I have recently been offered a position with Nova to start in the spring period, which is when I am looking to move to Japan, but I am unsure whether to accept it or not. I know that there is a lot of ill will towards them which has made me very hesitant on accepting their offer so I have applied for other Eikawas like ECC, who I am more inclined to work for. I have been invited to a recruitment day by ECC, but this is not until November and I have no guarantee that I will actually get the job, which is the only reason I would be inclined to accept the NOVA offer as it will give me the certainty that I can live in Japan. My main goal is to experience and see what it’s like to live in Japan for at least a year, whilst being able to keep myself a float with a semi decent work experience, is anyone able to offer some advice or experiences they have had to help with my decision.
10 comments
You don’t have any other offer, so why not.
Personally, I think working at an Eikawa would negatively impact my enjoyment of life in Japan. I currently work at a Junior High School and genuinely enjoy going to work each day. If you think you can handle the Eikawa style then the company doesn’t really matter that much.
It is almost always the case that your experience with a company will depend entirely on your position and what school you are assigned to. I live in some kind of dream scenario where I have one school with kids who never misbehave and a ton of staff who speak near-perfect English, including the Vice Principle. I can do no wrong in that school at all, and as a result my opinion of my time in the company is fantastic. Other people get placed in troublesome schools with difficult teachers and their opinion of the overall company is tarnished.
I enjoyed my time at nova. Granted it wasn’t perfect. And I prefer my life now. ALT life is a lot less stressful and there’s a lot more time to switch your brain off. Having experience in an Eikaiwa and already being in Japan did help me land a ALT position easier than when I lived in my home country.
The thing I struggled with the most at NOVA was the atrocious pay. I switched to dispatch alt and I somehow am making way more money.
Now for the positives, since there won’t be many shared on Reddit: I had great students. Lots of lovely old ladies and housewives who brought me gifts, snacks, etc. And a few businessmen. One of which invited me out to dinner (and a host club) which is very much against novas rules.
I made lots of friends with the other nova teachers. Whereas now I haven’t made any, but I still keep in touch with my gaijin friends from nova. This was huge and meant we could go hiking together, go to shibuya on Halloween, etc. Because of my time at Eikaiwa, I’m now not completely lonely in my new job because I have some actual friends in Japan. And we stay in touch.
They are very business oriented and love making money, they even try to get you to sell lessons to people. It’s disgusting, especially when I barely get paid enough. So I never did it, and nothing came of it.
They will accept anyone, and the bar is very low for fucking up. But I gained teaching experience via trial of fire. Very often I was sent into lessons with zero prep and it was completely on me to manage it. I can safely say it prepared me for most situations I face at public school.
This is the only offer you have at the moment, might as well take it. It’s not like Satan will come for your first born if you decide to change your mind after the fact.
Look at the time of year. Just apply for JET ffs lol.
Hey can I ask you a question? Did you ask nova to start in the spring or was that when they offered the position for?
The pay is bad, but fine just to experience for a year.
I worked for NOVA for almost two years and it was pretty bad, but the experience can definitely vary. For me, I was working at four different locations so had a lot of commuting all over Tokyo, had to teach their kids classes which can be fun but are often just awful and painfully slow and parents have unreasonably high expectations for a 40min, once a week class, and (I am a young woman) I had some creepy older male students. The worst was when the creepy students booked what they would call “lucky one on one” at my slower locations, which means they booked an empty group class at the last minute (so lower pay compared to true one on ones) and were the only student so it was essentially a discounted one on one lesson. The pay in general just sucked and I felt disrespected and disregarded by my managers a lot. The sexism is real. I made a comment about one of the creepier students saying frequently that he wants a “western” girlfriend and frequents other English cafes to hit on women (among other comments about my appearance) and my manager (man) told me he was “harmless” and just socially awkward. Cool. I also didn’t like that they (managers) would often randomly show up to the schools and listen in on lessons to critique you afterwards. Unnecessary added stress. And the student rating system which they would take very seriously could just be based on nothing and you’d still get a “talking to” – i got a one (worst rating) once that was one sentence saying that in my picture i was smiling very big but in my lesson I wasn’t as bubbly and smiley as they thought I would be. So they gave me a 1 and I had to get a lecture about smiling more. Once again, the sexism is real.
To try and balance it some, positives were I really loved some of the staff (mostly young women who are also paid shit and being exploited by a crappy company) and made some great friends with them as well as other teachers. Also despite the creeps I genuinely really liked some of my students and really enjoyed teaching them (kids and adults). Unfortunately the positives did not outweigh the negatives and the grueling schedule, low pay, and constant stress was too much and it was not sustainable. I really miss living in Japan but would never work for them again no matter how much I liked living there.
I realize this is super long and a lot of people will say “what did you expect working for them” – which is fair, but I think it’s easier to imagine being okay with all this stuff but in practice it can really grind you down. Again I really loved Japan and would live there again in a heartbeat, but in the US I have a stable, work from home job that pays waaaay more and I don’t have to run around in a skirt and heels while some depressed British dudes tell me to smile more for $9 an hour. Just not worth it, but again it’s all very personal.
It’s only good enough if you make it that way for yourself. It is truly what you make it. Most of these language schools suck but it’s Japan just suck it up do it for a year or find somewhere else to teach in Japan. You’ll be fine. Don’t be that one person that hates it but they are stuck in Japan.
No. They failed all of their former employees, leaving them stranded in Japan without their due salaries. Even with knew management It’s still a black company, and their practices haven’t improved. In particular, someone I’m close to was severely affected. He went from being a well-paid full-time manager to being unemployed, making him unable to pay his mortgage. It’s been a terrible situation for him.
I work for NOVA currently, month number 2. Its basically about as bad as everyone tells you, Eikaiwa is stressful mentally and if you want to see Japan you’re going to have a hard time working evenings and weekends 40 hours a week. They pay not well plus you make less as a trainee and half of your wage is “bonus” type things that they can take away if you have any undesirable behaviour. I’m currently trying to find something better, because work is consuming me and I just want to enjoy my working holiday and only work 4 days a week.
I would say it is a job, but not a special job and not a job you will get to experience japan with but its relatively reliable and a bonus if you can get it overseas. the interview is easy, so unless youre total shit at interviews, you’ll pass. my advice is to only accept/request a job within a major city with good train access so you have good options when another job comes your way.