I’ve got an interview with NOVA tomorrow and, reading through this sub, there’s essentially nothing to like about the job. Is there something I’m missing because prior to coming over, I did some research and talked to people who have done it, and they were nowhere near as negative.
I graduated uni last year, and this is a sort of gap year. I’ve been to Japan many times visiting family so I’m here to properly immerse myself in the Japanese day-to-day and learn the language. I understand people work hard here and I thought I was ready for that coming over, but I also want to enjoy my time here.
I want this job and I’ve been excited to start teaching in Japan, but is working at an eikaiwa the hell on Earth people say it is? I’m a little bit spooked here.
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Depends on the eikaiwa. Some are fine and people stay there for years. I’ve been working at mine since before the pandemic. I have very little to complain about.
However nova has a reputation of being one of the bad ones. So you should probably proceed with caution.
Remember, your visa belongs to you not the company. You can take the nova job and then find something else when you get here. Lots of people do this.
Of course most comments are negative. People tend to visit [reddit.com](https://reddit.com) when they want to complain about something.
Yes. Yes it is. Eikaiwa work is the most soul-crushing, mind-numbing experience I’ve had in my 20+ years as a teacher.
That said, it is what you make of it, and heavily depends on the eikaiwa itself. Working at one of the big ones (Gaba, Berlitz, Nova, etc.) you can most likely forget about immersing yourself in anything, because you will a) not be allowed to use Japanese on the premises where you work; b) be purposefully given such convoluted schedules that you will not have time to properly have a meal, let alone anything else; c) be paid less than a cashier at McDonalds.
BUT
If you are planning on only being here short-term (up to a couple of years) it might not be the worst choice.
Too many people want to travel and visit Japan. So they get a job here not realizing that it’s, ya know work. Instead of getting to go to a new city every weekend, they find they barely have the time and funds to go one city over.
I really think that’s the lion’s share of complaint origins. The rest are legitimate concerns.
No job is perfect and what matters more is your goals and intentions. That will flavor your work environment much more than you know.
Just be cautious. I didn’t get hired by Nova shortly before they crashed and was rejected by JET twice, possible because of numerous visits to see family in Japan. But I was hired by Aeon after a second attempt and thought it was okay overall. I could complain about a lot of things but it got me over here and years later I’m overall happy. Aeon was helped to get started in Japan, but I didn’t stay there. It might suck and it might be alright. Good luck.
Just try it out. The work is fine. Can become boring. Just hope management isn’t bad in your area
You’re probably going to be working evenings and weekends, as that’s when eikaiwa customers are available to take lessons. Honestly, if they give you a textbook to work from, there’s no planning, and there’s no sales involved, it’s not a bad gig if you’re just doing it for a gap year.
It depends. I worked at an eikaiwa for a while and enjoyed the work itself. For the most part, the students were friendly and eager to learn. It was great to watch them improve (especially the kids!). I likely would have stayed longer, but the management was terrible. I left because of that.
Keep an open mind. It can be a great opportunity to meet new people who are interested in speaking English and meeting foreigners. But if you aren’t liking the work or the company isn’t great, bounce. It’s pretty easy to change jobs here.
It really depends, but one thing to note is that wages have kept on going down for awhile now and prices keep going up.
Also, if you work for an eikaiwac chances are that they’ll offer you a freelance contract. Stay away from those, since they won’t offer to pay some of your health insurance, pension, and won’t take off for city tax. I have friends working at Gaba and their take home pay is pretty low.
Depends very much on the eikaiwa. NOVA is known to be one of the bad ones, perhaps the worst of the major well-known chains, and has recently been in lawsuits for such things as not paying their workers. Most people will probably recommend you look for a different eikaiwa, at least.
Plenty of people will also tell you that it’s all dogshit and your life will suck no matter where you go and also that you’re a hideous human being for even considering taking such a job and you’re little more than a thief stealing the taxes and wages of the hardworking Japanese by coming into the filthy eigo industry and peddling your imperialist wares. Ignore them and live your life. It can be a great time or a terrible time based on a million different factors, and nobody can really say for certain what experience you’ll have. Come in without expectations and with a “take whatever comes and roll with it” mentality and you’re more likely to have a good time than someone who comes in wanting anything in particular. Also, if you at all want to stay here long term, start planning your exit from the eigo industry and learning Japanese.
