One years worth of experiences is extremely valuable. Thank you so much for sharing it with us in so much candor and detail. I'm wondering, though, did you see any instructors that were long-termers (even lifers...) in the system ? Which in the case of NOVA is like anyone over three years employment. Or anyone over say 35-40, for that matter ? It sounds like a great time for that individual that missed out on all those college party experiences when they were still a student
Hiya,
Thanks for your kind words. One year went by quickly, it sure was valuable but I don't feel like it was nearly enough, so much to see and do in Japan and the job really does cut into your time. I know I barely scratched the surface over there. But thats life, work always gets in the way
There definitely were a few lifers over there, and at orientation I did see some new people who were, how could I put it, 窶扼ﾂ湘｣ﾂ人. Most of the people you'd meet in that category would on average probably not be teachers, however. There are a few, but many of the lifers are in advanced positions such as Block Trainer, Area Manager, at least AT or other assorted important sounding titles. There are some lifers who are just regular teachers, if you ask them why they'd probably say that, with the yearly bonuses, being a teacher is the perfect balance of salary and responsibility for them long term. The promotions often carry heavier workloads with a disproportional increase in salary from what I understand. All these people had around 3-7 years under their belts. Most of them to my understanding had Japanese spouses, spoke fairly good Japanese, they were in their element. One exception was an individual I mentioned in another post who was pretty clueless and a bit of a floater, kind of came over one year and never figured out either what he was doing there or what his exit strategy was, and there he was 7 years later. Again, just my experience in my block, the areas and regions are too broad across Japan to generalize accurately.
The next category down would be those who had been there perhaps 1-3 years. Many I met genuinely enjoyed their time there but were also looking for ways out, considering Masters Degrees over the internet, looking into alternative employment if their Japanese was good enough, etc. or had a pull-out date set. Their ages ranged widely. Many were AT's (branch leaders).
Then there are your basic NOVA teachers, ranging in age from 21 - 30 on average. Many fresh graduates. Most I met were newly arrived like myself, or working on their 2nd year at most. As my contract came to an end I definitely felt like staying, and had it not been for some financial and logistical considerations back home (vehicle in storage, accounts frozen, everything set up in advance for only 1 year of hibernation mode) I would have stayed. Nearly all my friends who had I'd arrived with at approximately the same time last year ended up re-signing. NOVA gives you the option of extending your contract by 3, 6, 9 or 12 months upon a satisfactory rating and completion of the first year. Like I said, a year flies by and life's good over there, there's really no reason not to re-sign if you're enjoying yourself and many choose to extend.
So there's a very rough cross-section of the people over there. I suspect the number of individuals in the 窶扼ﾂ湘｣ﾂ人 category you'd meet as regular day to day teachers would be low, most would be upper level. Most of your immediate co-workers would be bright-eyed bushy-tailed graduates or those mid 20's 1-3 year people at the most. All that being said, if your intention is to just get over there easily, visa in-hand, accomodations set up, and make your own 'Japan' experience for yourself on your own, NOVA is the easiest way to go. However, in Tokyo anyway, if I had to liken the ages and attitudes to something I would liken it slightly to dorm life.
I'll add, if your intention is to become a lifer or you anticipate this, from what I observed of the advancement structure, it moves as follows. If you're rated high on your evaluations and want the added responsibility, you'll gradually be given titles like 'kids leader' or 'voice co-ordinator' or something. This just amounts to organizing materials, keeping the voice room or kids classes running smoothly and providing help to other teachers, etc. You can swing that after your 6-month observation perhaps. From there you can become AT and run your own branch within a year, and at that point you may start grooming yourself for Block Trainer, a position where you're responsibile for doing those aforementioned evaluations and whatnot for all the instructors and AT's at several branches within your block. All that takes about 2-4 years to do depending on area size and demand. Because of the high turn-over rate of Eikaiwa teachers anyone who demonstrates the committment is usually encouraged and helped along. Any teacher who's fairly responsible and well-received by their AT is usually approached to become some kind of leader or co-ordinator at some point.
I write really long posts
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