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Perpetual Traveller
Joined: 29 Aug 2005
Posts: 651
Location: In the Kak, Japan
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 Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2005 5:14 pm Post subject: |
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| Anne0 wrote: |
| In a way it's not really fair because I mean, it's an interview of course people are going to be nervous. |
As has been pointed out a million times before, life isn't fair!  
| Anne0 wrote: |
| That no way to judge who is going to be good in the clawsroom and who is not. Ok I should be honest. That's no way to judge me. |
Actually it's a great way to judge who will be good in a classroom. Of course they know that you are nervous during the interview, everyone is. But what they are looking out for is people who can come across as confident despite their nerves. You think you aren't going to be nervous your first few times up in front of a new class? They need to know that you can get over that and project self assurance, if you can't do it in an interview then there is little chance that you'll be able to do it elsewhere. Also, it's the only way they've got! 
So my suggestion is that as well as the volunteering you are thinking of doing, which may end up being one on one or small groups, you should also think about trying something where you will get experience talking to larger groups. The more practise you can get at 'performing' in public the easier it will get, whether it is public speaking, interviewing or teaching.
Good Luck!
PT |
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Anne0
Joined: 08 Nov 2005
Posts: 22
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| Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2005 7:28 pm Post subject: |
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You know what the sad part is? I'm very good at "performing" giving public speeches and all of that. I love it really. I've been in front of larger group my whole life. That's why i did well in the group interview. My problem is the one-on-one performing (i.e- interviews). Anything where it's me ans a crowd of 2 people or 1 person I need practice with that. Anything else is a breeze to me. I don't know why i'm like this. More comfortable in front of large crowds while a wreck in small crowds. I've always been this way. It's time for me to get over it. I can't get a job if i'm so nervous in the interview. But yeah it's not a great way to judge me. You would just have to know me personally. I'm one of those strange people who are outside the norm. Always have been. So if anything is the a way to judge normal people it's not a good way to judge me because i'm not normal. I'm not weird, but I mean normal people are more comfortable talking one on one with someone and a wreck in large crowd. Me, the larger the crowd the more comfortable I am. Well it's Saturday right now so I can't do anything but talk. I have to wait until Monday when school is back in session.
I don't think my not getting accepted into NOVA had anything to do with me. I mean I thought it over a million times and there's nothing I can find that was really damaging. Even if I was nervous once I started teaching I was fine. I mean I did so well the interviewer paused to complement me during the interview and then complemented me again after it was over. So, so what if I was nervius during the 20 questions. I proved that I can do what they were hiring me for I proved I could teach the NOVA way. It had to be something that was out of my control. |
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Perpetual Traveller
Joined: 29 Aug 2005
Posts: 651
Location: In the Kak, Japan
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| Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2005 8:54 pm Post subject: |
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 That does make things more tricky! Hmmm, perhaps you should try and do a whole lot more interviews, apply for stuff that you don't really want, jobs at McDonalds etc simply to try and give the best interviews possible for practise.
You say that you're 'outside the norm', maybe this was your problem with NOVA right there, we all know their reputation for wanting cookie cutter teachers! 
Don't give up hope. I interviewed with NOVA a couple of years ago and didn't get offered a job. I too thought that I had performed pretty well in the interview but am pretty sure that I blew it by appearing too 'individual'. When I interviewed with AEON this year I was careful to make sure that I appeared keen to toe the corporate line and guess what, despite the fact that NOVA are supposed to be easier to get a job with I was offered a position with AEON.
PT |
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Anne0
Joined: 08 Nov 2005
Posts: 22
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| Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2005 10:46 pm Post subject: |
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WOW! I read about an AEON interview here and it sounded pretty hard. Thanks. I have renewed hope. I am NOT volunteering at berlitz. I started learning Japanese from one of their books and it was a great book so I thought maybe they knew a thing or two about teaching languages. It looks like i'm wrong. I have no idea how to appear corporate. I know how to look the part but I don't know how to act the part. I'll just keep going and see what happens.
