NOVA from No Vacation to No Job

Gareth Steele, Kitakyushu, Japan

I would have to agree with CELL bikes from Australia,
Japan will be far better off without Nova and the Japanese peolpe far better of without Nova`s so called English instructors.
I wonder how many of them had any teaching skills before they came here?
I suppose there will be a few gaijin bars, mcdonalds, mos burgers and coffee shops will loose a few customers?
Maybe all the Australians can go back to sydney and the gold coast and chase backpackers around and speak there really fluent apanese they learnt when they were in Japan .
You know like are you single , you are pretty , ect.
To all the real teachers in Japan, keep up the good work.
To all the burning super Nova`s go home and dont come back

tukayuki, perth, australia

I'm a Nova student. Today I know Nova are going to be sold some small company which says we will take over only best 30 branches of Nova and won't compensate Nova teachers and staffs salary and students tuition either. I am disappointed hearing that. Why don't Japanese big companies want to get and support Nova that is very valuable english language school because Nova has excellent teachers and appropriate text books which are printed with full colores and very useful and has enjoyable Voice room for student. There is no better school than Nova in Japan. Addtionally Nova has a million personal historical data about students which is very valuable for a succcssor. I think Patented name of Nova is valuable more than 10 billion yen. But a small company are going to get Nova with junk price. I'm very sad when I remember good joyful days and faces of good foreign techers. I love Nova. I have lost a very precious things a lot. I'm shedding tears now.

Yoshi Tateno, Tokyo, Japan

I am tertiary educated and spent 18 months living in Japan and working for Nova. It did not take long to realise they were the Macdonalds of English teaching. I was actually prevented from doing demo lessons as I would tell the student the truth - my sales conversion rate must have been poor and hence my non rostering of demo lessons. I feel sorry for both the teachers and students - it seems the company was focused primarily on $ without giving to much concern about its customers - it was only a matter of time before things went bad. For those still in Japan I just hope you get the chance to experience life there and how wonderful the japanese people are before returning to your home country. Gambatte

BP, Melbourne, Australia

I have worked in Asia for ten years, 8 of which have been in Japan. I feel very sorry for the teachers who are left hanging.
I feel sorry for the students, too. However, they have backing.
In many cases, they are being reimbursed by their employers
or living with their parents. At any rate, they have a safety net.

Furthermore, most adults in Japan who study English are doing it as a "hobby". If they are given homework, they generally don't do it. Many don't even take notes or bring their dictionaries to class. In response to the lack of teaching methodology, many students aren't interested in that.

A good deal of students are interested in being taught by an attractive, friendly, person who is conscientious. So be it.
The problem wasn't the lack of training at NOVA, it was their advertising budget, corruption, and expansionism. I am quite
sure that many teachers were happy with their students, and the students happy with their teachers.

Best wishes to the teachers.

BB, Tokyo,

This is what happens when you get "teachers" flown in to provide English language instruction, when what is really most likely their agenda is partying, travelling, and "having fun". Nova's marketing had students paying for something that could never be provided at the level they expected.

Nova was a sham and has gotten its just desserts. Let this be a lesson to big, lazy, fat cat companies who think they can dupe customers forever.

Also, for you Nova "lifers", flying off to Japan because you had nothing going on in your home country, and staying in Japan because you thought it offered an easy way of living really worked out for you didn't it.

Japan will be better off without Nova, without snarky instructors, and without Japanese students getting duped by an English speaking instructor/backpacker just passing time before they're off to the izakaya.

CELL Bikes, Sydney, Australia

End of an era. The NOVA brand was truly a Japanese icon. The pink rabbit on posters in every train carriage and the large neon NOVA signs next to every station. Sure, the business practices were dodgy, and the emphasis was on quantity rather than quantity, but there were some truly dedicated teachers who would go the extra mile.

Its easy to focus on those who did no lesson preparation, turned up late and expected to be given the students they preferred. I don't feel sorry for them. I do feel sorry for those who built a life in Japan, worked hard for the company and supported their students, as well as the Japanese staff who haven't been paid for 3 months.

Unfortunately, NOVA's fall has been a very public one. Even if the company does survive, the damage to its image has been so severe that it will have great difficulty in returning to being the successful business it was.

Dave Foley, Winchester, UK

I don't feel sorry at all for the quality of nova in general....I DO NOT feel sorry for the people who worked there either...just go home...enjoy being back home in your home country............
Please let us professionals teach in the right way with the appropriate curriculums, the appropriate teaching methodology, and most of all with the appropriate accreditations...You can't go to Vietnam, nor China, nor Taiwan...most reputable schools hire qualified people you know...

Please all of you 4000 people go home...bon voyage...we have been waiting for an exodus of this kind for some time.....

A professional

Julio, Tokyo, Japan

I am currently a Nova 'unpaid employee' in Osaka, and am currently waiting to find a job if i can. I dont think the teachers should be blamed for the collapse of Nova: the president was greedy and wanted more than he could cope with, leaving students without decent teachers. Most of the teachers i knew really cared about giving the students a good lesson, and although i dont have any professional qualifications myself, the students i taught enjoyed the lessons and often learned a lot, as they frequently told me.

I am aware that the British press did not respond quickly enough to this situation, as I know of parents in the UK who have been trying to let the papers know what is happening to stop potential employees enduring the same fate as myself and countless others. I was evicted from my apartment about a month ago, along with employees from two other apartments on the same floor, and one of the employees had arrived from Italy two hours previously... I feel bad for us all.