It really depends on the individual school. The manager, head teacher, other teachers, and whoever else might be there. I worked for AEON for 3.5 years (first job in Japan) and it was great. Small school, good co-workers, down-to-earth students, good location on the rapid train between bigger cities. Pretty tough to beat for an Eikaiwa job. Really set me up for success in Japan down the road.
Nova was my first job in Japan and I loved it.
It gave me plenty of money to enjoy nights out, adults and young adults who I could relate to, and who were keen to learn- no children or toddlers, coworkers who enjoyed socializing (drinking). No stress, no prep, no wasting my time with things like meetings, office work, or speeches.
All eikawas are awful, but Nova is another level of nightmare.
Here’s a story for you about my 6 month stint at Nova.
My salary was very very low about (160,000 after taxes) and the dorm they put me in was in the middle of the most expensive part of the city. They over charged me for rent (80,000/month for a 1dk, I didn’t know because I was a new kid in Japan). Despite living in a nice central location, the two branches I worked at were quite far away (35 minutes by bus). They don’t enroll you in social insurance, nor are there any bonuses ( which are normal at any Japanese job).
I could barely afford to live, it got so bad that I had to walk to the schools because I couldn’t afford the bus sometimes (due to student loans and such).
Also, one time a student came in with the flu, and I caught it. After I got the flu, the doctor said to go home immediately and don’t leave. Rather than checking on me, my manager called me screaming, “YOU NEED TO FIND A REPLACEMENT, I DONT CARE IF YOU’RE SICK” I promptly ignored them and slept for 7 days.
Later on they charged me for missing the 7 days of lessons (they charged me 8 lessons a day despite the fact that I usually only had 5-6). AND they didn’t pay me the sick days I was entitled to. That month my paycheck was about 40,000. For that whole month I ate ramen where I broke the brick in half to separate it into two meals because I couldn’t afford to eat. Also, I couldn’t afford the bus, so I was starving and walking almost 2 hours to work and back in the summer.
Nova is the worst cesspool I’ve ever seen in my 31 years.
The working conditions at Nova changed dramatically this year to be even worse than they were before. They force you to take your meal break at 2:30 regardless of what time you start working.
This means it’s entirely within the realm of possibility for you to start working at 1:40, teach 1 lesson, get your one hour mandated meal break, and teach from 3:30 to 9:10 (seven lessons with no break).
On the up side, the government finally forced them to provide you with insurance and pension benefits.
I work at nova now, it’s fine as a temporary job. People do stay for a loooong time (as a career I guess) but there’s no mobility, so no growth
Nova still owes me money. I’ll likely never get it. They went bankrupt once and slowly stiffed all the teachers while the CEO, who went to prison due to the scandal, still got his full salary and perks. The new management doesn’t seem any better from what I have heard.
The most important thing you need to know is to take the *employee contract* NOT the independent contractor one.
To understand why, look at the recent post on this subject, it was discussed extensively only a couple of days ago.
All in all: Nova is a terrible company, but people somehow tolerate it and make it work despite that, out of the sheer happiness they feel for being in Japan.
But no one stays there long – and you probably won’t, either.
I think i lucked out at my current position:
Pros:
Piss easy
Meet a lot of interesting people (if teaching adults)
Good way to make friends or contacts
Hours are incredible compared to most japanese jobs
No meetings.
Zero interaction with management
Very easy going atmosphere
Cons:
Pay aint great, and little chance of promotion
If you do independent contract, you will need another means to make extra cash each month
Its not exactly a springboard job into more lucrative careers
Thats about it. If i had a few more hours each week id be pretty content. Im well aware that this is not a job to be doing when im middle aged though
Are you good at ignoring child abuse and illegal working conditions? If so, you’ll fit right in. If not, you’ll have loads of problems and hate it.
No. It’s not that bad, compared to factory work.
The problem is if you expect to level up .
You won’t.
It’s good for gap year. But not as a career.
It’s alright for a gap year.
It depends on what you expect.
If you are expecting to save money or “build a career”, it’s terrible. Really terrible.