This is such a different world for me. I was fortunate enough to go to Oxford seminars to get a TESL license, the best thing about that was for 6 months after you finish you get a personal career advisor. Mine helped me with my resume and CV and found out exactly what AEON is looking for in their essay. He has also sent out my information to his contacts in japan and other countries. So i'm trying my best. Something will turn up  |
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PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
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| Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2005 11:20 pm Post subject: |
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| Perpetual Traveller wrote: |
| :You say that you're 'outside the norm', maybe this was your problem with NOVA right there, we all know their reputation for wanting cookie cutter teachers! |
Anne does not know what NOVA teachers are like, thats just the point. With hindsight you can see that now but Im sure you didnt when you were starting out.
NOVA is less a proper school than a big Japanese corporation. the goal of NOVA is PROFIT and the English lessons are like the gasoline that drives the company. Students want to learn English conversation with a native speaker so NOVA hires foreigners from overseas as cheaply as possible. Such a big compnay has an insatiable demand for foreigners, pays them cheaply, they cant get so many in Japan so they go offshore. 95% are brand new when they arrive, have no ESL qualifications and no experience. Rather than have 4000 newbies who think they know how to teach English without ever setting foot in a classroom, go off and do their own thing and be individual without knowing what the heck they are doing you need some standardisation in such a big company. NOVA has 200 branches and 4000 foreign teachers all over the country. NOVA has about 50% of the market share of language schools in Japan with AEON GEOS and ECC making up the rest. You are paid to be a bright and breezy conversation partner not a qualified ESL "teacher" and with minimal training you can be up and running a couple of days after entering the country. the teachers book does all the work for you and after a month you will know the NOVA system backwards. in many ways its like McDonalds as its lamost like a franchise where there is a product and each Big Mac tastes the same whether its Tokyo New York or Sydney. If you want to be individual and do your own thing, start your own school or work for a school that lets you be creative and make your own lessons. In a big company like NOVA its virtually impossible with their materials and curriculum. Your job is to be a foreign face in the classroom. they like fresh new people for if you are there too long you get stale and jaded (like me). If I went there again I would probably get turned down as too experienced, too qualifiied and know more about teaching than many of their managers (I have an M.Ed).
They want people who wont rock the boat, try and re-write the text book or re-invent the curriculum or do things outside whats expected of them. At NOVA and AEON you will have students that study under other teachers and you will teach other teachers' students so you need some structure in order to have students go in a straight line and make progress. Going off and doing your own thing does not achieve this goal as far as NOVA is concerned. the way students progress is working through the text book and buying more lessons. NOVA doesnt have students buying more lessons or signing up as others drop out, you don't get paid, or you get less classes.
| Quote: |
Don't give up hope. I interviewed with NOVA a couple of years ago and didn't get offered a job. I too thought that I had performed pretty well in the interview but am pretty sure that I blew it by appearing too 'individual'. When I interviewed with AEON this year I was careful to make sure that I appeared keen to toe the corporate line and guess what, despite the fact that NOVA are supposed to be easier to get a job with I was offered a position with AEON.
PT |
Like I said NOVA is a big company, not a real school, and you will be working in a big neon-lit office in little cubicles. You will be teaching students and churning out lessons everyday but there is no opportunity for teacher development or improving your skills.NOVA teachers do not even use the Internet at work to develop lesson plans or find resources for teaching. If you want to get ESL training you have to do it yourself on your time. NOVA wont teach you anymore than you need to know so you wont make an idiot of yourself in the lesson. Like I say its pretty easy to learn the ropes and once you have done it for a week you can do it in your sleep and your mind goes on autopilot the rest of the time. Students dont really expect you to be trained and qualified, and what they are paying for is 45 minutes of time with a native speaker. Most students know that NOVA teachers are straight out of university, backpackers, working holiday, whatever. Most NOVA teachers do not even speak Japanese (not that its required to get a job but a majority have no idea what its like to learn a foreign language much less how to teach one).
I did see an article somewhere where it was suggested that NOVA teachers are more like "instructors" who instruct on how to do something like one would learn gardening or bricklaying. Its not real considered "education", as there is no homework, no tests, litte revision and the only time many students "study" English is when they are in your class.
