Job Discussion Forums

[tigerwood]

Does anyone have any experience of working for this company. I had a realy bad one but I'm not allowed to talk about for fear of uppsetting Guest of Japan who loves the boss of this company.
So since he wont respond to me anymore because I know who he is can we have a fair balanced discussion about this company. I checked and this company isnt even registered so I think other people should be warned. Has anyone actually worked for it?

[bornslippy1981]

I've never worked for them, but I heard they make you pay 30,000 Yen for a cup of coffee after the interview.

[canuck]

[johncanada24]

Your lucky Canuck didn't rip you up on your grammar, there are some veterans on here that enjoy doing that. Just wanted to give you heads up if any others see this one. Anytime you need a cyber verbal beating just use improper english and canuck will come to your rescue...oh and at the end he'll add the roley eyes

[canuck]

[taikibansei]

[canuck]

[tigerwood]

No I'm not but I know who Guest of Japan is and he isnt Sekiguchi.
He's ""�$%%^^$$$ Ha ha have you noticed how he has dissapaeared ffrom ciber space recently. I'm not English so dont make fun of my grammar. I'd like to see you write in your own 3rd language on the internet without making mistakes.
You feel sorry for LSJ why don't you get a job with them, they are hiring and then when you are owed 100.000 yen lets see if you feel sorry for them.
And I took the job because Guest of Japan on a pm told me to take it.

[cafebleu]

To put it mildly. It is clear from a number of other forums that this 'school' is notorious for its interesting ways of recruiting. However, I don't believe that banging your head on its brick wall is going to help you.

I am aware that you now realise Guest of Japan is NOT the sneaky Mr Sekaguchi. I thought your thinking that was unusual as if you had used the search function on eslcafe, you would have found evidence of many posts by Guest of Japan and seen that he/she is a foreigner.

Yes, Language Systems is bad and so were too many eikaiwa I heard of and in one case personally experienced in Japan. Unfortunately the nature of the system here makes it a hard slog to take on dishonest employers.

What is also on their side is the fact that foreigners have enough to cope with in Japan without wasting more energy on chasing down their money. There are too many barriers here against getting justice swiftly - and by that I mean justice.

What do you do about employers who break clauses in your contract that hold them to paying you certain amounts of money? Case in point - when I left a small eikaiwa job after faithful service, unpaid expenses so basically the school was using me up to save money by not reimbursing me for phone calls on its behalf etc, I should have received 80,000 yen 'thank you' money for giving correct notice.

My contract said I had to give two months' notice - I gave three and was actually coming to the end of my contract so it was not a problem for the school. My job contract (which had been renewed a few times) finished on March 1st - I did them the courtesy of giving notice on December 1st of the year before I left.

How did they repay me? By withholding the 'thank you' money. I pointed out they were breaking my contract but they just gave another round of excuses. I cut my losses, as many foreigners do. I had to focus on my life post that school. That eikaiwa has now folded and I am sure the unprofessionalism of the manager and owner had a lot to do with it.

Another case - somebody I knew in Fukuoka Prefecture worked for a school that is still going. It's an eikaiwa in Dazaifu Shi, run by a Japanese woman who is charming on the surface but the fact that teachers come and go regularly at that school tells you all you need to know.

The teacher I knew was popular and this was shown by the numbers they attracted to the day they were teaching on. The school has a system of different teachers for each day tho the owner's favourite male teacher (ooh, he looks like Beckham!) did 2 days when I last heard from the teacher who was cheated out of pay.

It's significant that this school had a high turnover of teachers when the person I knew was working there. Maybe they like to be paid properly and so regularly gave notice when they were cheated out of their correct payment.

This particular teacher who quit was pulling in the yen for the Japanese owner by students choosing to have private classes with them. However, they did not receive payment for the time they spent teaching one of the private students.

So they were working for free for one hour a week. That kind of situation adds up. The teacher's contract clearly stated (I was shown a copy) that they were supposed to be paid for every class they taught. Yet this new private class was added to their schedule and they did it for free although they were never told by the owner that they were expected to teach the new private student for free.

When the teacher noticed that their monthly salary didn't change after they started teaching this extra, private (so therefore more money was flowing into the school) class, they mentioned it to the owner who brushed it off in that way that is so effectively used by the Japanese.

When the Japanese refuse to discuss matters is one thing where no legalities are involved. When it's to do with cheating your employee by breaking their contract and not paying them what is agreed on the contract, this habit of pretending things don't exist is not acceptable.

The teacher waited a bit and then gave their notice correctly. They never had it out with Miyo, the owner. As the teacher said, "She knows damn well she was cheating by not paying me for the extra class and therefore breaking the contract. I'll just walk after giving due notice."

What are you supposed to do in these blatant cases? Most of the time you're wasting your energy. If that teacher had pursued it, it's likely they wouldn't have got their contract renewed when it came up.

There are many similar tales many teachers could tell about daily cheating of staff in eikaiwa.

[guest of Japan]

Tigerwood, I'm glad to have you as my stalker. It really makes me feel special. However, before you set about to destroy my life please be warned that the person who you have me figured out to be isn't me.

Happy hunting.

[tigerwood]

I thought you would say that. I do know who you are and I won't ruin your life I know where you worked, who you worked for and who you worked with, I have you letter on file and can post it here if you want. That's not what this message board is for it for spreading the truth about good or bad companies. So why don;t you do everyone a favour and tell them what a disgusting illegal company Language Systems Japan is and Mr Sekiguchi scarred you.

[Gordon]

tigerwood, give it a rest and forget about it. People learn from their mistakes and move on. I am now glad I went through a bunch of crap from a school I worked at in Korea. It smartened me up and made me the person I am today.

[Alberta605]

Gordon, I agree it's interesting what a we take on board as constructive in our lives as English instructors - you're experience in S Korea was probably pretty tough to get your head around at the time, but once done it brings a new angle to your life.

I had a challenging experience in Thailand which really could have left a close friend of mine in trouble with the law - an employer of hers attempted a blatantly dishonest accusation of improper social conduct - the reason remained undisclosed. I wasn't particularly concerned about the reality as there was no truth in any of it but the anger I felt for her after 2 years of punctual and honest service boiled my blood. When I see or hear about similar attacks from employers in Japan I hear the honesty in the complaints of the employees - rare though they seem to be. It seems most employers in Japan rise above such disgusting behavior due to the rigorous labor laws, but I have found exceptions.

[guest of Japan]

I'm quite moved on from my LSJ experience at this point. In the past when I have provided extensive accounts of my experience there, the threads have been locked and deleted because people can't resist crossing the line from pertinent information over to libel and insult.

I don't wish to waste my time anymore.

[johncanada24]