NOVA and Teachers

Just wondering what happened to all the NOVA teachers after the company went bust.

I've heard some teachers were teaching for food, and not cash. Is this true? Are you an ex-NOVA teacher? Do NOVA English schools still exist in Japan? Do you intend to leave Japan? Is there now an oversupply of English teachers in Japan?

-
- My answer, in two forums
- Get several out-of-work English teachers, and start your own company
-
With the huge demand for learning English in; Japan, South-Korea, and probably Taiwan.

Why don't these teachers start a small private school. Then make the private school slowly bigger.

Several out-of-work foreign English teachers, could start a hot dynamic private school very quickly. Just locate in the right place (near a University with a specialty with International Economics, and International study).

Get togethor, live togethor to save money.


Or just go back to your native country for awhile (Britain, Australia, United States or Canada).

Or hell, take a long vacation, see the world. Then worry about it.

p.s: Show some grit and determination. Life is full of surprises !
_.

There's some good info in the Nova wiki article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nova_(English_teaching_company)

it seems that the company taking over operations for Nova will be reopening only about 30 branches. This will mean that a majority of the teachers that lost their jobs will not be rehired by Nova. Many that lived in corporate sponsored housing have already received eviction notices. The result of this is indeed a flood of (mostly inexperienced, unskilled) English teachers desperate for a living wage, which leads to a drop in the average wage. Bulletin boards have been flooded with people looking to make up the difference. Many will have no choice but to go back to their home countries. In the meantime, it seems that you will have a lot of competition trying to find a position. Having experience will put you ahead of the newbies that really got screwed by Nova, but there are also experienced teachers out there to contend with. I know someone who is caught up in this mess, but I haven't heard anything from him since the collapse.

I know that you plan on moving back to Japan with your family. Frankly, with the current situation, I would not expect to be able to support a family on an English teacher's salary. If your wife will be working and making decent money, you can look around for work without too much pressure; maybe you'll find a spot, maybe you won't find anything until things level out again.

This is kind of in response to both your threads. I myself, having 2 1/2 years experience tutoring English professionally for an ESL institute, and (by May) an MA, and a background in Japanese language (but not anything close to fluency), don't feel confident enough to be heading out to Japan at this specific point in time. I don't need to be competing against half-starved out-of-work gaijin. Instead, I'm heading for Taiwan, where the cost-of-living is lower, even though you might not get paid as well as you would in Japan.

Essentially, I'm planning on teaching English there for about two years while taking Chinese and Japanese courses. When things cool of in Japan, maybe I'll reroute myself there to try to get a half-decent university position teaching English. Otherwise, I might just stay in Taiwan and pray China doesn't invade.

At the risk of sounding like a scratched record....

Eventualities such as this is why I always so stridently advice people to bring to Japan with them Marketable Job Skills other than teaching English conversation.....especially those with Japanese spouses who are entertaining the idea of making Japan their home. If you're happy teaching, make a good living at it and never need to make use of those other skills, more power to you. But as a good number of former Nova teachers have no doubt learned, not having an option sucks big time.

Mike Cash said:

At the risk of sounding like a scratched record....

Eventualities such as this is why I always so stridently advice people to bring to Japan with them Marketable Job Skills other than teaching English conversation.....especially those with Japanese spouses who are entertaining the idea of making Japan their home. If you're happy teaching, make a good living at it and never need to make use of those other skills, more power to you. But as a good number of former Nova teachers have no doubt learned, not having an option sucks big time.

Click to expand...

Excellent post and so bloody true!

That would definitely be a main concern for me, although I'd definitely be starting something of my own..

What a surprise! I remember Nova. I worked there maybe ten years back.

That was when I lived in Kansai.

I did the four-hour stints.

As English conversation schools go NOVA wasn't too bad. But I didn't have to worry about them providing me with a visa and it seemed I was lucky compared to teachers who got their visas from NOVA.

So they went bust! I'm not surprised. I still remember Attorny (sp?) and I heard of Berlitz. It seems someone high up sets a precedent of channeling the cash for their own private schemes and then mysteriously the company goes bust. - Business as usual. Is money-mismanagement what trashed NOVA?

If you are confident at teaching then you are far better off if you can do it on your own and not go through an agent or teach at a school. Word of mouth will sort out those who satisfy the clients and those who don't.