"Best job in the whole world."--Kyushu Kiwi, Japan Today Forum

Damnit! Eikaiwa schools employ teachers with no teaching experience!

So what. Some of the best teachers in the world are like a diamond in the rough.
If you hire people who have an aptitude for teaching, train them and help them along the way,
they will be better teachers than many teachers who have an advanced degree.

Eikaiwa schools employ teachers with no teaching qualifications!

So what! Famous companies like Fuji Film do the same thing. They employ people with with no engineering qualifications but they train them to be engineers. Eikaiwa schools have their own in house training
programs and they train their teachers too.

Eikaiwa schools employ teachers with NEITHER teaching experience NOR teaching qualifications!

So do many other businesses in every industry imaginable. Do you believe that university training
is the only thing that matters? Many successful people have no formal education beyond college,
yet they are now company presidents. Some of the worst teachers in the world have a Ph.d!
If the schools train them to teach, isn`t that sometimes better than a university education, that is
full of theory and sometimes a waste of time. Isn`t practical on the job training sometimes on par
or better than a university education?

Some eikaiawa schools demand that students pay a huge amount of money before beginning their lessons. This money is not refundable.

So do many other businesses. Students are not forced at gunpoint to do so. Yet they still do.
There are also many Eikaiwa schools like my own that allow students to pay by the month. They don`t pay up front. We also refund money. Most Eikaiwa schools are run by trustworthy people like any other business in Japan.
How do I know this? Because if they weren`t trustworthy, they couldn`t stay in business for very long,
the word would get around that they are shady operators.

"NOVA's pay and conditions for teachers are among the worst in Japan, therefore NOVA teachers are usually so bad they cannot find a job elsewhere! This is also why NOVA advertises for teachers EVERY WEEK in the Japan Times!"

Perhaps. Or maybe they have so many schools--over 500 now, that they constantly need new teachers. If Nova
is so terrible, why would anyone choose to work there? Some Nova teachers would be hired anywhere. They
are very good teachers, they enjoy working for Nova and they care about their students. Pay and conditions
are bad? Have you talked with a Japanese salaryman lately? I think they should be complaining. The Eikaiwa
teachers have it easy compared to a salaryman!

"NOVA uses the same boring textbooks (American Streamline, available from MOST bookshops) for EVERY lesson!"

Some schools allow their teachers to choose which textbook they use, some don`t. For some teachers,
choosing the textbook for them is a good thing. For others, giving them more freedom is better. It really
depends on how independant the teacher is.

Eikaiwa teachers are not given time to prepare for any lessons!

Most schools give their teachers time to prepare. As a professional you are expected to show up to
work and give yourself enough time to prepare or to prepare at home. This is similar to public
school teachers in North America.

"NOVA teachers are NOT ALLOWED to prepare their own lessons for students!"--Arthur Caversham`s Site

For some Nova teachers, giving them a structure to follow I`m sure is a good thing.
For other teachers, allowing them the freedom to plan their own lessons is better.
The latter is what we do at our schools.

"NOVA teachers are NOT ALLOWED to talk to students outside the classroom!"

Most schools have no problem with students and teachers becoming friends. I`ve never understood
Nova`s non-fraternization policy myself. I like it if our teachers become friends with students.
I feel it helps the school. I also feel that we are doing more than just teaching English, we are helping
to internationalize Japan and make Japan a better place.

Some Eikaiwa schools fire teachers who talk too much.

It isn`t the teacher who is supposed to do the talking! The students are supposed to talk
and the teacher is supposed to listen and correct. Some experts suggest the teacher should
try for only 15% speaking time and allow the students to speak 85% of the time. I think that is a
great goal for all Eikaiwa teachers.

Some Eikaiwa schools claim to specialise in teaching English to children, yet most of its teachers have no qualifications or background in teaching children.

I think you can train people to do many things. Isn`t this complaint a tad too picky?
The person who wrote this comment seems to think people can`t learn anything new. I disagree.

Some Eikaiwa schools`"... sales pitch persuades students they can learn English in just one hour a week (or in some cases, half an hour)! Unless a student is also studying elsewhere this is totally inadequate for learning anything."--Arthur Caversham`s Site About Nova and Shane

I think that it will take a very long time to learn that way. That is what we tell students when we meet them
for the first time, and at our homepage in Japanese. We let them know that learning English is more akin to
learning classical piano than like learning how to swim. Classical piano, and English, take a long time to master.
Why hide that from them? Some schools do hide that fact. I don`t agree with that personally and don`t follow that business practice. We try to be honest with students about what they are up against. I think a lot of
Eikaiwa schools are like ours that way.

"SHANE's sales pitch persuades parents to send children as young as TWO YEARS OLD to its English lessons. Unsurprisingly these poor kids learn nothing."--Arthur Caversham`s Site

I think that children this age can learn with the right teacher. Of course the parents have to do more
at home though. Unfortunately few parents are willing to help out. Eikaiwa schools can`t be blamed for
what the parents will not do. Teachers too need to explain to the mothers when they come with the
children about what they should do at home to help the kids learn. The school also needs to explain this.
We do at our schools.