Its not bad if you already have meaningful savings and you want to find a way to subsidize living in Japan with a low stress “job”. (There’s a lot of debate about whether it’s *teaching.* But it does require skill and patience, sort of like waiting tables.)
A few people who are very disciplined learn Japanese. This is as easy (hard) as driving a taxi while trying to write screenplays. A few people succeed. Many do not.
If you don’t have a bunch of cash to get started with, life can be pretty hard.
If you already speak (and read and write) Japanese, you will soon want to pursue better paying jobs.
Some misguided souls take the low paying low-stress path and stay in the Eikawa rut for years. Usually some crisis (like a kid they can’t afford to raise) hits them like a train.
Just how much of eikaiwa is hell depends on what you want out of it. If you don’t care much about teaching quality while you earn hopposhu and cup noodle money for a year and can afford to waste that year without getting any kind of career growth out of it, it may not be that bad. If you’re a charismatic sales type with no scruples about saying whatever it takes to get the customer’s money and can sleep comfortably at night knowing you are at best incidental to any language learning the student earns, you may even thrive. For a while. Until they invite student to sexually harass you. Or cheat you out of your earnings. Or deny you a rightly earned day off. Or blame you for bad management decisions. Or dump a bunch of unpaid overtime on you.
The only way to make it through big-chain eikaiwa is DGAF. Only a rare subset of the population can be happy crossing an ocean, professionally not giving a fuck, and never rising much above minimum wage in a dead-end job.
Yes
I worked for a small family-run eikaiwa, and in many respects I think it was better than what I read about regarding the giant companies (very little oversight, no weekend work, not too many hours).
However, there was absolutely no system in place for time off (they didn’t have any part-time teachers) so they would basically have to cancel the classes. Also it was not a very successful school, so salaries actually started to decrease (after I had left). The books were also very outdated, and the owner seemed to have lost motivation to improve the school in any way.
Compared to all of my previous jobs (both in Vietnam and Japan) while it had some good points (and was quite relaxed in many respects) I would not say it ranked high.
> I’m here to properly immerse myself in the Japanese day-to-day and learn the language.
Eikaiwa is a niche that will in a limited way expose you to working conditions in Japan.
Most eikaiwa workers I’ve met over the years who learned the Japanese language were prohibited from using the language at work. That’s the bulk of your day, five days a week.
Eikaiwas hire foreigners specifically because they are foreign and English-speaking. You’d have to go out of your way to study and interact in Japanese outside of work.
NOVA= No Vacation.
Run away fast , NoVa sucks.
ESID.
It depends heavily on the company, the branch, and the person. That’d be you.
If you think you can deal with living in Japan for a year, the rest can be resolved.
Do keep in mind that you may find it difficult to immerse yourself in the language if a lot of your day is teaching English.
Why don’t you come over and go to a language school?
It also depends a lot on your personality. I am an anxious introvert and it was absolute hell for me, but my more outgoing/creative colleagues were fine.
Depends heavily on the place and the motivations of the people who run it.
Generally speaking Nova, and other similar large chains, have a pretty bad reputation.
There are some smaller, privately run, places that genuinely care about their staff and students. Try to find one of those if you can.
At least you’re getting interviews. Better than being in resume hell and being ghosted
My opinion is that they’re not THAT bad. However they’re a ‘gap year’ style job, not the teaching career (with promotions…etc) that lotsa people WANT them to be after a few years.
The pluses are…
– They’ll get you to Japan and set you up with an apartment. You’ll probably be greeted at the airport and taken to a Tokyo apartment! VIP treatment TBH. Never had another job do that for me.
– You’ll earn enough money for food/beers. For many this will be their first job outta uni, it’s full-time and it doesn’t involve any hard labour. There’s definitely worse jobs out there. For example a friend who was trying to escape eikaiwa was offered an asbestos inspector role in the USA, which he wouldn’t accept (though it paid 5x what he was earning working in eikaiwa). For a first job it’s okay!!!
– The work isn’t THAT hard. It just gets boring after a while. You’ve basically just gotta sit in a room, smile and stick to their lesson plans. This becomes too difficult for people when they suddenly wanna be respected as a highly skilled educator, change the lessons and get paid more. Once it dawns upon them that they’re just cattle, this always shits people.