Laura Dent, Osaka-shi,

I don't think that it's accurate to characterize Nova's teachers as true ESL staff. Nova had a lot of students who were simply taking classes out of boredom, for entertainment, and for somewhere outside of their homes to go to. Many of our students were not highly motivated, nor particularly interested in attending a rigorous, dedicated language school. After all, Nova didn't issue homework.

But that's neither here nor there. Nova engaged in shifty sales and did not truly offer the quality education that it claimed to. Perhaps the language schools which expand to fill the gap which Nova will leave will learn from these mistakes and become better schools because of it.

At any rate, if they'd give me a job I'd be highly appreciative.

C. Kosloski, Kyoto, Japan

It's a pity D Noelles the "language teacher" is unable to spell definitely properly.

R. Faulds, Glasgow, Scotland

My god, to any Gaijin who topped up his coffers in Japan at any time over the past 20 years, this is incredible news!! Nova was always just there, the place to go for an instant job...Truly, the end of an era. But I wouldn't waste too much sympathy on English teacher in Japan. An whiny bunch, despite the high pay and beautiful women.

Dan, HK,

I worked for NOVA for over 12 years. I've worked in japan since 1991. Many people are slagging NOVA off and frankly it wasn't all their fault. Yes NOVA did have some dodgy practices but so do ALL other schools including cultural, Kendo and you name it. Furthermore, the government had repeatedly given NOVA permission to continue said practices.That was until the supreme court sided with a relatively few students (about 20)who sued NOVA get their money back. The supreme court gave NOVA the relatively minor punishment of NO long term contracts for 6 months. The court stated aim was NOT to punish the students or teachers.
Well it didn't work out that way. How and why did it happen?Was it the overzealous expansion?Was it the high rent realestate?Was it the lousy exchange rate? everybody's got a theory. I only know one thing- come monday I've got to look for a job and with 6000 others doing the same it's not going to be fun.

Vince FORD, osaka, japan

It was fun working at NOVA in 2003. I remember being told by a Japanese friend that it was the second biggest company in Japan after Toyota. Luckily, I got out and came back home before this was even likely of happening. My thoughts go out to the poor teachers who are left without a job, and a tough choice between staying on or going home. In hindsight I remember the training at NOVA was pathetic, only 3 days allowed to learn "how to teach" English! I can't help remembering how quickly the turnover rate was, sadly they lost their reputation and ran out of gullable students...

RHEunson-Cottle, Sydney,

As a person with a Teaching English as a Second Language degree, I understand the need to know how language is learned, knowledge of the English language prescriptively, and teaching techniques. I returned from Japan in 2005 (building the curriculum for a non-NOVA school) ashamed at how English schools operate: Money Drives The Curriculum. This was definately the cookie cutter technique that NOVA implemented using mostly dictation and "repeat after me" tactics. They failed their students from the beginning, it is no wonder they are failing now. I knew many NOVA teachers and my heart goes out to them. Still, 99.9% of them should never have been hired for the job. Being a true E. S. L . *teacher* takes specialized classes and language knowledge.

D. Noelles, Honolulu, HI

I worked at two so-called "English conversation" schools in Tokyo in the early 1990s. The analogy with a for-profit gym holds, I think: the sales staff pushes the most expensive program they can to any customer who is silly enough to wander in; the times that all the students want - - after work, early evening - - are always booked solid and impossible to register for; and the "teachers", well, just like gym trainers, if any of them have any kind of legitimate certification, then that's a true miracle. And just like gyms, it's all "pay-in-advance", so after you pay your $2,000 (or 200,000 yen), good luck getting equal value back from the classes. Some teachers are to blame for not even trying; however, it's the company behind the school which rakes in the money for as long as it can, then just closes the doors when the situation becomes untenable, leaving the low-level part-time teachers and local staff out on the street - not much different from business in the U.S. actually...

k. chilg, new york, new york

The point is not so much about what one might think Nova "was" as a "language school": Nova's collapse is another sad episode from a scandulous corporate governance culture exploitng customers and employees.

GRF, Melbourne,

What Sa(ru)hashi has done is criminal.

EgbertNobacon, Nagoya, Japan

I am an English teacher for a rival company to Nova, and could see this coming. Nova had some big problems in their way of business, by taking tons of new students and then allowing them access to the classes one or two times per month, while not hiring new teachers.

In addition, they had a big drug scandal with kindergarten teachers.

This glut of out of work teachers is going to affect so many companies in Asia. Look out Taiwan and China, here come the Wai Guo Ren!

James Zaworski, Kawagoe, Japan

There you go. You lot have no interest in teaching..just want a free ride in an exotic land. them's the breaks in business.

kate playford, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Well Nova wasnt really a language school but a drop-in conversation business which recruited graduates without teaching qualifications.

David, Riyadh, KSA

Being a 'would be' employee myself (due to fly out Nov 1st), it's a shame the UK press only cottoned on now, Aus press has been on the story for two months now. Can't help but say I feel a little let down by the late support over here - 900+ UK's may be in Japan, but others were waiting to go out, whilst the London branch on Regent St has been unpaid for nearly a month now.

Camilla, Gloucester, UK

When will the embassy here in Japan wake up to this? Do they really want to abandon hundreds of their citizens to the various dangers of being in Japan without an income? It may well be the responsibility of the Japanese government, but they are not exactly well-known for their compassion for the non-Japanese.

Anyway, thank you to The Times for an accurate write-up. Nova fed a culture that believed that English teaching could be reduced to a menial job, in which experience is undervalued (they systematically fired long-term teachers, as they resented paying the extra salary). Now Nova got fired and I feel for anyone affected by this, especially those who've made a commitment to staying in Japan.

G Davidson, Kashiwa, Chiba