Job Discussion Forums

[The_Hanged_Man]

[Chris21]

[jgmodlin]

I think the The_Hanged_Man has got you there. Demand refers to the need for a product or service period. As long as there is demand for a service, in this case English lessons, there will always be a need for qualified teachers to provide that service.

[markle]

In response to the OP, I think that the net effect of the demise of Nova will be the amout of time wasted on thinking and talking about the effects of the demise of Nova...

In a year people will say "You used to work where?..."

[LOSnewbie]

[Glenski]

[Chris21]

Markle and Glenski,

If you think discussing Nova is a waste of time, why visit the Nova threads?

[markle]

[Glenski]

[Maaku]

First of all, I think Nova's failure as an English School has already in itself affected the market. It has already fostered an idea that English is too difficult to learn. People have gone to Nova or other Eikawais for years without seeing any substantial success in their English speaking and listening ability.

Although, while some people still want to learn English. Overall, the popularity of learning English in Japan is dwindling. People have taken other interests, or have started traveling to other countries instead.

And say, Nova does go bankrupt. Students will not automatically go look for another English school or private lessons. Because of the Nova point scheme, students have already invested a lot of money in learning English, that would not receive back for quite awhile. So, they simply might not be able to afford going to another school, etc. In addition, there might be some kind of backlash against English Schools, foreigners, etc.

In all likelihood, Nova's foreign teachers will bear some brunt of the blame in the media, etc for its demise. Although, which is not the truth whatsoever.

For the most part, Japanese do not need to speak English to function in their daily lives. All they need is to read and write in English to some extent, in order to function in Japanese Society. For the average person, speaking English is not needed whatsoever.

Once Nova goes bankrupt, or salary is again late. Ex-teachers will be able to receive unemployment benefits for several months. So its highly unlikely ex-Nova teachers would leave the country asap. Why would they? They are getting paid to do nothing in their minds.

This will lead to a saturation of the market obviously. Once, unemployment benefits start to dry up, out of work nova teachers will panic and start to look for new employment. And most likely, would accept wages below the 250,000 threshold. This will also coincide with hiring season for Alts and other eikaiwas. However, this time there will be an additional pool of 3,000 plus foreigners to hire from. Thus, wages would be dropped accordingly. Or possibly, dispatch companies would start offering part time or 4 day a week contracts.

While, we wouldn't be forced to accept the lower salary. Because of the changed job market, if we still wanted to stay in Japan, we might be forced to out of necessity. Nova's demise will send a ripple effect throughout the industry. It would be probably take a year or so to recover. However, with Nova gone. Japan as a teaching option, might look less enticing. Which will result in less foreigners coming to Japan. Nova made it too easy for any person from America, England, etc to come to Japan for a couple of months, then go home, or change jobs.

With less foreigners coming and staying in Japan, I think if we weather the storm, the market will rebound. There is already too much of a surplus of teachers here as it is. If the pool of available teachers decreases over time, our prospects are good.

However, I myself am not looking forward to renewal time come next year. If Alts or Eikaiwa teacher's salary stay the same or only drop a little bit, I consider ourself fortunate considering the market. Ironically, at one time, Dispatch companies or small eikaiwas had to struggle to find teachers. How quickly things can change.

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

[gaijin4life]

[chollimaspeed]

I think a lot of people have learnt a lot from going to eikaiwas, even NOVA. I don't blame the teachers for the problems there, for the most part. The whole business plan was messed up from the start.

Kids in particular have learnt a lot and those with high motivation often do well too. The image is offset by the reluctant salarymen and high school boys who don't see the point in it all. We should also remember that language learning here is far more of a hobby and not as life-or-death as it is in some countries such as Thailand or Cambodia. It is an expensive hobby sometimes and those who get burned by NOVA may feel less inclined to invest in English language studies somewhere else.

[Glenski]

[gaijinalways]

Bu Glenski, Nova was losing money in spite of their illegal refund policies, so obviously something wasn't right. When they went through their large expansion 2-2.5 year ago, they started losing tons of money, and the bleeding has continued. Doesn't sound so successful to me, unless you consider Worldcom successful !

You're probably right that the model of language edutainment is okay for Japan, but the way Nova later applied it, meant more unsatisfied customers who knew who Nova was, but took a long time to wise up to why Nova wasn't so good. I think what might be ovious to a lot of teachers is that schools often make claims that when more closely examined cannot be justified or proven, yet Japanese students seem to often want to believe these outrageous claims.

Nova has only ever been big in Japan, and I think we know why. Elsewhere I don't think this language teaching model would go over well.

As to the changing market here, yes, actually less kids translates into more spolied kids (more money to spend per child, other things being equal), so this will be good for companies that target this market as part of a life learning cycle.