– Finally, most of the bigger ones will set you up with other gaijins. Say what you like, most aren’t in Japan to become fluent in Japanese, find a Japanese wife and try to use eikaiwa as a stepping stone to permanency in Japan. Most just wanna enjoy the main attractions, skull a heap of beers and go home in 6-12 months with a ‘Japan experience’.
Eikaiwa’s not perfect but as a first job you get to go to Japan, party and meet people from all over the world. You can probably earn more and get better conditions stacking shelves at a supermarket. However, that’s not really the point of it all… is it.
Some of them are great, some of them are utter balls. Very much a luck of the draw situation.
2 things:
1. I’ve heard that Nova is amongst the utter balls establishments. Striking lucky mightn’t be in your taro cards, I dunno.
2. Foreigners, depending on your location, are fewer and far between since the Kung Flu. So you’re a bit of a hot commodity; again, location.
A decent play would be to get the Nova job and not settle. You might (maybe are likely to) end up finding something better.
Only question now is this: if they’re behind your accommodation, points 1 and 2 don’t mean sh•t.
Mmmmmgood luck.
Depends.
Tbh, my biggest complain regarding eikawas is not the pay. It’s the work hours. It can be really difficult to meet new friends or partner or whatever when you work those hours.
It fucking sucks.
I’ve never worked for NOVA, but the fact they’re asking you to pay for lesson prep is a joke. I turned them down because of that.
I don’t think eikaiwa is anywhere near as bad as people say it is on here, but I think it’s important to tread carefully with companies.
It is with NOVA
If your doing it for just short term gig then ok. Most people who bitterly complain on here are lifers or been doing it for long time and dont try and progress their careers..
Never a long term career prospect, but if you just wanna live in japan for a year or two and have fun, then its fine.
Youll probably be slowly losing money at NOVA unless you find a really cheap apartment and budget really well. I’d personally wait a bit, I was too horny coming into japan and ended up in kind of a shit gig at first.
Imo apply to JET and wait on placement, if its shit than work at interac or an eikawa. AEON if you can.
If its just a gap year than ALT is a better job for something chill. JET is the best contract but some of the placements are pretty much truck stops and buying a car sets the salary back. Interac contract will be tight on money and vacation but you can pick a spot.
That being said. Eikawa might be better if your main goal is real teaching. ALT isn’t a real springboard for teaching jobs out here.
For a gap year nova would be meh, as long as you have some savings. But there are better options.
Good luck, save some us dollar in the meantime.
If it’s your first job you’ll hate it. I’ve worked plenty of worse jobs so this job is easy and stressfree. The actual job part is easy and chill. I have a lot of free time and mental energy outside of work compared with all the tech jobs I worked in the past. I don’t care about money. I just want to live a relaxing life reading books, riding my bike and not having to dodge a bullet or stabbing walking home at night
There are a lot of negative Nancys on this sub, so try not to let it phase you too much.
That being said, you won’t have much spare money on an Eikaiwa salary, but generally you’ll be able to go out and socialize, do some traveling OR save. Not more than two of the above, and more realistically only one. It’s certainly not an environment that’s good to immerse yourself in Japanese language or culture, but you can do some of that in your time off if that is your priority, you just need to be willing and put in the effort. I came here through Eikaiwa and don’t regret it. Been here 16 years and I’ve been out of Eikaiwa and teaching for a long time, but I don’t regret starting there. Just study your Japanese, get social hobbies that let you interact in Japanese, and get different/better work when the opportunity presents itself. Eikaiwa can be an interesting way to learn about Japan, so it’s not without its cultural merit.
The job itself isn’t bad. Just don’t go in thinking you’re on a holy crusade for English. You’re there to make them want to come back again, above all else. Whether that’s teaching how/what they want, socializing with housewives, or babysitting (kids lessons) while frazzled moms have a coffee and Doom scroll Instagram.
The internet isn’t really a place where nice dreams come to rest, where great songs and stories are told about the good old days….. it’s only full of regrets, old axes, and tales of the great plagues of mankind’s minds.
The outraged are so inclined to get as much support as they can garner because they know they are already on the defensive. So they go where they can to find more support for their misery.
Having said that, I’ve never met a happy Nova teacher.