"SHANE recruits teachers in England with the promise of providing them with company accommodation. In practice SHANE provides sub-standard accommodation (eg apartments with neither shower nor hot water in the kitchen) at inflated prices. SHANE leases apartments from landlords and rents them to teachers AT A PROFIT.."--Arthur Caversham`s Site

Are these apartments furnished? I assume they are. We also provide furnished apartments to our teachers
and the cost of up keep is astronomical. Shouldn`t the teachers share in that cost if they are using the
facillities? If they break the TV shouldn`t they contribute to that? The Shane apartments I have seen
have had a bath. They were no worse than what Japanese next door were living in. They may charge more
than the rent to cover for damage to the furniture and other utilities. The company shouldn`t have to
pay for damage. The alternative to this is having to furnish your own place. Believe me, that isn`t fun
either. Apartments in Japan come with nothing usually. Really, not even a lightbulb! Our apartments
are very clean and average to above average when compared to Japanese apartments in general.

"Finally, should a teacher, recruited 6,000 miles a way, realise that SHANE's methods of operation leave something to be desired the company requires three months notice of resignation."--Arthur Caversham`s Page

Recently it has taken well over 4 months to secure working visas for our last two teachers. Staff at Panache a recruitment office for companies reports the same thing. Three months is not so long when you consider that it usually takes over four months to get a working visa for the next teacher. You could only hire people with a
working holiday visa, or another proper visa but then it restricts your choice of teachers.

Many of the quotes or notes are based on quotes from Arthur Caversham`s The Truth About Shane and Nova Pages at his website. http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/6455/

I have one of the greatest jobs in the world! I get paid to do what I love doing.
I have always enjoyed meeting and conversing with interesting people, only now I get
paid for it! --A lot of money in some cases! Each week I talk with a cross section which includes,
some of the top scientists and business people in Japan. I also confer with well educated and exciting
people from all over the world. People give me the honorific title: "sensei." I love that!
I have a real job! I teach English in Japan.

Sometimes I have to pinch myself to realize what I get paid per hour. I had to work my
way up of course it didn`t happen overnight. I am very lucky! My friends in North America
slave away on a 40 or more hour week. I work much less than that! I have time to smell the
sakura, and work on my backhand. At times I feel sorry for the folks back home, who in many
cases make much less money, pay much higher taxes, and don`t have nearly as much free
time as I do to play with my children. Not only that, their cities are much more dangerous to live in.
I feel lucky to have been give the chance to live and teach in Japan. It is an honour I am doing
my utmost to live up to.

In Vancouver, when I worked for Pitney Bowes in sales. I knew I wouldn`t do it forever, and to me the job
was not my cup of tea. Yet I respected the fact that my colleagues thought of it as a career.
I could find things in them I admired and desired to emulate. I never once uttered, "I`m only doing this
until I get a real job." I would never have thought to make such a disrespectful comment. It was a real job
inspite of the fact I didn`t like it.

Mr, Nanami entertains me in our English class with his exploits at one of Japan`s largest companies.
I correct his English, and get him laughing with one of the endless one liners I tell. Terumi tells
me the latest news about her family, I share what`s new with mine. It is like having a friend over for coffee. She and her family have become our friends. She is happy to be improving her English as it helps her with her
work, and she can use it when she travels. I like to think that perhaps, I open her eyes a little
bit to other ways of viewing the world and Japan--a foreign perspective.

I make Japan a little more open if only in a small way. Yet at this point I have taught well over 2,000 Japanese!
They meet me on the street with a greeting. They tell me, "thank you, for teaching my son, my grand-daughter, my
husband." It is a nice feeling. Maybe my opinion above is a lie. I have much more than a real job.
I have touched peoples` lives in a way I never imagined. What started out as simply an English class
has grown to mean much more over the years.

Not everyone can catch a touchdown pass in the Superbowl. Not everyone can teach English in
Japan. Good teachers are born. It is a God given gift. Sure you can refine it, but either you are
or you aren`t a good teacher. All the Ph.ds in the world can`t change that fact if you are a lousy one.

Good teachers are personable, caring, sensitive, intelligent, well-read, curious, and have a sense of
adventure --to name but a few characteristics. They care about their students and want to help them
improve. If you have the gift, I encourage you to use it. You were given it for a reason. By using it
in Japan you are making the world a better place.

I think of myself as a pioneer, in the same way as the first Europeans made their way out west in
North America. I don`t have the hardships they endured. I have cultural and professional challenges
I must face. Yet they are challenges all the same.

Coming to Japan to teach is not for everyone. Frankly some caucasians feel uncomfortable if they are
the only non-Asian in a Chinese restaurant back home. Coming to Japan for them is a daunting experience.
Only the hardy survive in the shadow of Mount Fuji. You adapt or you go home.

Perhaps you only intended to stay for one year anyway. Japan will change you. You cannot come here for a year, teach English, and not have a life altering experience. Japan and your students will always be in your blood. She will always colour your stories. Some who end up leaving vow they will marry a Japanese, or a foreigner who has lived here. The experience has been so all pervasive for them, they feel the need to be with others who
understand it and relate to it.

I have changed. I have become a better man, a better husband and a better father. I have grown as a
person through teaching English in Japan. I like to think that the child in me is still active and alive. I know
he is everytime I make my students laugh or smile. My students have taught me so much. It is true that as
a teacher you get back as much or more than you give. I am a lucky man. My cup is full.

Kevin Burns
http://www.eikaiwa1.com/jp.html