This is not to knock eikaiwa teachers, but to show the difference between what newbies believe to be "teaching" at a conversation school despite no experience and working in another educational institution. Like I said if you have a Masters or a CELTA you will come with your own theories about language learning and teaching theory that will conflict with NOVAs '"cookie-cutter" methodology.
NOVA and AEON dont want real CELTA qualified teachers, but people who fit into their profile of easy-on-the-eye, pleasant, genki foreigners who can hold up their end of a conversation and keep students coming back for more lessons. Its half education, and half entertainment for the students. They want people who can put in a solid 8 hours work and be smiling at the end of it. Having worked there myself i know what its like and not that its bad, its OK for the person starting out so they can gain some experience until they get settled, but lets see it for what it is.
Last edited by PAULH on Sat Nov 26, 2005 11:59 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Perpetual Traveller
Joined: 29 Aug 2005
Posts: 651
Location: In the Kak, Japan
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| Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2005 11:35 pm Post subject: |
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 I am just starting out! I just read Dave's so that I know all there is to know about everything! As always I am highly appreciative of the knowledge that you and other vets bring to the party.
I think am pretty prepared for what awaits me in Japan, mostly due to this forum, I know I am not going to be a 'teacher' as such but I figured it was a good way to see if I am suited to this work on a larger scale than just as a personal tutor. I'll let you know in 8 months!
| PAULH wrote: |
| people who fit into their profile of easy-on-the-eye, pleasant, genki foreigners |
 Oh well, if you insist!
PT |
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PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
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| Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2005 12:52 am Post subject: |
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| Anne0 wrote: |
| WOW! I read about an AEON interview here and it sounded pretty hard. |
AEON likes to think that its a cut above NOVA and hires quality professional teachers. Maybe they do but what they want to avoid is hire someone and then have them bomb out or burn out after six months.
If you do a ranking of the big schools AEON comes out on top but these are based on purely subjective factors as not many teachers work for more than one of the big schools and have no basis for comparison. Usually it's based on gut feeling or what they read on the internet about AEON being professional (schools arent professional they are just buildings, but teachers ARE professional as being professional is more an ATTITUDE about your job. If you are professional it means you are paid because of skills you possess). Schools per se can NOT be professional only teachers.
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| Thanks. I have renewed hope. I am NOT volunteering at berlitz. |
Some people volunteer in their own countries to gain experience but if you did that in Japan or offer to teach for free it sends the message that what you offer as a service has no value and that you are giving it away for free. Students dont respect something they can get for nothing. What it has done here is drive down salaries as employers now know that foreigners have no magic line below which they won't go. Some hourly salaries here now are less than $10 an hour. I came across one guy doing 50 hours a week and earning 180,000 yen a month or about $8 an hour before tax.
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| I started learning Japanese from one of their books and it was a great book so I thought maybe they knew a thing or two about teaching languages. It looks like i'm wrong. |
I advocate teachers learn a foreign language, whether its Japanese Korean, Chinese, not so much so they can use it here but for the simple reason it teaches you how to think like a student when learning a foreign language. You take English for granted as a native speaker but when you have to master kanji, learn vocabulary and grammar, you begin to understand what its like for your students when they are learning English. Far too many NOVA teachers laugh at students english ability but none of them are able to speak a foreign language themselves and many here do not even try, but exist in the foreign gaijin bubble of NOVA parties, gaijin bars and cable TV.
Learn the language and you will never look back. You will not need to speak japanese at work but it will make your life in japan far easier and it will be easier to make friends with Japanese who do not speak English, and not just your students at work or other English groupies who gather around foreign teachers here. Such people are called 'leeches' as they only talk to you for the simple reason or what you can offer them- a chance to speak in English. You are simply a free walking English lesson for them, as opposed to a real genuine friend, though you will meet Japanese who rise above that. I have met to meet such a person i can really call a friend though, regardless of the fact I can speak English.
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| I have no idea how to appear corporate. I know how to look the part but I don't know how to act the part. I'll just keep going and see what happens. |
You dont have to appear corporate. No one is asking you to wear an Armani suit and carry a briefcase. You need to dress for business which means NO jeans, NO sleeveless tops or showing cleavage, NO sandals, NO casual clothing. tidy and businesslike as you will be working in an office, not going to a BBQ. You have to dress tidily and not look like you are going on holiday in Thailand which is what many new teachers tend to do. For some its the first time the guys have ever worn a neck tie.