The eikaiwa experience is dependent on what eikaiwa you get hired by. I work for a big name eikaiwa and I actually like it. I like the friends I’ve made and I get along well with staff. Some of the kids this year are nightmarish but it’s all part of the job. If I was doing my real original goal of being a high school teacher back home, I’m sure I would have kids every year I would call “nightmarish”, and at the end of the day have an infinitely higher likelihood of getting shot.
Also keep in mind that your experience in an eikaiwa can also be heavily dependent on the specific school you teach at, down to small school events. Some school managers/directors do them, others don’t, even at the same company.
There are plenty of things to be pissed off about when it comes to working conditions here. Get hired (it doesn’t have to be by Nova). Be smart, cover your ass and join the union. If you don’t like the working conditions here you can join all the people trying to change it rather than the group that JUST complains about it online. Be a true chad, join the union AND complain about the bullshit.
I knew people working in NOVA pre-COVID and it been mixed results. Some who worked and were placed in their “headquarter” schools were decently getting by. Like they weren’t thrilled and found the job to be satisfying, but their work environment and conditions were fair. Others in smaller schools or with poor management suffered with a bunch of things. Micromanaging, inexperienced managers, and other things… The not great part of it all is you kinda have no say where you’re placed??
Post-COVID, everyone I know working in eikaiwa are all quitting left, right, center. Essentially I hear the problems lie in just trying to satisfy students and have zero disregard for teachers. Scheduling all caters to students , but it’s poorly managed. For example, at one school (not Nova), students are given flexibly to book a lesson. So some students will book a lesson 5 minutes before start time. The admin is supposed to tell the teacher by doesn’t.
What’s your degree in?
Worked at Nova for years. It’s not terrible, but not great. You gotta go in with the understanding that you’re disposable and you’re being paid to be a foreigner.
It’s easy work, low pay.
They definitely have some shit policies, so read your contract carefully.
It truly is that bad.
Many people do Eikawa/ALT for 1-2 years, have an adventure and go back to start their “real” lives. Some enjoy it, some don’t. Regardless, doing it for 1-2 years doesn’t hinder your future
There is a term called **Eikawa hell**. This means you are trapped in Eikawa in Japan, unable to do anything and unable to save anything. You can’t get a teaching license/MA because you don’t have the money. You can’t move locations because you don’t have the money. You can’t take real vacations because of no money. Even if your Eikawa is “chill”, you can still be in Eikawa hell if you’re trapped by low pay/no career growth.
Motivated/professional/serious people will leave Eikawa after 1-2 years. The only people who stay longer are “dregs”
Imagine you’re 33 and have been at Eikawa for 5 years. After 5 years in an industry, you should be “mid-career” at the minimum. You should be making noticeably more money than when you first started. Seems logical, right? This is not true at Eikawa. You will be making the same low wages as someone who just entered. You also have a “hole” in your resume as teaching kids “what color do you like” doesn’t really translate to anything.
Now imagine you’re 40 and have been at Eikawa for nearly 10 years. At 40 you should be in the prime of your career and have a house and start thinking about your retirement fund. But if you’re in Eikawa? You’re still making entry wage salary and you’re still living in a crappy shoebox apartment paying rent. You have nothing for retirement.
Maybe you got married. Poor salary, no bonuses/growth will cause tension and stress for your family. You will likely have to rely/leech off your Japanese spouse for things like loans etc.
If you’re over 35, single and working a Eikawa, you’re probably screwed. Nobody wants to marry someone who works at McEigo
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So feel free to come over but make sure you take steps not to be trapped in “Eikawa-hell”.
In my experience teaching at “A” Ekaiwa… Where you are, and who your management really matters.
I started in a small town and had a really good staff overall. We struggled pretty hard during covid, but were able to stay afloat. I ended up transferring to a bigger city and found the vibe VERY different.
In my previous school, it felt a lot more like a community between staff and students. The students will always end up being the best part of any Eikaiwa job IMO.
I VERY briefly worked at another English program and quit immediately because there was a lot of off the clock work expectation with little compensation for it.
All that to say… it really depends. You can probably find peace in it if you build a good relationship with your students. But there really are some crazy stories I’ve heard and some frustrating situations I’ve lived through.
Good luck!