Job Discussion Forums

[Gamushara84]

Are there rivalries within eikaiwa?

Are there AEON thugs in black suits waiting in dark allies to ambush unsuspecting NOVA teachers? Do the GEOS clan stay clear of certain areas of Roppongi for fear of crossing into Interac turf? Are JET kids scurrying home before sunset, lest they run into someone from ECC?

I guess what I'm asking (if you can get through that first paragraph) is--is there a hierarchy in Japan? Rivalries? A status for certain schools? I'm interested, since it seems that everyone puts NOVA at the very bottom, and people take saying a certain school is awful extremely personal (as they should, I suppose). I find the whole thing interesting.

Cheers!

Gamu

[Apsara]

It's more like if you are talking to someone in a bar and you mention that you work for Nova or Gaba they might smirk and say something like "Oh, I'm sorry..." and then tell you about their apparently much better job.

There isn't really that much company loyalty that I remember, so not much rivalry as such.

[dove]

I haven't noticed rivalry at all...as Aspara said, there is very little company loyalty. It's a job, it's a business, and I have never seen any eikaiwa teacher gush about their company outside of work.
The rivalry I have seen is of a different sort. It's a one-upmanship: I know more kanji than you.... I've carried a mikoshi at the Sanja Matsuri and you haven't....You've never planted rice in the inaka.....you're missing out on so much....that kind of thing.

[cornishmuppet]

I used to work for a school called NoAH, which was a real pain in the a. because everytime someone asked me where I worked, foreign or Japanese, and I told them they'd say, 'Really? NoVA?' So I'd then have to explain, that while my school sucked a ss, it was actually a different a ss sucking school to the one they were thinking of. This must have happened to me at least 20 times, so when I finally quit it was one (of many, many) reasons why I was happy.

[JRJohn]

I haven't been to Japan yet, but I can tell you there IS rivalry between schools in other countries. Last year, I was working in Istanbul, Turkey. My private school(ILM) have a rival directly across the road from the branch in Kadikoy. The rival(eNGLISH pLUS) had seceded from the mother school a year before, because some teachers didn't like our boss' management style.
The boss, Osman, took it so personally that he decided to personally manage the Kadikoy branch-and he was always there, watching, brooding. People were being enticed across the road! The new school(I was informed) was illegal!

One day, the boss decided to come to my house to find out why a new recruit had not been coming to classes. When he found out that ILM was in the arms of English Plus, he turned purple with rage. You see the other school had been taking some of his classes, and teachers. That's why he was so angry.
Yes there is rivalry in other countries. I'm coming to Japan on March 18th, so I'll find out about Japan then.

[movinaround]

Nova Japanese staff would regularily go into the other big Eikaiwa chains and pose as students. My AEON branch had a list and a few pictures of ones to watch out for, though on the most part they tend to go to different cities to do this.

[Gamushara84]

Did anyone ever confront the NOVA people who came to AEON?

[movinaround]

[Hoser]

[movinaround]