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| This is such a different world for me. I was fortunate enough to go to Oxford seminars to get a TESL license, the best thing about that was for 6 months after you finish you get a personal career advisor. Mine helped me with my resume and CV and found out exactly what AEON is looking for in their essay. He has also sent out my information to his contacts in japan and other countries. So i'm trying my best. Something will turn up |
I have posted on here about how to write your CV for Japanese employers. Your career adviser in the US may not know what works best for finding jobs in an Asian country, but in the US or for American or western employers. I have had to tidy up a lot of American CVs as they are too "I" centered, wordy, chest-beating and lots of stuff that is irrelevant to the job you are applying for. Employers here dont need GPAs, grades or Honors degrees or know what sorority you belonged to at college. Tell them only what they need to know so you can get a job here, the rest is gravy.
Really all they need to know is your age and nationality, whether you qualify for a visa (i.e. have a degree for immigration) and when you can start working. In some countries race and ethnicity is a factor but not so much in japan despite what people believe about Japanese being anti-Asian-American or biased against non-whites.
Last edited by PAULH on Sun Nov 27, 2005 5:24 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Anne0
Joined: 08 Nov 2005
Posts: 22
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| Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2005 2:43 am Post subject: |
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Wow thanks that was really informative. Interms of the CV and resume I think I am ok. I only say this because I applied to JET and AEON last year with my old resume my US resume and I was not invited for an interview. Then I applied to jobs with the resume and CV my career advisor worked out and I got interviews.
So now with that down I need to once again work on my interviewing skills >.<
I feel I am more prepared now. I know at one point of the NOVA interview I did begin to feel tired and a yarned too many times. By the time of the one on one I was gone. Only the teaching part brought me back to life. I am starting too see why I got a no. It's unfortuante though. 8i was tired because I had to travel to Boston at the last minute, the train arrived at the station 30 minutes late and so got me to boston 40 minutes late then I hate to eat and stuff so I got to bed late and all of these things that are out of the ordinary for an interview.
Well, I see it was this. When something doesn't happen for you that you really want to happen that usually means that there a good reason for it. I may apply to NOVA again in the future if nothing else pans out. It IS a good start after all. I have no experience so I can't be picky about my job. I know my first job will not be a bed of roses no matter what company I work for. |
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Willy_In_Japan
Joined: 20 Jul 2004
Posts: 329
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| Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2005 1:55 pm Post subject: |
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Anne,
Don't give up. Keep trying. Buy a grammar book and brush up on grammar so you know all the terms....ie 'what is a gerund?' etc.
I didn't get hired by my current company until the second time. I don't know what I really did wrong the first time. Keep applying.
When they ask why you want to live and work in Japan, focus on the 'adventure' aspect of it. Also, tell them that you really want to teach, and XYZ company gives you the chance to do that in a unique and interesting environment.
Don't let them get the idea you are doing it for the money (even if you are)....are 'running away' from something.....are wanting to come because you are a 'japanophile', 'want to learn Japanese' or other such things.
Dont ask too many questions in the interview. They want someone who shows interest, but isnt a pest. Also, dont ask any tough to answer questions that put them on the spot. Don't try to be 'helpful' and volunteer things you know about working in Japan. These are mistakes I have made in the past. Don't let it get you down, and keep trying. Good luck! |
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PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
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Anne0
Joined: 08 Nov 2005
Posts: 22
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| Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2005 5:14 pm Post subject: |
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| Willy_In_Japan wrote: |
| Dont ask too many questions in the interview. They want someone who shows interest, but isnt a pest. Also, dont ask any tough to answer questions that put them on the spot. Don't try to be 'helpful' and volunteer things you know about working in Japan. These are mistakes I have made in the past. Don't let it get you down, and keep trying. Good luck! |
HOLY CRAP!
I did all of those things!
Thanks PAULH That's a great website. I'm starting to wish I was charming like my brother.  |
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