skimp and save and things didn’t work out, I would have lost a lot of money and missed out on a once in a lifetime chance to experience Japan. I arranged for a flight back to Chicago, informed Nova of my decision, and I was all set. I spent my time in Japan enjoying myself, blew through a lot of money, and fell in love with the country even more.
Leaving Japan was a hard decision, but given the state of Nova, I feel it was the right one. Also, with Nova’s impending downfall, the possibility of it affecting the rest of the eikaiwa industry is a very real one. Let’s Japan translated an article from the Asahi Shimbun titled ABC Language School shuts its doors and in the article, the president of ABC said sales plummeted the day after METI imposed sanctions on Nova. If this is an indication of how things will happen once Nova goes down, then that means eikaiwa everywhere will experience a drop in sales. To make matters worse, Nova employs around 7,000 gaijin, 5,000 in instructor positions. If Nova collapses, that means 7,000 gaijin out of work, and many of them will compete for the attention of other eikaiwa. I didn’t want to be part of that situation.
Since then, I’ve been paying very close attention to the situation at Nova. I’ve read a lot of different rumors over the past two weeks about the future of Nova, how long they’ll last, branch closures, insider trading, etc. As these are just rumors, I don’t feel it’s ethical to post them up. What I will say, however, is that I have been paying close attention to JASDAQ and Nova’s share prices. Over the past few weeks, Nova’s volume has sharply increased and their share price has been in a constant state of flux. It dropped to nearly 24 JPY before climbing back up and peaking at around 70 JPY. As of this writing, the stock is down to 48 JPY, or roughly $0.50. What caused the sudden increase? My friend in the stock market said this could be what’s called a “dead cat bounce,” where a stock that has just experienced a huge drop-off suddenly increases right before it plummets. Now that the stock has gone from 70 to 48, this could be the plummet.
Whatever the truth may be, Nova is in trouble. The METI sanctions, a negative cash flow, and numerous lawsuits spell danger for the company. September 15th proves to be a much anticipated date for anyone paying attention to this situation.
